Breathing is something we do naturally, often without thinking. But many of us are doing it completely wrong, according to science journalist James Nestor. He spent a decade investigating all the ways we breathe and compiled the information into the instant bestseller Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art released May 2020.

呼吸是我們的自然行為，通常不需要思考。但據(jù)科學(xué)記者詹姆斯·內(nèi)斯特稱(chēng)，我們很多人呼吸的方式是完全錯(cuò)誤的。他花了十年時(shí)間研究呼吸的所有方式，并將這些信息匯編成2020年5月出版的暢銷(xiāo)書(shū)《呼吸新的科學(xué),一種失去的藝術(shù)》。

He calls breathing the "missing part of health," as vital to our well-being "as how much we exercise, what foods we eat and how much we sleep." Doing it wrong has dire consequences on our health, he says, and contributes to sleep-disordered breathing problems like snoring, sleep apnea and insomnia; mental and behavioral conditions like anxiety, depression and ADHD; and medical issues like high blood pressure, increased heart rate and diabetes.

他把呼吸稱(chēng)為“健康缺失的部分”，呼吸和“鍛煉多少、吃什么、睡多少時(shí)間”一樣對(duì)我們的健康至關(guān)重要。他說(shuō)，如果呼吸做錯(cuò)了會(huì)對(duì)我們的健康造成可怕的后果，還會(huì)導(dǎo)致睡眠呼吸紊亂問(wèn)題，比如打鼾、睡眠呼吸暫停和失眠，焦慮、抑郁和多動(dòng)癥等精神和行為狀況;以及高血壓、心率加快和糖尿病等醫(yī)療問(wèn)題。

Decades of studies back this up, Nestor says. Yet, the way we breathe is largely overlooked by the general population. The good news? We have the power to reverse many of these conditions.
All we have to do is breathe properly.

內(nèi)斯托爾說(shuō)，他已經(jīng)做了幾十年的研究。然而，很大程度上大眾忽視了我們的呼吸方式。好消息是什么?我們有能力扭轉(zhuǎn)現(xiàn)狀。
我們要做的就是正確呼吸。

Nasal Breathing vs. Mouth Breathing
Breathing well begins with nasal breathing. For starters, the lungs don't like cold, dry air. Nasal breathing warms and humidifies your breath before it reaches the lungs. When you breathe through your nose, air travels past bony structures in the nasal cavity called turbinates, which are covered in soft tissue known as mucosa. These turbinates are what warm and humidify your breath.

用鼻子呼吸和用嘴呼吸
良好的呼吸從鼻呼吸開(kāi)始。首先，肺部不喜歡寒冷干燥的空氣。在空氣進(jìn)入肺部之前，鼻呼吸可以對(duì)空氣進(jìn)行加溫和增濕。用鼻子呼吸時(shí)，空氣會(huì)經(jīng)過(guò)鼻腔中被稱(chēng)為鼻甲的骨骼結(jié)構(gòu)，鼻甲外面覆蓋著被稱(chēng)為粘膜的軟組織。鼻甲骨會(huì)讓你的呼吸變得溫暖和潮濕。

Nasal breathing also cleans the air you breathe, thanks to tiny hairlike filters in the nasal cavity called cilia that act as filters. Cilia capture dust, pollution, allergens, smoke, bacteria, viruses and assorted other debris in the air you inhale and traps it in the mucous. From there, the debris is eventually pushed into your throat and swallowed.

鼻腔呼吸也能清潔你吸入的空氣，這要?dú)w功于鼻腔中被稱(chēng)為纖毛的微小毛發(fā)過(guò)濾器，纖毛起到了過(guò)濾器的作用。纖毛捕捉吸入空氣中的灰塵、污染、過(guò)敏原、煙霧、細(xì)菌、病毒和各種其他碎片，并把它們困在黏液中。然后這些東西最終會(huì)進(jìn)入喉嚨并被吞下。

Nose breathing also forces you to use your diaphragm, the muscle that sits below the lungs. Diaphragmatic breathing — or belly breathing (as opposed to chest breathing) — increases the efficiency of the lungs by activating the lower lobes, which contain a larger percentage of blood than the upper lobes.

用鼻子呼吸也會(huì)迫使你使用橫膈膜，也就是肺下面的肌肉。橫膈膜呼吸——或腹部呼吸(與胸部呼吸相反)——通過(guò)激活下肺葉來(lái)提高肺的效率，下肺葉比上肺葉含有更多的血液。

But wait, there's more. Breathing through your nose also increases the amount of oxygen in your blood more than mouth breathing, which is essential to virtually every cell, organ and tissue in your body. That's because nasal breathing releases nitric oxide, an important molecule for blood vessel health. Nitric oxide is a vasodilator, meaning it relaxes and widens the blood vessels causing them to increase circulation. This allows blood, nutrients and oxygen to travel more efficiently throughout the body.

不要著急，還有更多。與嘴呼吸相比，用鼻子呼吸還能增加血液中的含氧量，這對(duì)身體的每個(gè)細(xì)胞、器官和組織都是至關(guān)重要的。這是因?yàn)楸乔缓粑鼤?huì)釋放一氧化氮，一氧化氮是血管健康的重要分子。一氧化氮是一種血管擴(kuò)張劑，也就是說(shuō)用鼻子呼吸有助于血管放松和擴(kuò)張，從而增加血液循環(huán)。這使得血液、營(yíng)養(yǎng)物質(zhì)和氧氣更有效地在全身流動(dòng)。

Nitric acid also decreases plaque growth and blood clotting. In fact, if the body doesn't produce enough nitric oxide, it can lead to heart disease, diabetes and erectile dysfunction.

硝酸還能減少斑塊的生長(zhǎng)和血液凝固。事實(shí)上，如果身體不能產(chǎn)生足夠的一氧化氮，就會(huì)導(dǎo)致心臟病、糖尿病和勃起功能障礙。




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