Book summary: Breath - The New Science of a Lost Art
Tags: breathing, buteyko, pranayama, book
Published: 2022-07-13 16:53:48

---
title: Book summary: Breath - The New Science of a Lost Art
published: true
date: 2022-05-30 19:37:00 UTC
tags: breathing,buteyko,pranayama,book
canonical_url: https://blog.dornea.nu/2022/05/30/book-summary-breath-the-new-science-of-a-lost-art/
---

Back in 2017 I remember people sitting together and doing pre-workout breathwork before some trainig session (Calisthenics). At that time I didn’t know what it was nor what it was good for. One year later I was introduced to[Pranayama](https://brainfck.org/#Pranayama) as part of my _Yoga teacher training_. Right after I’ve read [Conscious Breathing](https://brainfck.org/#Conscious%20Breathing) but I didn’t really catch fire on the topic.

In 2020 I finally came across [Wim Hof](https://brainfck.org/#The%20Wim%20Hof%20Method) and realized this was exactly the type of heavy breathing people were exercising 3 years ago. Since then I’ve adopted _cold exposure_ and [Breathe exercises](https://brainfck.org/#Breathe%20exercises) as part of my [daily routine](/2021/12/13/my-2021-review/). I was amazed how much stress my body was able to endure and how easy it is to adapt to cold.

[![image](https://blog.dornea.nu/posts/img/2022/breath/breath-james-nestor.jpg)](/posts/img/2022/breath/breath-james-nestor.jpg)

In the same year - right after the beginning of the pandemic - I saw some[goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/) top rated books list. I can’t really remember which category exactly but I found it interesting enough to see a book about breathing in the top lists, right after Corona was identified as a _respiratory disease_. Then it took another 2 years to read the [book](https://brainfck.org/#Breath%20-%20The%20New%20Science%20of%20a%20Lost%20Art) and discover even more breathing techniques.

> As I breathe a little faster, go a little deeper, the names of all the techniques I’ve explored over the past 10 years all come back in a rush: Pranayama. Buteyko. Coherent Breathing. Hypoventilation. Breathing Coordination. Holotropic Breathwork. Adhama. Madhyama. Uttama. Kevala. Embryonic Breath. Harmonizing Breath. The Breath by the Master Great Nothing. Tummo. Sudarshan Kriya. – [Source](https://brainfck.org/#The%20New%20Science%20of%20a%20Lost%20Art%20-%20Note%2023)

## Takeaways

I’ve spent quite some time feeding my personal [Zettelkasten](https://brainfck.org) with all the interesting facts and quotes presented in the book. Here are my key takeaways:

### Shut your mouth!

… and start breathing through your nose! This was repeated over and over again while some statistics reveal the real problem:

> Ninety percent of children have acquired some degree of deformity in their mouths and noses. 45% of adults snore occasionally and 1/4 of the population snores constantly. 25% of American adults over 30 choke on themselves because of sleep apnea; and an estimated 80% of moderate or severe cases are undiagnosed. Meanwhile, the majority of the population suffers from some form of breathing difficulty or resistance. – [Source](https://brainfck.org/#Breath%20-%20The%20New%20Science%20of%20a%20Lost%20Art%20-%20Note%205)

### We’ve become not only overeaters but also overbreathers

We need to breath **less** and this is indeed a strange advice. We’ve been told to breath more air/oxygen whenever we feel stressed, anxious or have “air hunger”. But we tend to focus to much on oxygen rather on its counterpart which is[carbon dioxide](https://brainfck.org/#Carbon%20Dioxide). To much oxygen leads to free radicals damaging your cells. How much [carbon dioxide](https://brainfck.org/#Carbon%20Dioxide) you have in your blood seems to have an impact how much oxygen can be carried to the cells ([The Bohr Effect](https://brainfck.org/#The%20Bohr%20Effect)). Therefore breath hold increases levels of CO2 which tell the body how to breathe (by stimulating the[Central Chemoreceptors](https://brainfck.org/#Central%20Chemoreceptors))

### Breathing affects the whole body

The nose and the [Diaphragm](https://brainfck.org/#Diaphragm) as the main respiratory protagonists play a vital role in our life. The nose is called a silent warrior because it:

- clears, heats and moistures air for easier absorption
- helps with erectily disfunction
- lowers blood pressure
- eases digestion
- regulates heart rate
- stores memories

The [Diaphragm](https://brainfck.org/#Diaphragm) is called the “2nd heart” because it affects rate and strength of heart rate.

