James Nestor on his book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

Virgin Radio

13 Jul 2021, 10:41

The journalist and author joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about his literary breath of fresh air, the power of healthy breathing, how to keep things simple and superhacks for sleeping. 

He told Chris: "We get more energy from our breath than we do from food or drink and so how we take that breath in, how we exhale it, determines so much of our health, our energy levels and so much more. I mostly concentrate on exhaling longer than inhaling because I don't want to be jacked up, I don't want my heart rate up, I don't want my blood pressure up, I want to be in balance. 

“There's so many different breathing techniques but they're all variations on the same thing. When you start exhaling more than you're inhaling, try to inhale to a count of four, hold for seven, exhale for eight. That's inhale for four, hold for seven and exhale for eight.

“You're going to notice something happening when you do this. Your heart rate's going to go down, you're going to feel mellower, you're going to feel more focused so this isn't a placebo effect. This is you harnessing your breath and using your breath to focus your body to calm down."

On his new-found role as a health expert, he said: “I am a journalist, so my job is to go out and talk to the most interesting breathers, to talk to people who have studied this for decades and decades and just to collect those stories. I just tried to refer people to the science... I'm just the filter for this stuff.

"But when you start collecting the science and talking to enough of these people, the same story comes out over and over and that's what I found in this book."

Why have we forgotten the most basic function? He said: “I think that humans love things that are overly complicated and difficult. Look what's happened to our diet. Eating shouldn't be this complicated… now you have to take 12 different supplements and follow a very specific dietary plan in order to be healthy.

"That's crazy. But nature is actually very simple, yet subtle and breathing is such a simple, free thing that few of us think can really have a transformative effect until you look at the science, until you look at the measurements and you look at the hundreds of 1000s of people who have adopted healthy breathing habits and massively transformed their health. I’ve talked to so many of them and all of this is very real.”

What hacks can he teach us? He said: “Breathing through the mouth is something that 25 to 50% of the population does. This is so deleterious to your health, you're exposing your lungs to everything in the environment. Look at any other animal in the wild - it's breathing through its nose and humans need to follow this very simple advice as well and you can really celebrate so many benefits from doing so. 

“You get 20% more oxygen breathing through your nose than you do equivalent breaths through your mouth. I should also mention that you get six times more nitric oxide and nitric oxide is this miracle molecule that is released when people take Viagra and other sexual enhancement drugs.

"We can actually make our own nitric oxide in our noses so if that's not another reason to nasal breathe, I don't know what is.”  

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art is out now in paperback.

Find out more about the best ways to breathe on his website: mrjamesnestor.com.