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《呼吸的奥秘》- 对失传技艺的现代科学研究
本文讲了什么？
《呼吸的奥秘》（2020 年）讲述了一个关于呼吸力量的令人着迷和意想不到的故事。西方科学忽视了不同的呼吸方法对我们健康的惊人影响。
关于作者
詹姆斯-内斯特（James Nestor）是驻旧金山的一名记者。他曾为《科学美国人》、《户外》杂志和《纽约时报》等刊物撰稿，并撰写了《深海：自由潜水》、《叛逆科学》以及《海洋告诉我们的自我》一书。
Breath
James Nestor
The New Science of a Lost Art
What's it about?
Breath (2020) is the fascinating and unexpected story of the power of breathing. Western science has overlooked the amazing effects that different methods of breathing can have on our health.
About the author
James Nestor is a journalist based in San Francisco. He has written for publications including Scientific American, Outside Magazine, and the New York Times, and wrote the book Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us About Ourselves.
A，Introduction：What’s in it for me? Learn about the amazing effects of breathing well.
[简介：我可以学到什么？了解正确呼吸的神奇效果。]
你可能不会花很多时间去思考呼吸。当然，每个人都知道呼吸是生存的必要条件。但这并不是我们需要训练或思考的东西，对吗？这只是我们一直在做的事情。
那么，准备好大吃一惊吧。因为不同的呼吸方式会对我们的健康产生巨大的影响。呼吸和咀嚼实际上可以调整我们的面容，扩张我们的呼吸道，帮助我们克服从哮喘到压力等各种问题。极端的呼吸技巧可以帮助我们产生幻觉，或控制心率和体温。
然而，在西方科学中，呼吸的力量却一直未得到充分探索。
本文是对作者詹姆斯-内斯特（James Nestor）所称的 "呼吸者"（pulmonauts）世界的一次探索。他们和内斯特一样，致力于探索我们可以通过简单的呼吸动作释放出的惊人力量。
在本文中，你将了解到
* 为什么绝对不能用嘴呼吸？
* 为什么二氧化碳是世界上最容易被误解的气体；以及
* 一位荷兰邮递员如何学会在北极圈内不穿上衣跑半程马拉松。
You probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about breathing. Sure, everyone knows that it’s necessary to survival. But it’s not something we need to train in, or think about – right? It’s just something we . . . do.
Well, prepare to be astonished. Because the different ways we can breathe can have an enormous impact on our health. Breathing and chewing can actually restructure our faces, expand our airways, and help us overcome everything from asthma to stress. And extreme breathing techniques can help us experience hallucinations, or gain control over our heart rate and body temperature.
And yet, the power of breathing has been curiously underexplored in Western science.
These blinks are a voyage into the world of the “pulmonauts,” as author James Nestor calls them – those who, like him, have devoted themselves to exploring the amazing power we can unlock with the simple act of breathing.
In these blinks, you’ll learn
* why you should never, ever breathe through your mouth;
* why carbon dioxide is the most misunderstood gas in the world; and
* how a Dutch mail carrier learned to run a half-marathon shirtless in the Arctic Circle.
B, Key idea 1: It’s far more beneficial to breathe through your nose than your mouth.
[ 观点 1：用鼻子呼吸比用嘴呼吸更有益 ]
作者詹姆斯-内斯特的血压在过去几天里平均上升了 13 点，大大增加了他心脏病发作或中风的风险。他的脉搏加快，体温骤降，最糟糕的是，他感觉糟透了。
造成他痛苦的原因是什么？五天前，医生在他的鼻孔里塞进了硅胶管，并用胶带封住了鼻孔。从那时起，内斯特就只能用嘴呼吸，以体验身体的反应。简而言之？简直就是地狱。
这里的关键信息是：用鼻子呼吸比用嘴呼吸更有益。
据估计，约有 50% 的人主要用嘴呼吸。造成这种情况的原因有很多，包括医疗条件、污染，甚至压力。问题是，你做得越多，情况就越糟糕。
内斯特的鼻塞在十天后就拔掉了，他的鼻子简直就是一场灾难。鼻子堵得厉害，必须用长棉签清理。鼻子里还藏着细菌感染，情况可能会变得很严重。检查结果显示，口呼吸破坏了他的睡眠模式--不过，他早就知道了。最糟糕的是，这次经历让他感觉非常糟糕。
内斯特在塞子拔出几个小时后才勉强用鼻子完整地呼吸了一口气。第一口呼吸让他感到无比的清新和舒畅。
鼻子的作用远远超出你的想象。它不仅能吸入空气，还能净化、加热和湿润空气。它还能释放降低血压、调节心率等的化学物质。当你用嘴吸入未经处理的空气时，你不会得到这些好处。
20 世纪 70 年代和 80 年代，一项相当残酷的实验得出了比内斯特的亲身经历更为严酷的结果。牙齿矫正专家兼研究员埃吉尔-哈沃德（Egil P. Harvold）带着一群恒河猴，用塞子堵住它们的鼻孔。他对这些猴子进行了长达两年的密切监视和拍照。
即使是看这些照片也让人感到痛苦。这些猴子的牙弓变窄，牙齿长歪。这不仅影响了它们的健康，还影响了它们整个头部的形状。
但当最终拔掉牙塞后，它们的脸在六个月内恢复了正常。这一切都是因为它们的呼吸方式造成的。
The author James Nestor’s blood pressure has risen by an average of 13 points over the past few days, greatly increasing his risk of heart attack or stroke. His pulse has quickened while his body temperature has plummeted, and – worst of all – he feels absolutely terrible.
