“Yes, breathing allows us to act on the nervous system, control the immune response and restore our health. Yes, changing the way we breathe will help us live longer.” This is the longevity recipe of James Nestor, American science journalist and writer, author of the bestselling essay ‘Breath’, a US sales champion, which arrives in Italian bookstores thanks to Aboca Edizioni with the title ‘The art of breathing – The new science to re-educate a natural gesture ‘(348 pages, 24 euros). “A fascinating and multifaceted book that has been conquering thousands of readers for months while addressing an apparently ordinary theme”, underlines Aboca on the eve of World Breathing Day which is celebrated tomorrow, April 11th.
Released in the United States on May 26, 2020 by Riverhead-Penguin Random House, Nestor’s essay has already sold 500,000 copies; debuted in sixth place in the ‘New York Times’ non-fiction ranking, it has been in the top 20 of the best-selling essays for over 7 months and will be translated into 30 languages over the course of 2021. “Dedicated to a topic that is very relevant in times of pandemic”, explains a note, the work is the result of “an in-depth investigation gained over years of study. As the author points out, no matter what you eat, how much exercise you do , how thin or young or wise you are. None of this matters if you don’t breathe properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: getting some air, letting it out, 25,000 times a day . It would seem so easy and trivial, yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe properly, thus compromising their own health. “
“Nestor traveled the world to understand what went wrong – continues the presentation – and, after in-depth research, he found surprising answers. And he did not find them, as one would expect, in the pneumology laboratories, but in the excavations of ancient burial sites, in secret Soviet structures, in New Jersey choral schools and on the smoky streets of São Paulo. Nestor has tracked down men and women who have explored the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices such as Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya and Tummo and he relied on pulmonary experts to scientifically test the most widespread beliefs about breathing. Few of them had set out to study breathing, but they kept coming across the subject in an attempt to cure other diseases. Nestor called them ‘lungs’. “
The polmonauts were “American Civil War surgeons, French hairdressers, anarchist opera singers, irritable swimming coaches, inflexible Ukrainian cardiologists, Czechoslovakian Olympic athletes and choir directors. Their research is now redefining the potential of the human body and has enabled us to discover that diseases such as asthma, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, psoriasis could only be alleviated or reversed by changing the way we inhale and exhale, “the note notes.
“After knowing lungmen who have used breathing to straighten scoliotic spinal columns, smooth chronic ailments and warm up to sub-zero temperatures, we will understand that none of this should be possible, yet it is. The art of breathing will transform conventional wisdom. of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function: we will never breathe the same way again “, guarantee the ‘fathers’ of the Italian edition.
In fact, the volume ends with a series of practical advice: “Breathing techniques to reconcile sleep, to improve heart rate, advice for chewing and exercises to improve one’s mental and physical well-being”. Word of Nestor, “This book will explore many things: evolution, the history of medicine, biochemistry, physiology, physics, athletic endurance and more. Most importantly, it will explore you. On average, over the course of your life , you will take 670 million breaths. Maybe half are already behind you. Maybe you are at breath number 669,000,000. Maybe you would like to take a few million more. “