Most people are looking to get healthier. Rarely though, do you think about protecting and preserving your lung health?
The fact is that your lungs are aging over time, much like your heart, joints and other parts of your body. They may become less flexible and lose their strength which may make breathing more difficult. But you can help preserve your lungs’ health by implementing such good behaviors, and keep them working optimally well into your senior years.
Exercise to breathe harder
Apart from not smoking cigarettes, you can do daily exercise because it is one of the most important things you can do to keep your lungs safe. Daily exercise keeps you safe and active, likewise it also keeps your lungs healthy.
Your heart beats faster when you do exercise, and your lungs work harder. The body needs more oxygen to support the muscles running. To provide the oxygen while expelling extra carbon dioxide, the lungs step up their operation. During exercise, the breathing rises from about 15 times a minute to about 40-60 times a minute, according to a recent report. That’s why aerobic exercise that allows you to breathe hard is necessary to do regularly.
The muscles between your ribs stretch and contract, and the air sacs within your lungs rapidly work to replace carbon dioxide for oxygen. The more you exercise your lungs become more effective.
By doing exercise, developing solid, balanced lungs helps you better resist aging and disease. Even if you are developing lung disease down the road, exercise will help slow the progression and keep you active for longer.
Avoid exposure to the pollutants
Exposure to air pollutants can damage your lungs and speed up ageing. Your lungs can easily resist these toxins when they are young and healthy. However, as you get older they lose some of that resistance and become more vulnerable to infection and illness.
Give some rest to the lungs. Reduce the risk to the most degree possible:
- Stop secondhand smoke, and seek not to go out at days of high air emissions.
- Stop exercise around heavy traffic, since the exhaust can be inhaled.
- When you are at work exposed to toxins, make sure to take all necessary precautions about health. Some occupations in manufacturing, mining, and waste management can increase the risk of airborne pollutant exposure.
Below are few tips for reducing emission indoors:
- Make your home a place free from smoke.
- At least once a week dust the furniture and the vacuum.
- Frequently open a window to increase ventilation of the indoor air.
- Do not use or spray the synthetic air fresheners and candles to additional chemicals such as formaldehyde and benzene. Instead use a diffuser of aromatherapy and essential oils to scent the air more naturally.
- Keep the house as tidy as possible. Mold, dust, and pet dander can all get into your lungs, irritating them.
- Whenever possible, use the natural cleaning products and open a window when using products that create fumes.
- Make sure you have sufficient fans, exhaust hoods and other forms of ventilation all over your house.
Practice Deep Breathing
You take short breaths from your chest area, using just a small portion of your lungs, if you are like a lot of people. Deep respiration helps clear the lungs and allows a total flow of oxygen.
Scientists had a total of 12 volunteers doing deep breathing exercises for 2, 5, and 10 minutes in a small research conducted by the Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology. We checked the lung capacity of the participants both before and during the workouts.
Between 2 and 5 minutes of deep breathing exercise they find that there was a substantial improvement in vital ability. Vital capacity of an individual is the highest amount of oxygen that volunteers will be able to exhale from their lungs. The researchers found that heavy breathing was good for lung health, although for just a few minutes.
The ALA agrees that exercises related to breathing will make the lungs more effective. Sit still somewhere to try it yourself, and slowly breathe in by your nose alone. Then breathe out of your mouth, at least twice as long. Counting your breaths will help. When you inhale count for example 1-2-3-4. Then, count 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, as you exhale.
Shallow breaths come from the chest, and from the belly, comes the deeper breath where your diaphragm sits. Be aware as you practice, of your belly rising and falling. You may also find yourself less stressed and more relaxed when you do those exercises.
Eat well & Eat Healthy
A balanced diet is just as important for the lungs as it is for every other body organ. Indeed, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center, a variety of lung disorders have been related to lesser consumption of certain nutrients. Eating foods that are rich in vitamins A, C, and E and minerals such as zinc, potassium, selenium, and magnesium can all help keep your respiratory health appealing and high.
Go for Diaphragmatic breathing
These basic breathing exercises are among the other things you can use to keep the lungs working correctly, according to Rush ‘s chief of respiratory therapy, Keith Roberts, RRT, CPFT.
He further added that these methods should be used by patients who have asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis associated lung disorders, as well as stable individuals.
Diaphragmatic breathing uses diaphragm muscle’s awareness which keeps the organs in the abdomen separate from the lungs.
Watch Your Posture
The lungs being so soft by structure, they only take up the room you are making for them. Occasionally, you want to sit tall and reach overhead, to make your lungs have more space.
A quick strategy to give your lungs much more space is to lean back gently into a comfortable chair, raise the chest and expand the body’s front while you breathe deeply.