Health Breathing through your nose will lengthen your life
Covid-19 .. Why wearing a double mask does not protect more and other questions about masks in the third wave
James Nesto
r had had three pneumonia and had been sleeping poorly for a long time due to his snoring when he decided to attend a
medical recommendation
breathing class
.
He didn't like it too much: he felt out of place and a bit ridiculous sitting on the floor of that filthy room with his legs crossed and the top button of his jeans unbuttoned, breathing alongside a bunch of strangers.
But the class was free and run by a charity, so a bit out of modesty, a bit out of politeness, she suppressed her desire to get up and leave after 10 minutes.
The class was an introductory course in a technique called
Sudarshan Kriya
.
At 20 minutes, something happened without him being too aware.
"It was as if they grabbed me from one place and took me somewhere else," admits this science journalist.
When he opened his eyes he was
drenched in sweat
, from head to toe.
The teacher asked him if he had a fever and told him about body heat.
He didn't understand much, but
that day he slept much better
.
And although the effect faded after a few days and the following week the experience was not so intense, he continued going to those classes and set out to investigate what it was all about.
The result of several years of research is
Respira.
The new science of a forgotten art
(Planet), where it defends that
breathing well is directly related to health and that it is something that almost all of us do wrong
.
By chance, the publication of the book (in May in the United States, now in Spain) coincided with the global respiratory crisis derived from the coronavirus.
Also with the fact that wearing a
mask
makes us pay more attention than ever to our breathing.
"I receive hundreds of emails a day from people who tell me that they cannot breathe when they put on the mask, that they feel as if they are short of air or are not absorbing enough oxygen, but in reality they are not," explains Nestor from San Francisco .
"When we breathe, carbon dioxide increases, which is what provides benefits for our body. For me,
the mask is an opportunity for us to be more aware of our breathing, to make it more leisurely and slow. In short, to improve it
".
Respira's
main thesis
stems
from
how our heads have evolved
: they have been shrinking as our ancestors discovered fire and foods that are easier to chew, which caused our
jaws to
get smaller and our brains bigger.
But that also narrowed our
airways
.
This is why we choke and why most are born with crooked teeth.
Apparently we have evolved badly.
"In school I learned that evolution was synonymous with progress, that it makes us better, stronger and smarter human beings," he says.
"But that's not how it works. We just need to look at our mouths:
90% of people have crooked teeth
, many of us breathe through our mouths, and none of that is an advantage. 10% of the US population suffers from diabetes. , 70% overweight and none of that makes us better.
Evolution is not a straight line
. The only thing the species needs to survive is to be able to reproduce. "
That explains why humans are the only species (along with pugs, boxers and other highly inbred dogs) prone to choking on their own body when sleeping, which causes us to snore and, in severe cases, suffer from sleep apnea.
"
Snoring is not normal, not even a little. That 50% of the population snores does not make it normal
, just as we should not accept that obesity is normal even though 40% of Americans suffer from it. Snoring is limitations of breathing is the noise a person makes when they are struggling to breathe. Its health effects are dire. "
Nestor, diving.
Nestor recommends strengthening the jaw:
chewing hard creates new bone in the face and opens the airways
.
"The chewing gums of the Turkish brand
Falim
are hard as the sole of a shoe and each one allows you to chew about an hour," he recommends in the book.
"
The main mistake we make is to breathe through the mouth
. Curiously, there are still many doctors and scientists who affirm that there is no difference between breathing through the mouth or through the nose, when it is 100% false," says the journalist, who submitted to the horrible experiment of
living 10 days with a stuffy nose as part of the book writing process
.
"When I started doing research I was leading a healthy life: I ate the right things, exercised, boxed and slept eight hours a day. But I still had chronic respiratory problems. They gave me medication and a bronchodilator but it didn't seem like the right thing to do."
"Breathing through the nose has innumerable benefits: it allows us to absorb more oxygen and filter pathogens. Even doing exercise it is much better to breathe through the nose," he says.
The second thing we do wrong is rhythm
.
"If we could breathe more slowly and slowly, we would not strain our body so much."
There is no magic number of breaths per minute, but if something has coincided over the centuries Yogis, Tibetan Buddhists and monks (there are studies that indicate that
the rosary was developed because it was synchronized with cardiovascular rhythms
) is that the key it is in breathing less, which is not the same as breathing slowly.
You have to inspire at a lower volume.
We have departments in all hospitals dedicated to the lungs or stomach, but not the nose.
James Nestor, science journalist and author of 'Breathe'
Until the 1980s the common belief was that the lungs, like any other organ, were immutable.
But today we know that no, that they can train, and those who do freediving know it better than anyone.
Nestor details cases of
lung users
who have increased their lung capacity between 30% and 40% and ensures that moderate exercise (walking, cycling) can lead to an
increase of up to 15%
.
For Nestor, the nose is the great unknown.
It is
a misunderstood and undervalued part of the body
.
40% of the population suffers from chronic nasal obstruction and almost half breathes through the mouth.
"Humans," he says, "are the most clogged species on earth."
"Sometimes we are unable to see the simplest, what is right in front of our noses and escapes analysis. Rhinologists are well aware of the functions of the nose. However, in the United States there is no specific department dedicated to respiration nasal.
We have departments in all hospitals dedicated to the lungs or stomach, but nothing related to the nose
", which in addition to being a sophisticated air conditioning system of our body, plays a role in problems related to
erectile dysfunction
, triggers hormones They lower blood pressure and respond even to the phases of the menstrual cycle.
What can we do to breathe better?
"
Pay attention
. It is something we do throughout our lives and for years people have not bothered to stop to listen to their breathing. If we are doing it more now it is because we are losing the ability to breathe because of Covid -19 ".
And he concludes hopefully: "One of the reasons why we have been breathing worse in the United States, with more anxiety and nervousness, is not only Covid-19, but the president that we have had to endure for the last four years.
Everything
.
the world will breathe easier
with Joe Biden,
both metaphorically and literally
. "
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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