网帖翻译

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。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

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。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

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。

图

Improved Athletic Performance
Nasal breathing can improve athletic performance as well. Dr. John Douillard, trainer of elite athletes, conducted several studies in the 1990s comparing nose-breathing exercises to mouth-breathing exercises by hooking a group of cyclists up to sensors and recording their breathing and heart rates. He found that there was no significant difference in heart rate between the nose-breathing and mouth-breathing exercises.

提高运动能力
鼻呼吸也可以提高运动表现。顶尖运动员的教练约翰·杜拉德博士在上世纪90年代进行了几项研究，将鼻子呼吸法和嘴呼吸法进行比较。他给一组自行车手连上传感器，记录他们的呼吸和心率。他发现鼻呼吸法和嘴呼吸法心率没有显著差异。

But breath rates were consistently lower during nasal-breathing exercises. For example, one subject at maximum exertion on a stationary bike had a nasal breathing rate of 14 breaths per minute compared to a mouth breathing rate of 48 breaths per minute.

但在鼻呼吸练习中，呼吸频率一直较低。例如，一名受试者在健身自行车上达到最大运动量时，鼻呼吸频率为每分钟14次，而嘴呼吸频率为每分钟48次。

Perceived exertion was also significantly lower when nasal breathing, based on a self-reported scale of one to 10 with 10 being the most stressful. At maximum exertion on the stationary bike, participants rated their perceived exertion a 10 while mouth breathing but rated their perceived exertion a comfortable four while nose breathing.

根据从1到10的自我评定量表的调查结果显示，用鼻呼吸时人们感觉自己的用力程度明显较低，10分表示压力最大。健身自行车运动员，用嘴呼吸时的自感用力度打分为10分，而用鼻子呼吸时给自感用力度是比较舒服的4分。

Nasal breathing also activated the athletes' parasympathetic nervous system, which indicated that they were calmer and more relaxed when breathing through their noses compared to their mouths.

鼻呼吸还激活了运动员的副交感神经系统，这表明他们用鼻子呼吸时比用嘴呼吸更平静、更放松。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

Waiting to Exhale
A 29-year study published in the journal Chest in 2000 showed that lung capacity has a lot to do with health and survival. People with smaller, less efficient lungs are more likely to get sick and die. Those with large lungs fared much better, Nestor writes in his book. And, he says, people can actually increase the capacity and size of their lungs, something he learned that while covering freediving for Outside magazine.

等待呼气
2000年发表在《胸部》杂志上的一项长达29年的研究表明，肺活量与健康和生存有很大关系。肺体积小、效率低的人更容易生病和死亡。内斯特在他的书中写道，肺大的患者的情况要好得多。而且人们实际上可以增加肺活量和肺的大小，这是他在对《户外》杂志报道自由潜水时了解到。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

Freediving is a form of underwater diving that involves holding your breath for several minutes while diving down hundreds of feet into the sea. While training, athletes teach themselves to increase their lung capacity, some as much as 30 to 40 percent, Nestor writes in the book. They do this by practicing longer and deeper inhalation and exhalation stretches.

自由潜水是一种水下潜水，需要屏住呼吸几分钟，潜到几百英尺深的海底。内斯特在书中写道，在训练过程中，运动员会自学增加肺活量，有些人的肺活量能增加30%至40%。他们的训练主要是练习更长更深的吸气和呼气。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

By exhaling very slowly, Nestor explains, the diaphragm "wakes up" and becomes more accustomed to a wider range so that it is easier to breathe deeply.

奈斯特解释说，通过非常缓慢的呼气，激活横膈膜，以逐渐习惯大范围的呼气，从而更容易进行深呼吸。

Putting It Into Practice
There are dozens of breathing techniques that can do everything from increase your body heat so that you can withstand extreme temperatures to those that can cause you to hallucinate. But if you're just getting started with breathing exercises, it's best to keep it simple, Nestor says. Even the simplistic breathing exercises "can be absolutely transformative," he says. "That's what the studies have shown."

付诸实践
有几十种呼吸技巧可以提高身体热量，以便承受可能导致幻觉的极端温度。但如果你刚刚开始做呼吸练习，最好做那些简单的训练，内斯特说，研究表明即使是简单的呼吸练习也绝对可以改变。

Starting out, Nestor suggests a technique called "coherent breathing," which involves inhaling slowly for five to six seconds and then exhaling for the same amount of time. Studies have shown that coherent breathing can lower your heart rate and blood pressure while increasing the amount of oxygen to your brain. There are several YouTube videos that time the inhalations and exhalations so you don't have to keep an eye on your watch. (Coincidentally, several meditations, Ave Marias, and prayers adhere to the same respiratory rate, he says.)

内斯特建议，首先是叫做“连贯呼吸”的方法，即缓慢吸气5到6秒，然后用同样的时间呼气。研究表明，连贯的呼吸可以降低心率和血压，同时增加大脑供氧量。油管网上有一些记录吸气和呼气时间的视频，这样你就不用盯着手表看了。(巧合的是有些冥想、万福玛利亚和祈祷都遵循相同的呼吸频率。)
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

For those of us who are prone to anxiety, Nestor recommends exhaling longer than you inhale. For example, inhaling for a count of three, then exhaling for a count of six or longer. "When you exhale you are eliciting your parasympathetic response," he says. "You're actually hacking into your nervous system and lowering your heart rate."

对于那些容易焦虑的人来说，内斯特建议呼气的时间要比吸气的时间长。例如，吸气数到三，然后呼气数到六或更长。“当呼气时，会触发副交感神经反应，他说，你实际上是侵入了你的神经系统，降低了你的心率。”