The cause of his misery? Five days ago, a doctor inserted silicone plugs into his nostrils and taped them shut. Since then, Nestor has been breathing exclusively through his mouth to experience his body’s response. In short? It’s been hell.
The key message here is: It’s far more beneficial to breathe through your nose than your mouth.
Some estimate that around 50 percent of us breathe mostly through our mouths. There are many reasons for this, including medical conditions, pollution, and even stress. The problem is, the more you do it, the worse it gets.
Nestor’s plugs come out after ten days, and his nose is a disaster. It’s horribly blocked, and has to be cleared out with long cotton swabs. It’s also housing a bacterial infection that could have become serious. Tests reveal that mouth breathing has ruined his sleeping patterns – but, well, he knew that already. The worst was just how awful the experience made him feel.
Nestor only managed to take a full breath through his nose hours after his plugs had come out. That first breath was a spectacular burst of freshness and relief.
The nose does far more than you might realize. It doesn’t just take air in, but also cleans it out, heats it, and moistens it. It leads to a release of chemicals that lower blood pressure, regulate the heart rate, and much more. When you take in unprocessed air through your mouth, you get none of these benefits.
A rather cruel experiment in the 1970s and 1980s had even starker results than Nestor’s own experience. Egil P. Harvold, an orthodontist and researcher, took a group of rhesus monkeys and closed their nostrils up with plugs. He monitored them closely, taking photographs, for up to two years.
It’s painful even to look at the photographs. The monkeys’ dental arches narrowed and their teeth grew crooked. It didn’t just affect their health – it affected the whole shape of their heads.
But when the plugs were eventually removed, their faces returned to normal within six months. All because of how they were breathing.
C, Key idea 2: The human head has developed in ways that are bad for breathing.
[ 观点 2：人类头部的进化方式不利于呼吸 ]
早在智人进化之前，我们与呼吸之间的麻烦关系就已经存在了--这种关系可以一直追溯到 170 万年前，那时我们的远祖智人以及后来的直立人就开始在吃食物之前对食物进行加工。
甚至在直立人开始烹饪食物之前，即大约 80 万年前，智人就已经开始嫩化食物了。嫩化和烹饪意味着可以消化更多的热量，从食物中汲取更多的能量。有了这些额外的能量，这些物种的大脑变得越来越大。后来，也就是大约 30 万年前，它们的后代智人发展出了语言，这时喉头下降到了喉咙里。
更大的大脑和更低的喉部具有巨大的进化优势--但也付出了代价。我们不断扩大的大脑把鼻窦和呼吸道挤得越来越小，使我们的鼻子更加突出。更令人担忧的是，较低的喉部也使我们更容易窒息。
但最糟糕的还在后面。
这里的关键信息是：人类头部的进化方式不利于呼吸。
由于种种原因，人类的头部非常不适合健康的呼吸。但是，千百年来，我们都能处理好呼吸。直到大约 300 年前，才出现了严重的问题。
十八世纪初，西方人类的饮食发生了重大变化。食品加工技术的进步意味着我们的饮食总体上变得更加松软。这对我们的身体产生了连锁反应，尤其是面部结构。因为人们不需要咀嚼那么多东西，他们的嘴巴就不会长得那么大，这导致牙齿矫正和呼吸问题大大增加。
因此，这不仅仅是进化的结果。我们的现代饮食影响了我们的头型。
事实上，其他不同饮食习惯的文化往往不会经常出现呼吸问题。19 世纪 30 年代，美国研究员乔治-卡特林在访问南北美洲 50 多个土著社区的成员时，记录了这一情况。
虽然这些群体在文化习俗和饮食方面表现出巨大的多样性，但有几个特征是共同的：高大的身材、整齐的牙齿、没有慢性健康问题--以及对需要用鼻子呼吸的普遍理解。
卡特林对鼻呼吸的力量深信不疑，并发现它能治愈自己严重的呼吸道疾病。他甚至为此写了一本名为《生命的呼吸》的书，呼吁读者 "闭上你的嘴"。
遗憾的是，他的信息并没有得到广泛传播。
Our troubled relationship with breathing goes back long before Homo sapiens evolved – it goes all the way back to 1.7 million years ago, when our distant ancestors Homo habilis, and later Homo erectus, started processing food before eating it.
