BREATH TAKING
The Power, Fragility, and Future of Our Extraordinary Lungs
BREATH TAKING
MICHAEL J. STEPHEN, MD
Atlantic Monthly Press
New York
Copyright © 2021 by Michael J. Stephen
Jacket design by Becca Fox Design
Jacket photograph © Alexandr Muntean / Alamy Stock Photo
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FIRST EDITION
Published simultaneously in Canada
Printed in Canada
This book is set in 11-pt. Janson LT by Alpha Design & Composition of Pittsfield, NH.
First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition: January 2021
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available for this title.
ISBN 978-0-8021-4931-2
eISBN 978-0-8021-4933-6
Atlantic Monthly Press
an imprint of Grove Atlantic
154 West 14th Street
New York, NY 10011
Distributed by Publishers Group West
Life and respiration are complementary. There is nothing living which does not breathe nor anything breathing which does not live.
—William Harvey, 1653
CONTENTS
Prologue: Lungs = Life
THE PAST: THE LUNGS SHAPED OUR BEGINNINGS, PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY
Chapter 1: Oxygen, Then Existence
Chapter 2: We Must Inhale and Exhale. But Why?
Chapter 3: An Infant’s Drive to Breathe
Chapter 4: The Extraordinary Healing Power of the Breath
PART II
THE PRESENT: OUR LUNGS—AND US—AGAINST THE WORLD
Chapter 5: A Window onto the Immune System
Chapter 6: The Lungs and the Common Good
Chapter 7: Nicotine Seduction and Stem Cells
Chapter 8: Health Is Not the Absence of Disease: Climate Change
Chapter 9: Exposures Unnecessary: Time Does Not Heal All Wounds
THE FUTURE: THE LUNGS PROVIDE A VISION OF WHAT’S TO COME
Chapter 10: Curing the Incurable
Chapter 11: Getting Personal with the Lungs
Chapter 12: The Breath and the Voice
Chapter 13: The Miracle of Lung Transplant
LIFE, LOVE, AND THE LUNGS
Chapter 14: The Greatest Medical Story Never Told
Chapter 15: Cystic Fibrosis, the Most Heartbreaking Lung Disease
Prologue: Lungs = Life
The lungs are a mysterious and even mystical organ. They are our connection to the atmosphere, the organ that extracts the life force we need to exist. We have acknowledged this power for centuries. The Hebrew word ruach literally means “breath,” but also means “spirit of life.” In the book of Job, the prophet’s friend Elihu declares, “the Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”1 This same concept is embodied in the New Testament, where the apostle John says that Jesus “breathed” on his disciples, giving them the Holy Spirit.2
The life-giving power of the breath is acknowledged very early in the Bible: in the second chapter of Genesis, line 7 reads, “the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”3 Ancient Egyptian cultures also recognized the importance of the breath, the evidence of which we see today in the many ancient statues that had their noses broken off but otherwise were left untouched. This defacement was no accident, but a deliberate act by conquering groups to take the life, in this case the breath of life, away from these icons.4
Ancient knowledge about the power of the lungs was not limited to the Western world. Buddhism and Hinduism were based on an understanding of the potency of the breath. According to these disciplines, studying and harnessing the breath was the only recognized way to nirvana. Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, summarizes this ancient philosophy well in his 1975 book The Miracle of Mindfulness: “Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your mind.”5
The emphasis on the breath is not a thing of the past for Eastern religions; breathing continues to occupy