The Oxygen Advantage: The Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques for a Healthier, Slimmer, Faster, and Fitter You
by Patrick McKeown
30 popular highlights from this book
Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most popular and impactful highlights and quotes from The Oxygen Advantage: The Simple, Scientifically Proven Breathing Techniques for a Healthier, Slimmer, Faster, and Fitter You:
We are not human doings; we are human beings.
Efficient breathing means that fewer free radicals are produced, reducing the risk of inflammation, tissue damage, and injury. Free
• Mouth-breathing children are at greater risk of developing forward head posture, and reduced respiratory strength. • Breathing through the mouth contributes to general dehydration (mouth breathing during sleep results in waking up with a dry mouth). • A dry mouth also increases acidification of the mouth and results in more dental cavities and gum disease. • Mouth breathing causes bad breath due to altered bacterial flora. • Breathing through the mouth has been proven to significantly increase the number of occurrences of snoring and obstructive sleep apnea.
hyperventilation reduces the concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood. This leads to a narrowing of blood vessels and reduced delivery of oxygen to the brain. An oxygen-deprived brain is more excitable and agitated, and as it floods with self-generated thoughts, anxiety kicks in. One contributes to the other, creating a vicious and self-perpetuating cycle.
The production of nitric oxide in the nasal sinuses can be increased by simply humming. In an article published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Doctors Weitzberg and Lundberg described how humming increased nitric oxide up to fifteenfold in comparison with quiet exhalation. They concluded that humming causes a dramatic increase in sinus ventilation and nasal nitric oxide release.
There is only one way to change your breathing volume and rate, and that is by slowing down and diminishing the size of each breath in order to create a shortage of air.
and nasal breathing ensures a number of benefits that are essential not only for good health but for improved sports performance, including: • Filtering, warming, and humidifying air before it is drawn into the lungs • Reducing the heart rate • Bringing nitric oxide into the lungs to open airways and blood vessels • Better oxygen delivery throughout the body • Reduced lactic acid as more oxygen is delivered to working muscles
Think of it this way: CO2 is the doorway that lets oxygen reach our muscles. If the door is only partially open, only some of the oxygen at our disposal passes through, and we find ourselves gasping during exercise, often with our limbs cramping. If, on the other hand, the door is wide open, oxygen flows through the doorway and we can sustain physical activity longer and at a higher intensity.
Ironically, as the body breathes more intensely in an effort to take in more oxygen, less is delivered.
Increasing the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood is the most important factor when adjusting to an increase in altitude, and breath-hold training exercises are an ideal way to prepare in the weeks before ascent. Spending two to three months performing 5 to 10 maximum breath holds each day will condition the body to accept this intense feeling of breathlessness as a familiar occurrence, potentially resulting in a reduced response to this experience at higher altitude.
Just as it is not advisable to go for a jog directly after eating, it is also best to practice breathing exercises on an empty stomach.
As the Irish writer Oscar Wilde once said, “Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world, and people die of it just as they die of any other disease.
The crucial point to remember is that hemoglobin releases oxygen when in the presence of carbon dioxide. When we overbreathe, too much carbon dioxide is washed from the lungs, blood, tissues, and cells. This condition is called hypocapnia, causing the hemoglobin to hold on to oxygen, resulting in reduced oxygen release and therefore reduced oxygen delivery to tissues and organs. With less oxygen delivered to the muscles, they cannot work as effectively as we might like them to.
When your attention is focused on the sensations of your inner body and your breath, it is impossible to maintain anxious, stressful, and distracting thoughts. These practices of meditation have been employed by human beings for thousands of years, and today many studies show the benefits of meditation as a means of helping with weight loss.
In what is considered to be one of the toughest foot races on earth, competitors run the equivalent of six regular marathons over six days in the Sahara Desert, during which they are required to carry their own food. Blood samples were taken from runners 72 hours after completion of the race, with researchers noting a “significant alteration of the blood antioxidant defense capacity” and concluding that “such extreme competition induced an imbalance between oxidant and antioxidant protection.
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Nowadays, as we spend more time communicating via social media, playing computer games, and surfing the Internet, our powers of concentration are diminishing. According to international motivational guru Kevin Kelly, we are now living in an attention-deficit society. The dial has moved from conversation to presentation and from dialogue to monologue. We no longer give each other our undivided attention, and neither do we take the time to observe our own breathing or allow our minds to still.
Not only is an overactive mind less conducive to focus and productivity, it also leads to increased stress, anxiety, and depression—all of which contribute to mental health problems and a reduced quality of life.
The clarity of your mind plays a significant role in determining your quality of life:
Efficient breathing means that fewer free radicals are produced, reducing the risk of inflammation, tissue damage, and injury.
The problem is not a lack of oxygen in the blood, but that not enough oxygen is being released from the blood to tissues and organs, including the brain, resulting in feelings of lethargy and exhaustion. This happens because too much carbon dioxide has been expelled from the body. As we shall see further on, habitual overbreathing influences the release of oxygen from red blood cells, the consequences of which can affect day-to-day well-being as well as performance during exercise. This ties back to the Bohr Effect, which I touched on in the introduction and will expand on in a few pages.
through. Breathing too much for short periods of time is not a significant problem, as no permanent change in the body occurs. However, when we breathe too much over an extended period of days to weeks, a biochemical change takes place inside us that results in an increased sensitivity or lower tolerance to carbon dioxide.
When we breathe in excess of what we require, too much carbon dioxide is exhaled from the lungs and, hence, is removed from the blood. It forces that door to a more closed position, making it harder for oxygen to pass through.
Carbon dioxide is an end product of the natural process of breaking down the fats and carbohydrates we eat. CO2 is returned from the tissues and cells to the lungs via blood vessels, and any excess is exhaled.
the primary stimulus to breathe is to eliminate excess carbon dioxide from the body.
yoga book The Science of Breath, written over a century ago, Yogi Ramacharaka
It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe. —MUHAMMAD ALI
isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.
The production of nitric oxide in the nasal sinuses can be increased by simply humming.
Just as we have an optimal quantity of water and food to consume each day, we also have an optimal quantity of air to breathe. And just as eating too much can be damaging to our health, so can overbreathing.