Even before Homo erectus started to cook food – around 800,000 years ago – Homo habilis had been tenderizing it. Both tenderizing and cooking meant more calories could be digested, drawing more energy from food. With that extra energy, those species’ brains grew ever larger. Later still, about 300,000 years ago, their progeny, Homo sapiens, developed speech, when the larynx descended into the throat.
Bigger brains and lower larynxes had tremendous evolutionary advantages – but they came at a cost. Our expanding brains pushed our sinuses and airways into smaller and smaller spaces, making our noses more prominent. More concerningly, those lower larynxes also left us more susceptible to choking.
But the worst was yet to come.
The key message here is: The human head has developed in ways that are bad for breathing.
For many reasons, then, human heads are uniquely ill-suited to healthy breathing. But for millennia, we managed fairly well. It was only about 300 years ago that serious problems emerged.
In the early eighteenth century, there was a significant change in the human diet in the West. Advances in food processing meant that, overall, our diets became softer. This had knock-on effects for our bodies – particularly facial structure. Because people didn’t have to chew as much, their mouths didn’t grow as big, which caused a huge rise in both orthodontic and breathing problems.
So it’s not just down to evolution. Our modern diets have affected the shape of our heads.
In fact, cultures with different eating habits tend not to suffer as routinely from breathing problems. The American researcher George Catlin documented this in the 1830s, when visiting members of more than 50 indigenous communities across North and South America.
Although these groups showed enormous diversity in cultural practices and diets, a few features were common to all: tall physiques, perfectly straight teeth, a lack of chronic health problems – and a universal understanding of the need to breathe through the nose.
Catlin became convinced of the power of nasal breathing, and found that it cured his own serious respiratory problems. He even wrote a book about it called Breath of Life, imploring readers to “SHUT YOUR MOUTH.”
Sadly, his message didn’t catch on.
D, Key idea 3: Breathing in is important – but so is breathing out.
[ 观点 3：吸气很重要，但呼气也很重要 ]
1958 年，新泽西州的东奥兰治退伍军人事务医院做出了一项奇怪的任命。他们聘请了一位名叫卡尔-斯托夫（Carl Stough）的合唱团指挥，为一群患有肺气肿的病人进行检查。这是一种使人衰弱的慢性肺病。
虽然没有受过医学训练，但斯托夫很快就诊断出了问题所在。注意到病人呼吸短促、急促，斯托夫推断问题不在于吸气--他们吸入了大量空气。事实上，问题出在他们呼气不充分。
斯托夫鼓励病人完全、正确地呼气。结果令他的医学同行们大吃一惊。
这里的关键信息是：吸气很重要，但呼气也很重要。
斯托夫利用的是横膈膜的力量--位于肺部下方的肌肉。吸气时，横膈膜下降，肺部扩张；呼气时，横膈膜上升。在正常情况下，成年人不会充分发挥横膈膜的力量，而有呼吸问题的人甚至比其他人更少使用横膈膜。
斯托夫的技术包括训练病人的身体，使其正确锻炼横膈膜。他让病人平躺，指导他们非常缓慢地呼吸，同时按摩和轻拍胸部、颈部和喉咙的不同部位。这样可以鼓励他们每次呼气时吐出更多的空气。
这种简单的方法虽然看似奇怪，但却通过慢慢地恢复横膈膜的运动能力，大大增加了患者的肺活量。
斯托夫并没有治愈肺气肿--病人肺部的损伤是永久性的。但他的方法让他们能够利用肺部仍然健康的部分。许多病人重新能够走路和说话。其中一位甚至离开医院，成为了一名船长。
医生们都惊呆了--他们认为不可能对横膈膜进行如此大的操作。传统观念认为，随着年龄的增长，肺功能会越来越弱，逐渐失去功能。
但事实上，正如斯托夫的研究表明，提高肺活量的方法出奇地简单。即使只是步行和骑自行车，也能帮助肺部扩张 15%。
那么，这里到底发生了什么？为什么呼气如此重要？不就是排出我们不需要的空气吗？不尽然--下面，我们就来看看科学的解释。
In 1958, the East Orange Veterans Affairs Hospital in New Jersey made a curious appointment. They hired a choir director by the name of Carl Stough to take a look at a group of patients with emphysema – a debilitating, chronic lung disease.
Though he lacked training in medicine, Stough quickly diagnosed the problem. Noting that the patients were taking short, rapid breaths, Stough reasoned that the problem wasn’t inhaling – they were taking in plenty of air. The problem was, in fact, that they weren’t breathing out sufficiently.
