Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

by James Nestor

Breathholding hacks, or, as Feinstein would call them, carbon dioxide therapies, have been around for thousands of years. The ancient Romans prescribed soaking in thermal baths (which contained high levels of carbon dioxide that was absorbed through the skin) as a cure for anything from gout to war wounds.12 Centuries later, Belle Époque French gathered at thermal springs at Royat in the French Alps to wade in bubbling waters for days at a time. “The study of the chemical composition of the four mineral springs at Royat will show that we have several powerful agents at our command, and that much is available for the treatment of many morbid conditions, which resist the usual pharmaceutical applications we make use of in daily practice,” wrote George Henry Brandt, a British doctor who visited in the late 1870s. Brandt was talking about skin disorders like eczema and psoriasis, along with respiratory maladies like asthma and bronchitis, all of which were “cured almost with certainty” after a few sessions.fn1, 13, 14