Breathwork has its uses – but when it comes to ‘unlocking your fullest human potential’, beware the puffery

‘There genuinely are some physiological effects of changing your breathing,’ says Dr Vince Polito – but some claims about breathwork may be motivated by business, not science. Composite: Getty Images

In the 2012 film adaptation of the Dr Seuss book The Lorax, a fable about capitalist greed, air is a commodity.

The mayor of Thneedville deprives the city’s residents of trees so a company he heads can sells bottles of air. He has, as one advertising lackey puts it, “gotten rich selling people air that’s ‘fresher’ than the stinky stuff outside”.