Stough encouraged his patients to exhale completely and properly. And the results astounded his medical colleagues.
The key message here is: Breathing in is important – but so is breathing out.
What Stough harnessed was the power of the diaphragm – the muscle sitting underneath the lungs. It drops as we breathe in, expanding the lungs, and rises as we breathe out. Under normal circumstances, adults don’t exercise the full capacity of the diaphragm – and people with breathing problems use even less of it than others.
Stough’s technique involved training his patients’ bodies to exercise their diaphragms properly. With his patients lying flat, he directed them to breathe very slowly, while he massaged and tapped different parts of the chest, neck, and throat. This encouraged them to move more air each time they exhaled.
This simple method, strange though it may have appeared, greatly expanded patients’ lung capacity by gently encouraging the diaphragm back into action.
Stough didn’t cure emphysema – the damage to the patients’ lungs was permanent. But his methods allowed them to access the parts of their lungs that were still healthy. Many patients became able to walk and talk again. One even left the hospital and became a ship’s captain.
Doctors were stunned – it wasn’t thought possible to manipulate the diaphragm that much. The conventional wisdom was that lungs simply got weaker and weaker with age, gradually losing capacity.
But in fact, as Stough’s work showed, it’s surprisingly straightforward to boost the capacity of the lungs. Even just walking and cycling can help expand the lungs by 15 percent.
So what’s really going on here? Why is breathing out so critical? Isn’t it just expelling air that we don’t need? Not quite – and in the next blink, we’ll take a look at the science.
E, Key idea 4: Slow, shallow breathing yields unexpected health benefits.
[ 观点4：缓慢、浅浅的呼吸会给健康带来意想不到的好处 ]
在我们研究驱动呼吸的化学过程之前，。
想想耆那教的 "Om "颂、天主教的念珠、昆达利尼瑜伽的 "sa ta na ma "颂，以及从日本到夏威夷再到中国的各种祷告。你认为在这些传统中，每个人在祈祷或冥想时呼吸需要多长时间？
值得注意的是，他们都依赖于几乎完全相同的呼吸时间--5.5 到 6 秒之间。
以这种速度进行平静、缓慢的呼吸非常有益，可以增加流向大脑的血液，提高全身的效率。从这个角度来说，祈祷确实有益健康！
这里的关键信息是：缓慢而浅的呼吸会给健康带来意想不到的好处。
为什么这样呼吸更好呢？让我们放大到分子水平。
生物化学记录了以肺部为起点和终点的交换过程。我们吸入的空气中的氧分子附着在红血球上，并被运送到身体各处，供我们的细胞使用。它们被交换成二氧化碳分子，然后再回到肺部呼出。
但二氧化碳不仅仅是一种废物。它在使氧气从血细胞中分离出来方面起着至关重要的作用。此外，它还有助于扩张血管，使血管变得更宽，从而可以输送更多的血液。
当我们大口呼吸时，我们会排出所有的二氧化碳--这会减少血液流动。这就是为什么运动或恐慌会导致头痛和头晕。另一方面，缓慢呼吸会让更多的二氧化碳留在体内，这意味着更多的能量和效率。
这就是为什么缓慢呼吸和不那么深的呼吸有好处。我们吸入的空气远远多于我们所需要的，所以即使你呼吸缓慢，也很少有氧气吸入不足的风险。这可能会让人感觉怪怪的，但你真的不必每次都把肺填得鼓鼓的。
那就试试看吧。理想的呼吸是吸气 5.5 秒，呼气 5.5 秒，即每分钟呼吸 5.5 次。即使你每天只像这样放慢呼吸几分钟，也能创造奇迹--无论你是否同时在祈祷。
Before we look at the chemical process that drives breathing, consider this.
Think about the “Om” chant of Jainism, the rosary of Catholicism, the sa ta na ma chant used in Kundalini yoga, and prayers coming from anywhere from Japan to Hawaii to China. How long do you think it takes someone in each of these traditions to breathe while they’re praying or meditating?
Remarkably, they all rely on breaths that take almost exactly the same amount of time – between 5.5 and six seconds.
Calm, slow breaths at this pace are incredibly beneficial, increasing the flow of blood to the brain and improving efficiency throughout our bodies. In this respect, prayer really can be good for your health!
The key message here is: Slow, shallow breathing yields unexpected health benefits.
Why is it better to breathe like this? Let’s zoom in to the molecular level.
Biochemistry documents the exchange process that begins and ends in our lungs. The oxygen molecules in the air we inhale attach themselves to red blood cells, and are transported around the body to be used by our cells. They’re exchanged for carbon dioxide molecules, which in turn travel back to the lungs and are exhaled.
But carbon dioxide is a lot more than a waste product. It plays a crucial role in causing the oxygen to separate from the blood cells. Even more, it helps dilate blood vessels, making them wider so they can transport more blood.
