Breathe in, breathe out, repeat. Each of us does this 25,000 times a day. But are we even doing it right?

Joe Reed is a respiratory physiotherapist for the NHS in Bristol. For the past year,

she's been at the bedside of patients suffering from COVID. It's made us more aware of the importance

of breathing. When it goes wrong, it can have really significant impacts on individuals,

physical and mental wellbeing. I can relate. About a decade ago, I started experiencing chronic

bouts of bronchitis and wheezing, mild pneumonia and other respiratory issues. I was eating well,

sleeping well, exercising all the time. But I just kept getting sick. My doctor would prescribe a

few rounds of antibiotics and after a week or so, I'd start feeling better and would get on with

my life. But my lungs still didn't feel right. The problem was my breathing. It just felt off.

So I started looking for answers, trying to understand this unconscious and often ignored

act of human respiration. I discovered that it wasn't that we were breathing, that was so

important. But how, how we inhale that air, how we exhale it, determines so much of our health,

happiness and even our lifespan. Over the next half hour, I'll be sharing some of the stories of

dug up over the past decade of research. We'll also meet people whose lives have been transformed

by harnessing the power of their own breath. At the end of this program, I'm hoping you might

be breathing a little easier too. I'm James Nester and this is the BBC World Service.

First, some basics. Why do we need to breathe? The reason that we breathe is to bring oxygen on

board. So we need oxygen, which is the fuel and the energy for all the cells, all the organs.

And then they produce a waste gas, which is carbon dioxide, which we then breathe out.

This process happens all day and all night. Fresh oxygen in, stale air out. Or at least that's how

it's supposed to work. But today, the pressures of modern life can disrupt this natural pattern.

When we're going through our email, it's like some of those game shows where there's door number

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