What are the three basic needs for life? Food, water, and air. Of these three, we can go for several weeks without food. We can live for two days, or even three without water. However, we can only survive for minutes without air. In the modern world, these priorities have been turned upside down, where people worry more about food, than about drinking water, and never give breathing a thought. Oxygen is the basic currency of life, and it is the lack of breath that is at the basis of much of people's physical problems. Through proper breathing techniques the health of the body's internal organs can be promoted..