Breath Taking. Michael J. Stephen

      

      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

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove Atlantic, 154 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011 or [email protected].

      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

       groveatlantic.com

      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

       PART I

      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

       PART III

      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

       PART IV

      LIFE, LOVE, AND THE LUNGS

      Chapter 14: The Greatest Medical Story Never Told

      Chapter 15: Cystic Fibrosis, the Most Heartbreaking Lung Disease

       Afterword

       Acknowledgments

       Image Credits

       Index

      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