For the first time in what feels like ages, I have read a book that I actually sought out intentionally! A lot of people with Long Covid have recommended the book as something to help with the breathwork and tangentially the lowering heart rate stuff that we need to do for recovery.
The book follows a journalist as he tries to uncover the best ways to breathe and how we have evolved to not breathe as well as we have in the past. There are some interesting insights, but the conclusions he draws seem to be the easiest ones that don’t take into account how the rest of society changed, including working conditions and environmental factors.
Honestly, it’s about 10% really useful information and the rest is theories that don’t really pan out under scrutiny. Some of the ideas are good and I have been able to incorporate them, such as breathing more through the nose and some of the breathing methods, but a lot of the research feels like it was done for an article meant to get clicks based on the title.
Overall, maybe skip to the end and the bit about what you should take away from the book. The rest is interesting enough, but ultimately it isn’t that useful beyond those concrete tips that are offered at the end.