When we breathe heavily, we expel all of our carbon dioxide – which reduces blood flow. That’s why exercise or panic can cause headaches and light-headedness. Breathing slowly, on the other hand, leaves more carbon dioxide in the system – which means more energy and efficiency.
That’s why it’s beneficial to breathe slowly – and less deeply as well. We take in far more air than we need, so even if you’re breathing slowly, there’s very little risk of not breathing in enough oxygen. It might feel weird, but you really don’t have to fill your lungs up to bursting each time.
So give it a go. The ideal breath is 5.5 seconds in, and 5.5 seconds out – totaling 5.5 breaths per minute. Even if you only slow your breath like this for a few minutes each day, it can do wonders – whether or not you’re praying at the same time.
F, Key idea 5: We can do a lot to improve the shape of our mouths.
[ 观点5：我们可以做很多事情来改善我们的口腔形状 ]
如前所述，现代生活方式不利于我们的呼吸。在过去的 300 年里，加工食品意味着我们的咀嚼次数大大减少--这反过来又缩小了我们的口腔，使我们的牙齿变得歪斜，阻塞了我们的呼吸道。这也是如今从打鼾到哮喘等呼吸疾病如此普遍的关键原因。
但好消息是：由于这些问题都是由我们的生活习惯造成的，要扭转这一趋势却出乎意料地容易。甚至有可能改变我们的口腔形状，畸齿矫正的一些令人称赞的进步就证明了这一点。
这里的关键信息是：我们可以做很多事情来改善我们的口腔形状。
然而，传统的牙齿矫正术可能帮不了你什么。
上世纪四五十年代，牙齿矫正医生通常会拔掉患者的牙齿，然后为他们戴上牙箍和牙齿矫正器，迫使剩余的牙齿位置恢复正常。这本是为了帮助解决口腔变小带来的问题--但随着时间的推移，这实际上导致了口腔的进一步萎缩。有时，患者甚至会因此出现新的问题，如打鼾或睡眠呼吸暂停。
20 世纪 50 年代末，当英国牙医约翰-缪（John Mew）注意到这一点时，他的观点遭到了同事们的强烈抵制。最后，他甚至失去了牙医执照。在当时看，他的经历却是不幸的，但到现在的话，他的观点已经成为主流。
约翰-缪解决嘴巴萎缩问题的办法是什么？最简单的就是保持良好的口腔姿势。双唇并拢，牙齿微微接触，将舌头放在口腔顶部。只要坐姿或站姿正确，就能帮助呼吸道畅通。
此外，还有一些专门开发的设备可以帮助这一过程。作者试用了西奥多-贝尔福的 "Homeoblock"--一种放在口腔内的块状物，它能让人误以为自己在咀嚼，而不是真的在咀嚼。
在短短几周内，作者的呼吸道变宽了，下巴也对齐了，而且他的脸部实际上长出了近两立方厘米的骨头。
没错，只要多咀嚼，成年人也能长骨头。使用我们的后臼齿会产生干细胞，从而在我们的口腔和面部周围长出新的骨骼。这有助于疏通我们的呼吸道。此外，它还能让你看起来更年轻！
As we noted earlier, our modern lifestyle isn’t good for the way we breathe. For the last 300 years, processed food has meant we’ve had to chew much less – which has in turn reduced the size of our mouths, made our teeth crooked, and obstructed our airways. It is a key reason why breathing conditions are so common these days, from snoring to asthma.
But here’s the good news: Because these problems are brought on by our habits, it’s surprisingly easy to reverse the trend. It’s even possible to change the shape of our mouths, as some fascinating advances in orthodontics have shown.
The key message here is: We can do a lot to improve the shape of our mouths.
Traditional orthodontics, however, might not help you much here.
Back in the 1940s and 50s, orthodontists would often remove patients’ teeth and fit them with braces and headgear that forced the remaining teeth into place. This was meant to help with the problems brought on by smaller mouths – but over time, it actually caused further shrinking. Sometimes, patients would even develop new problems as a result, like snoring or sleep apnea.
When the British dentist John Mew noticed this in the late 1950s, his observation met with huge resistance from colleagues. Eventually, he even lost his license to practice dentistry. That was particularly unfortunate, given that his ideas have become mainstream.
Mew’s solution to the problem of shrinking mouths? The simplest is to keep good oral posture. Hold your lips together with your teeth touching slightly, and place your tongue on the roof of your mouth. As long as you’re sitting or standing properly, this can help your airways open up.
There are also specially developed devices to aid the process. The author tried out Theodore Belfor’s Homeoblock – a block that sits inside the mouth and tricks it into thinking it’s chewing more than it really is.
In just a few weeks, the author’s airways widened, his jaw moved into alignment, and he actually grew almost two cubic centimeters of bone around his face.