### Different breath type, different effect

Every breath consists of following phases

- inhalation
- exhalation
- retention
- (speed at which inhalation/exhalation is done)

Depending on how **deep** or how **fast** you inhale/exhale you’ll activate different parts of your lungs which are connected to the [Autonomic Nervous System](https://brainfck.org/#Autonomic%20Nervous%20System)

- nerves connected to the [Parasympathetic Nervous System](https://brainfck.org/#Parasympathetic%20Nervous%20System) are in the lower regions of the lungs
  - also called the **feed and breed** system
  - long inhales/exhales activate it
  - stimulates relaxation and restoration
  - example of breathe exercise: [Buteyko](https://brainfck.org/#Buteyko%20Breathing)
- nerves connected to the [Sympathetic Nervous System](https://brainfck.org/#Sympathetic%20Nervous%20System) are spread out at the top of the lungs
  - when we take short, hasty breaths, the molecules of air activate the sympathetic nerves
  - sympathetic stress takes just seconds to activate, turning it off and becoming again calm can take a hour or more
  - example of breathe exercise: [Tummo](https://brainfck.org/#Tummo)

## Conclusion

Given the amount of time I’ve spent doing some heavy post-reading on several topics I think this book covers a quite wide range of breath related topics. I was also suprised that long before Wim Hof there was [Alexandra David-Néel](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/617033.Alexandra_David_N_el) who used [Tummo](https://brainfck.org/#Tummo) during her adventures. And while she is already dead,[Maurice Daubard](http://www.mauricedaubard.com/) still practices ice baths at the age of 90.

The research on this field of course didn’t stop. Here’s a list of inspiration for your breathwork journey:

- [Anders Olsson](https://www.consciousbreathing.com/meet-anders-olsson/)
  - founder of Conscious Breathing
  - has [experimented](https://www.consciousbreathing.com/anders-olsson/carbon-dioxide-training-extremely-harmonious/) with [Carbon Dioxide](https://brainfck.org/#Carbon%20Dioxide)
- Konstanting Pavlovich Buteyko
  - invented [Buteyko Breathing](https://brainfck.org/#Buteyko%20Breathing)
  - [The Oxygen Advantage](https://brainfck.org/#The%20Oxygen%20Advantage) mainly uses this technique
  - also check out [buteykoclinic](https://buteykoclinic.com/) from Patric McKeown
- [Dr. Breath (Stough)](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1992347.Dr_Breath) did some research in the 1930s
- Emil Zapotek invented [hypoventilation](https://www.hypoventilation-training.com/historical.html)
- [Dr. James Eyerman](https://www.drjameseyerman.com/) used [Holotropic Breathwork](https://brainfck.org/#Holotropic%20Breathwork) for 30 years and had more than 11000 patients
- Dr. Justin Feinstein
  - increase of [Carbon Dioxide](https://brainfck.org/#Carbon%20Dioxide) levels has effect on health improvements
  - experimented with low doses of carbon dioxide given to his patients
- [Albert Szent-Györgyi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Szent-Gy%C3%B6rgyi)
  - did some research on breathing at molecular levels
  - “the more oxygen life can consume, the more electron excitability it gains, the more animated it becomes”
  - health is all about absorbing and transfering electrons in a controlled way
- [Luiz Sergio Alvarez DeRose](https://derosemethod.org/) wrote books about the concepts of [Prana](https://brainfck.org/#Prana)
- [Swami Rama](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/81372.Swami_Rama) brought [Pranayama](https://brainfck.org/#Pranayama) to Western cultures