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turnipforthebooks's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
deep_reader's review
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
5.0
Excellent example of popular science with lots of insights and entertaining moments of pure reading pleasure. Made me enjoy my meditations even more, understanding the pysiological effects even better.
hkaube's review
4.0
Absolutely fascinating! I was very close to giving it a five, save for what I felt was a lack of practical application. I would've loved clear instructions for how to improve my own life through better breathing. Still, I'm leaving with a lot to go on and can see how this book can make a lasting impression.
spencervail's review
5.0
Amazing? Maybe book of the year for me. Blew my mind on how this improved my sleep quality and over all health.
camgray94's review
2.0
This book as been popular in some dentist circles for a bit (I am a new dentist myself), so I decided to give it a go. This book, while it does have some pretty lengthy references, it gets a lot wrong. While I do agree with him on some points, as I have studied the literature on our craniofacial features changing due to differences in diets over time, his main assertion that breathing is the cure-all that society needs (he actually takes a step back in the epilogue) is crazy. He loves to mention sleep apnea, but never mentions that the rising BMI of society has anything to do with it (if you ask James, he probably thinks we’re overweight due to our over breathing). He talks to some quacks, but he talks to some real scientists. Some people have some cool ~ideas~ but to put them at the same level as primary literature is weird. He asserts that western medicine/thinking has forgotten all of these lost techniques of breathing, and then in the last chapter says that some of it is corroborated in over 20 studies in Harvard etc - which is it James?
Overall, I appreciate the difference in thought about breathing. Coming out of the book, I do believe that the way we breathe is important and likely has some physiologic effects that we can tap in to. But the presentation is so pseudo-scientific and asinine to anyone who knows a bit about the fields he is talking about, that I have a hard time taking it seriously. I don’t recommend my dentist friends read it, I kind of think differently of mine that did read it and loved it.
Overall, I appreciate the difference in thought about breathing. Coming out of the book, I do believe that the way we breathe is important and likely has some physiologic effects that we can tap in to. But the presentation is so pseudo-scientific and asinine to anyone who knows a bit about the fields he is talking about, that I have a hard time taking it seriously. I don’t recommend my dentist friends read it, I kind of think differently of mine that did read it and loved it.
erimccomas's review
4.0
I wish it was more factual and studied based rather than a lot of his personal experience. Still very informational!!
the_herbal_carnivore's review
3.0
I really enjoyed more of the personal studies and research he did and shared rather than the "evolution" narrative, as well as at the end of the book in his disclaimer. I'm not so sure he really needed to put in the medical narrative that antibiotics & vaccines are an important part of a "healthy" lifestyle... but hearing about his experiences in regards to the different breathing techniques & experiments he did that was good info.