That’s right – even adults can grow bone, simply by chewing more. Using our back molars leads to the creation of stem cells, which grow new bone all around our mouth and face. That helps to clear our airways. As an added bonus, it makes you look younger!
G, Key idea 6: Extreme breathing techniques can have incredible effects.
[ 观点6：极限呼吸法可以产生不可思议的效果 ]
有很多简单的方法可以打通呼吸道，并从良好的呼吸习惯中获益。但是，更进一步的努力可能会带来真正超人的效果。
1970年的一天，来自印度北部的斯瓦米-拉玛（Swami Rama）来到堪萨斯州托皮卡的一家精神病诊所。他连接了各种测量设备，展示了自己对身体的控制能力，令医生们目瞪口呆。在一分钟内，他将自己的心率从每分钟 74 次降至 52 次；后来，他又在 8 秒钟内将心率从 60 次增至 82 次。他还让自己的心脏以每分钟 300 次的频率跳动了整整 30 秒--这种频率通常会致命。拉玛还控制了自己的体温--他在大拇指和小拇指之间创造了 11° 的温度差。
问题是，拉玛并不是真正的超人。瑜伽士世世代代都在展示这些能力，因为他们知道如何利用呼吸的力量。
这里的关键信息是： 极端的呼吸技巧可以产生不可思议的效果
其中一个著名的控制技巧是 "Tummo"(内火瑜咖)。这种呼吸方法由西藏佛教徒在千年前发明，意为 "内心之火"，能使体温发生惊人的变化。修炼者可以穿着单薄的衣服在喜马拉雅山的冰天雪地中生存，并用热量融化身体周围的积雪。
能做到这一点的也不仅仅是西藏佛教徒。荷兰一位名叫维姆-霍夫（Wim Hof）的前邮递员也有类似的壮举。2000 年代，他因在北极圈内不穿鞋和衬衫跑半程马拉松而出名。在一次实验中，科学家给他注射了大肠杆菌，并监测他积极抵御感染的情况。
霍夫和 "Tummo "练习者是如何做到这一切的呢？通过一套谨慎而又相当艰苦的重呼吸系统--不是我们一直在谈论的那种柔和、渐进的轻推，而是一种迫使身体做出反应的强力推气。
所有的粗重呼吸都会迫使我们进入一种紧张状态--在这种极端状态下，你可以 "侵入 "自律神经系统，该系统控制着通常不受意识控制的身体机能。霍夫自己为西方人设计的简化方法也涉及反复暴露在极度寒冷的环境中。
这些方法仍有争议，不应轻易采用。但它们证明了呼吸对我们身体的神奇作用。
There are many easy fixes you can make, both to open up your airways and to reap the benefits of good breathing habits. But pushing things even farther can lead to results that seem truly superhuman.
Take Swami Rama, a man from northern India who visited a psychiatric clinic in Topeka, Kansas, one day back in 1970. Hooked up to various measuring devices, he stunned doctors by demonstrating his control over his body. Within a minute, he reduced his heart rate from 74 beats per minute to 52; later, he increased it from 60 to 82 within eight seconds. He also made his heart beat at 300 beats per minute, for a full 30 seconds – a rate that would usually be fatal. Rama also controlled his body temperature – he created an 11° temperature gap between his thumb and little finger.
The thing is, Rama wasn’t even truly exceptional. Yogis have been demonstrating these abilities for generations because they know how to harness the power of breathing.
The key message here is: Extreme breathing techniques can have incredible effects.
One well-known controlling technique is Tummo. Meaning “inner fire,” this breathing method was developed by Tibetan Buddhists a millennium ago, and creates such amazing changes in body temperature. It’s practitioners can survive in the freezing heights of the Himalayas in thin clothing, and melt the snow around their bodies with the heat.
It’s not just Tibetan Buddhists who can do this, either. A Dutch former mail carrier named Wim Hof achieved similar feats. He became famous in the 2000s for running a half-marathon in the Arctic Circle without shoes or shirt. In one experiment, scientists injected him with E. coli and monitored as he actively fought off the infection.
How did Hof and the Tummo practitioners achieve all this? Through a careful and rather grueling system of heavy breathing – not the soft, gradual nudge that we’ve been talking about, but an aggressive push of air that forces the body to react.
All that heavy breathing forces us into a state of stress – and in that extreme state, you can “hack” the autonomic nervous system, which governs body functions usually outside of conscious control. Hof’s own simplified method, designed for a Western audience, also involves repeated exposure to extreme cold.
These methods are still controversial, and should not be undertaken lightly. But they stand as testament to the amazing things breathing can do for our bodies.
H, Key idea 7: Varying our levels of carbon dioxide can unlock visions and alter our consciousness.
