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.

呼吸是我们的自然行为,通常不需要思考。但据科学记者詹姆斯·内斯特称,我们很多人呼吸的方式是完全错误的。他花了十年时间研究呼吸的所有方式,并将这些信息汇编成2020年5月出版的畅销书《呼吸新的科学,一种失去的艺术》。

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.

他把呼吸称为“健康缺失的部分”,呼吸和“锻炼多少、吃什么、睡多少时间”一样对我们的健康至关重要。他说,如果呼吸做错了会对我们的健康造成可怕的后果,还会导致睡眠呼吸紊乱问题,比如打鼾、睡眠呼吸暂停和失眠,焦虑、抑郁和多动症等精神和行为状况;以及高血压、心率加快和糖尿病等医疗问题。

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.

内斯托尔说,他已经做了几十年的研究。然而,很大程度上大众忽视了我们的呼吸方式。好消息是什么?我们有能力扭转现状。
我们要做的就是正确呼吸。

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
良好的呼吸从鼻呼吸开始。首先,肺部不喜欢寒冷干燥的空气。在空气进入肺部之前,鼻呼吸可以对空气进行加温和增湿。用鼻子呼吸时,空气会经过鼻腔中被称为鼻甲的骨骼结构,鼻甲外面覆盖着被称为粘膜的软组织。鼻甲骨会让你的呼吸变得温暖和潮湿。

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.

鼻腔呼吸也能清洁你吸入的空气,这要归功于鼻腔中被称为纤毛的微小毛发过滤器,纤毛起到了过滤器的作用。纤毛捕捉吸入空气中的灰尘、污染、过敏原、烟雾、细菌、病毒和各种其他碎片,并把它们困在黏液中。然后这些东西最终会进入喉咙并被吞下。

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.

用鼻子呼吸也会迫使你使用横膈膜,也就是肺下面的肌肉。横膈膜呼吸——或腹部呼吸(与胸部呼吸相反)——通过激活下肺叶来提高肺的效率,下肺叶比上肺叶含有更多的血液。

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.

不要着急,还有更多。与嘴呼吸相比,用鼻子呼吸还能增加血液中的含氧量,这对身体的每个细胞、器官和组织都是至关重要的。这是因为鼻腔呼吸会释放一氧化氮,一氧化氮是血管健康的重要分子。一氧化氮是一种血管扩张剂,也就是说用鼻子呼吸有助于血管放松和扩张,从而增加血液循环。这使得血液、营养物质和氧气更有效地在全身流动。

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.

硝酸还能减少斑块的生长和血液凝固。事实上,如果身体不能产生足够的一氧化氮,就会导致心脏病、糖尿病和勃起功能障碍。