July 28, 2021

Change Your Breath, Change Your Life | James Nestor on Modern Wisdom with Chris Williamson

Check out the Modern Wisdom episode page and show notes

Basic Breathing Recommendations:
- Stop mouth breathing; focus on habitual nasal breathing
- Breathe slow and low
- Use nasal tape and dilators to acclimate nasal breathing
- Use incline bed therapy
- Avoid sleeping on your back
- Efficiency is more important than quantity of breath
“The further away we get from a natural environment, the more patches we rely on to keep our body sustaining” -James Nestor
- The lungs are an organ you can control unlike our kidneys, liver, heart, etc. The control of the lungs can directly control many vitals and overall health of the body.
The need to breathe is dictated by tolerance for CO2, not oxygen
- The more acclimated you become to holding more CO2 in your body, the more oxygen your body can deliver
Breathing is not a one stop solution but can help rebalance the body
- Dysfunctional breathing can directly accelerate chronic health problems like diabetes

James Nestor (@MrJamesNestor) is a journalist who has been primarily focused on reporting on the scientific study and health benefits of breath. James and Chris discuss his new book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, as an introduction to breath and how it is vital to our overall health.
- Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
- Check out James Nestor’s website and additional podcast notes
Host: Chris Williamson (@ChrisWillx)

We get most of our energy from our breath
- Everyone is looking for an external solution (pharmaceuticals) for their energy levels and health problems rather than an internal solution like breath
“The further away we get from a natural environment, the more patches we rely on to keep our body sustaining” – James Nestor
- We need to reacquaint ourselves with the benefits from the most fundamental human funcitons like breath and movement
- The lungs are an organ you can control unlike our kidneys, liver, heart. The control of the lungs can directly control many vitals in your system even after a couple minutes.
We are breathing in ways that are extremely dysfunctional
- Apnea – unnoticed shallowed or shortened breathing while in front of a computer screen and completing stress-inducing tasks
- Our threshold for fear is so low that we get stressed by a bad email that elicits the same response as our ancestors would have when encountering a predator

It took Jim him years to finally build enough evidence from scientific studies to finally share his research that has been ignored for so long
Tummo – breathing exercise used to gain the control of body temperature
- Monks in the Himalayas in a scientific study were able to increase their body temperature by 17 degrees and melt the snow they were sitting around
- Ability to reduce their metabolism by 60%, which is below a state of being in a coma
- Wim Hof has been very influential in bringing Tummo breathing practices to modern culture
Swami Rama has the ability to increase the temperature on one palm while decreasing the temperature on the other
Still unproven scientific truth on how these breathing practitioners have the ability to test such extremes
- “The freak (monk) views the normal person as someone who isn’t achieving their full potential. Maybe we are the freaks” – James Nestor
- Many culturally valuable practices are misunderstood by the outside world

Efficiency is more important than the amount of breath
- The misconception carries over with food. More food doesn’t necessarily equate to more energy
When you over-breathe, your outflow of carbon dioxide is too high resulting in decreased circulation which makes it harder to get oxygen
- Breathe slow and low and through your nose
- You’re pressurizing the air and allowing the air to spend more time in your lungs
- More oxygen with less work
- Try it! Feel the tingling in your extremities and analyze your blood oxygen levels
Don’t be obsessive about tracking your vitals. Simply make it a habit to be conscious about your breath
- Take it slow and get acclimated to it as a natural function
Recommendations:
- Stop mouth breathing, focus on habitual nasal breathing
- Nasal tape and dilators can condition your breathing through the day as well as benefit your unconscious breathing during sleep
- Incline bed therapy – raising the bed stand (throw a book under it) by roughly 6 inches can improve breathing while sleeping
- Avoid sleeping on your back to decrease snoring – taping a ping pong ball to your back can make it uncomfortable to sleep on your back

Breathing is not the one-stop solution but can help rebalance the body
Case Study #1: Asthma:
- Patients tend to breathe too much, through their mouth, and have low levels of CO2
- Over-breathing constricts blood vessels and creates a snow-ball effect to more over breathing
- Simple slowing of the breath in a study showed asthma attack reduction and elimination
Case Study #2: Diabetes:
- Improper breath can induce hypertension
- Sleep apnea has a high connection to diabetes
- If you’re stressing yourself out even while sleeping, your body is going to feel the effects from the constant state of hypertension
Sleep Apnea fact: the mouth has gotten smaller over time causing issues with airflow and causing respiratory problems
- Snoring is not a natural bodily function; it represents a struggle to get energy and induces stress

We have 11 pounds of muscles in our respiratory system and have overlooked the active training of this muscle group
Nasal breathing during exercise will decrease performance initially
- Afterwards, your breath will then align with your metabolic needs and increase performance
- Recovery also becomes more efficient
The need to breathe is dictated by tolerance for CO2, not oxygen
- The more acclimated you become to holding more CO2 in your body, the more oxygen you can deliver
- Interval breath holding during exercise can help build this acclimation
  - Start small while not exercising to get introduced!

breath, health, life
Notes By Drew Waterstreet