[ 观点7：改变二氧化碳的含量可以开启幻象，改变我们的意识 ]
把重呼吸法推得更远，它们可以影响人的思想和身体--效果类似于迷幻药。
1956 年，心理学学生斯坦尼斯拉夫-格罗夫（Stanislav Grof）自愿参加了一项药物试验。一百微克的一种奇怪的新物质使他产生了充满活力、超凡脱俗的幻觉。他是最早尝试迷幻剂的人之一。
十年后，这种物质被禁止使用--于是格罗夫开发了自己的合法替代品。他称之为 "整体呼吸法"（Holotropic Breathwork）。他发现，几个小时的大口呼吸可以产生强烈的幻觉。
为什么会这样？答案还是二氧化碳。
这里的关键信息是： 改变我们体内的二氧化碳含量可以开启幻觉，改变我们的意识。
正如我们之前提到的，粗重的呼吸会导致二氧化碳含量降低。整体呼吸法的极度粗重呼吸会产生进一步的影响--它会减少流向大脑的血液，主要影响负责我们的自我意识和时间流逝的区域。因此会出现幻觉。
这仍然是一种有争议的治疗方法，尚未被广泛研究，但有些人发现整体呼吸法带来了治疗上的突破。
值得注意的是，将二氧化碳浓度输送到另一个方向也能产生显著效果。神经学家贾斯汀-费恩斯坦多年来一直在研究他所谓的 "二氧化碳疗法 "的效果，探索一个在过去一个世纪中被奇妙地忽视了的研究领域。
起初，将人暴露在高剂量的二氧化碳中会导致可怕的恐慌发作--即使是那些通常根本感觉不到恐惧的人。这是因为它刺激了我们的化学感受器--我们大脑中监测二氧化碳水平的神经元--让我们认为出了大问题。但是，一旦恐慌情绪得到缓解，这种治疗方法就会让人进入一种极度平静的状态。
这与我们之前谈到的温和、缓慢的呼吸技巧所能达到的状态类似。但对于患有焦虑症、癫痫或精神分裂症的人来说，进行这些练习可能会很困难。对于患者来说，费恩斯坦的治疗方法是达到类似状态的一种 "捷径"。
也就是说，如果他们能够承受恐慌发作的话，就能起效。作者尝试了这种治疗方法，二氧化碳的用量为 35%。他感觉每次呼吸都会窒息。
Push the heavy breathing methods even farther, and they can affect the mind as well as the body – with effects similar to those of psychedelic drugs.
In 1956, a psychology student, Stanislav Grof, volunteered for a drug trial. A hundred micrograms of a strange new substance caused him to have vibrant, transcendent visions. He was one of the very first to try LSD.
A decade later, the substance was banned – so Grof developed his own, legal alternative. He called it Holotropic Breathwork. Several hours of heavy breathing, he discovered, could cause intense hallucinations.
Why? The answer, once again, is carbon dioxide.
The key message here is: Varying our levels of carbon dioxide can unlock visions and alter our consciousness.
As we’ve previously noted, heavy breathing causes our carbon dioxide levels to decrease. The extreme heavy breathing of Holotropic Breathwork has a further effect – it decreases blood flow to the brain, primarily affecting areas responsible for our sense of self and the passage of time. Hence the visions.
It’s still a controversial treatment that hasn’t been widely studied, but some have found Holotropic Breathwork has led to therapeutic breakthroughs.
Remarkably, sending carbon dioxide levels in the other direction can have remarkable effects as well. Neurologist Justin Feinstein has been studying the effect of what he calls “carbon dioxide therapy” for years, exploring an area of research that has been curiously neglected for the past century.
At first, exposing people to a high dose of carbon dioxide causes horrific panic attacks – even in people who generally don’t feel fear at all. That’s because it shocks our chemoreceptors – the neurons in our brain that monitor our carbon dioxide levels – into thinking that something is seriously wrong. But, once the panic has subsided, this sort of treatment can lead to a state of profound calmness.
It’s similar to the state you can reach through the gentle, slow breathing techniques we talked about earlier. But for people who suffer from anxiety, epilepsy, or schizophrenia, it can be difficult to perform those exercises. For them, Feinstein’s treatment is a kind of “shortcut” to attaining a similar state.
That is, if they can withstand the panic attacks. The author tried out this treatment, with a dosage of 35 percent carbon dioxide. He felt like he was suffocating with every single breath.
I, Key idea 8: The power of breathing is still little known in the West – but elsewhere, it’s ancient wisdom.
