Best selling author, journalist and Emmy-nominated writer James Nestor will speak at the O2 Breathe-A-Thon 2020, a major live online event commemorating Global Airway Day on Oct. 2.

Established in 2019 by the Foundation for Airway Health, the annual global day aims at raising awareness about airway health issues. This year’s activities will also address urgent matters related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Breathing is the central theme of Nestor’s new book “Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art,” which became an instant New York Times and Sunday London Times best seller upon its release in May of this year. “The tome explores the million-year-long history of how the human species has lost the ability to breathe properly,” says Nestor, “and why we’re suffering from a laundry list of maladies—snoring, sleep apnea, asthma, autoimmune disease, allergies—because of it.” “Breath” also made the Top 10 bestseller list of the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times.

“We are honored to have Mr. James Nestor joining our O2 Breathe-A-Thon 2020 to observe Global Airway Health Day on Oct. 2, addressing issues so critical to people’s daily health and quality of life, and which are also relevant to the major health crisis we’re currently facing,” says Sal Rodas, executive director of the Foundation for Airway Health.

MEDIA, OTHER BOOK & VIRTUAL REALITY
A prolific journalist, Nestor has written for major news outlets such as Scientific American, Outside Magazine, The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Public Radio, Surfer’s Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, and others.

Nestor’s “Breath” follows his 2014 narrative nonfiction book “DEEP: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What The Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves,” which was a BBC Book of the Week, a finalist for the PEN American Center Best Sports Book of the Year, and a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. 


The journalist also was the writer of “The Click Effect,” a virtual reality short documentary released by the New York Times and which featured at the Sundance Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017. The project was based on a chapter in “Deep” and received a nomination for an Emmy Award for Best VR Experience.

A PERFECT FIT
Nestor’s effort to help people rediscover how to breathe for better health fits perfectly with the mission of the Foundation for Airway Health. Founded in 2012, the nonprofit is dedicated to raising awareness of airway-centered disorder, or ACD, among the general public, healthcare practitioners and the healthcare industry.

ACD is a condition of the mouth, jaw, nasal passages, tongue, or throat that obstructs a person’s upper airways. Signs of ACD include speech problems, concentration problems, behavioral issues, asthma, chronic headaches or neck pain, and deep overbite. Other symptoms are depression, fatigue, impaired immune function, restless sleep, trouble falling or staying asleep, and frequent colds, sore throats and tonsillitis.

An undiagnosed and untreated airway-centered disorder increases the risks of atrial fibrillation, cancer, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, obesity and type 2 diabetes.

THE COVID PANDEMIC & AIRWAY HEALTH
The current and devastating Covid-19 crisis has brought attention to the airway, which is used and exploited by the novel coronavirus to enter and infect the body. For that reason and in an effort to help halt the spread of Covid, O2 Breathe-A-Thon 2020 will place special emphasis on how to protect one’s airways and deal with the pandemic. More than 170,000 Americans have died of Covid-19 and more than 800,000 worldwide so far this year. Nearly 24 million cases of coronavirus infections have been reported in the world.