Overview
Of all the things we do each day, breathing is arguably the most important. While breathing’s most important job is to literally keep us alive, breathing can help in many more ways than just survival, including activating your parasympathetic nervous system, which helps slow your heart rate and lower your blood pressure.
In today’s episode, I talk with James Nestor, Dr. Louis Ignarro, Wim Hof, and Dr. Jim Gordon about using breathing to support your health. James Nestor is an author and journalist who has written for Scientific American, Outside, The New York Times, and more. His latest book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, was an instant New York Times bestseller. Breath explores how the human species has lost the ability to breathe properly—and how we can get it back.
Dr. Louis Ignarro is a medical research scientist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his breakthrough discovery of nitric oxide and how it positively impacts health and longevity. His groundbreaking research on nitric oxide paved the way for—among other innovations—Viagra. He is an award-winning Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has his PhD in pharmacology.
Wim Hof, also known as “The Iceman,” holds multiple world records for his feats of endurance and exposure to cold. He is the author of The Wim Hof Method: Activate Your Full Human Potential. The benefits of Wim’s method, now practiced by tens of thousands, have been validated by eight university research studies.
Dr. James Gordon, author of Transforming Trauma: The Path to Hope and Healing, is a Harvard-educated psychiatrist and the founder and CEO of the nonprofit Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, DC. He is a clinical professor at Georgetown Medical School and was chairman (under Presidents Clinton and G.W. Bush) of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy.
Full-length episodes of these interviews can be found here:
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