[ 观点8：呼吸的力量在西方仍鲜为人知，但在其他地方，它却是古老的智慧 ]
尽管贾斯汀-范斯坦（Justin Feinstein）等科学家一直在努力工作，但对呼吸和二氧化碳浓度的研究仍处于起步阶段。这一领域的大多数先驱--如卡尔-斯托夫或约翰-缪--都是在西方正统医学之外开展工作的。
然而，在世界其他地方，正如斯瓦米-拉玛和“Tummo”方法的实践者们所展示的那样，这种关于呼吸的智慧已成为主流。这些古老的传统提供了一种更加综合的思考方式。
这里的关键信息是：呼吸的力量在西方仍然鲜为人知，但在其他地方，它却是古老的智慧。
大约 3000 年前，亚洲出现了一个强大的概念。印度人称之为 "prana"（普拉那），中国人称之为 "气"。这是一种关于能量或生命力的理论。无论是 "prana "还是 "气"，不管你怎么称呼它，它都围绕着宇宙万物旋转。但它最集中在有生命的事物中。因此，要保持健康，就需要保持气。
针灸和瑜伽等传统习俗就是为了保持普拉那的稳定流动而发展起来的，但其中最好的方法就是简单地吸入气。
普拉那与瑜伽的关系比你想象的还要深。公元前 500 年左右的《瑜伽经》是我们所掌握的最早讨论瑜伽的文献。也许让现代人感到惊讶的是，这些经文中几乎没有任何关于运动的内容。它们实际上是关于保持静止--以及通过呼吸积累普拉那。
普拉那也可以解释粗重呼吸的神奇效果。突然积累过量的普拉那能会使身体受到冲击，产生幻觉等极端反应。这不是瑜伽师的做法--多年来逐渐积累气，才能产生最大的效果。
现代科学对于像呼吸这样对我们来说最基本的东西还有很多东西需要学习，这让人觉得很奇怪。但在这个领域，所谓的生活方式的进步并没有与医疗保健的进步齐头并进。
问题是，你不需要练习 "Tummo "或其他极端的方法，就能很好地利用呼吸的力量。你甚至不需要相信普拉那。你只需要吸气 5.5 秒，呼气 5.5 秒，然后重复。
Despite the ongoing work of scientists like Justin Feinstein, investigation into the power of breathing and carbon dioxide levels is still in its infancy. Most of the pioneers in this area – people like Carl Stough or John Mew – have been operating well outside Western medical orthodoxy.
Elsewhere in the world, however – as Swami Rama and the practitioners of Tummo show – this wisdom about breathing is mainstream. And these ancient traditions provide a more integrated way of thinking about it.
The key message here is: The power of breathing is still little known in the West – but elsewhere, it’s ancient wisdom.
Some 3,000 years ago, a powerful concept emerged in Asia. The Indians called it prana, and the Chinese called it ch’i. It’s a kind of theory of energy, or life force. Prana, ch’i, or whatever you call, it is swirling around everything in the universe. But it is most concentrated in things that are alive. So, to stay healthy, you need to maintain your prana.
Traditional practices like acupuncture and yoga were developed as ways to keep the flow of prana steady – but the best way of all was simply to breathe it in.
Prana’s relationship with yoga is even deeper than you might expect. The earliest texts we have that discuss yoga are the Yoga Sutras, from around 500 BCE. Perhaps surprisingly to a modern audience, there’s very little in these texts about movement of any kind. They’re actually about keeping still – and building up prana through breathing.
Prana offers an explanation for the amazing effects of heavy breathing, as well. Suddenly building up an excess of prana can shock the body into extreme reactions like hallucinations. That’s not the way a yogi would do it – it’s building the prana up gradually over many years that allows for the greatest effects.
It’s strange to think that modern science still has so much to learn about something as fundamental to us as breathing. But this is one area in which so-called advances in lifestyle haven’t gone hand in hand with advances in healthcare.
The thing is, you don’t need to practice Tummo, or any other extreme method, to harness the power of breathing well. You don’t even have to believe in prana. All you need to do is breathe in for 5.5 seconds, out for 5.5 seconds, and repeat.
J, Final summary [ 总结 ]
改变呼吸方式可以产生异常强大的效果。通过用鼻子呼吸，呼吸要慢，不要太深，并适当使用横膈膜，就能为你的健康创造奇迹。通过呼吸的力量，你有可能将事情推得更远，取得超人的成就。
可行的建议：
通过呼吸让自己平静下来。没有时间进行适当的冥想或瑜伽练习？没问题。让自己平静下来的最简单方法就是思考自己的呼吸。每天抽出 5 到 10 分钟的时间，轻轻地吸气和呼气，每次持续 5.5 秒钟。
Changing the way you breathe can have extraordinarily powerful effects. By breathing through your nose, slowly and not too deeply, and properly engaging your diaphragm, you can do wonders for your health. It’s possible to push things even farther, and achieve superhuman feats – all through the power of breathing.
Actionable advice:
Calm yourself through breathing. No time for a proper meditation or yoga session? No problem. The simplest thing you can do to calm yourself is simply to think about your breathing. For five or ten minutes each day, take some gentle breaths lasting 5.5 seconds, in and out.
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