Keep Your Lungs Healthy Know How To Make Them Strong

Keep Your Lungs Healthy 

Take Care of Your Lungs
Take Care of Your Lungs
Lungs are very vital and essential organs in our body. We should take care of them attentively. Keeping our lungs healthy helps in them to work efficiently. When respiratory insufficiency caused too much chaos during the COVID-19 pandemic, respiratory and lung health became essential to everyone.

Our body has a natural defense system that keeps germs and dirt out of your lungs. We rarely consider the significance of our lungs in maintaining our health and strength. We only begin to realize how hard our lungs work for us when we have breathing issues. The fact of the matter is that, just like the rest of our bodies, our lungs need daily care and attention to work at their full potential.

Our body's cells receive oxygen from our breath. Our circulatory system removes carbon dioxide during exhalation and supplies oxygen to every cell in our body with the assistance of the lungs and respiratory system.

Each cell and organ need oxygen to work. People are more likely to suffer from respiratory illnesses, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and even heart disease if they don't get enough oxygen.

However, there are significant steps we can take to lower our risk of lung disease. 

Suggestions To Lower Risk Of Lung Disease

1. Quit Smoking: Lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, are mostly caused by smoking cigarettes. Tobacco smoke can limit the lungs capacity and make breathing more troublesome. It can lead to chronic bronchitis if the lung becomes chronically inflamed or swollen. Smoking cigarettes damages lung tissue over time and may cause changes that eventually lead to cancer. 

2. Avoid Indoor Pollutants: Pollutants can hurt your lungs. Cigarette smoke, mycotoxins, and airborne particulates of asbestos, silica, and heavy metals may be considered as the sources of indoor pollution. Secondhand smoke, household and workplace chemicals all have the potential to cause or exacerbate lung disease. Stop smoking in your car and home.  Cover your nose while using mosquito repellent or other harmful chemical at home.

3. Reduce Your Exposure to Air Pollution Outside: The air quality can fluctuate throughout the day and occasionally may be harmful as you breathe. You and your family can benefit from knowing how outdoor air pollution affects your health and how to avoid prolonged exposure. Lung health can also be directly affected by natural disasters and climate change. On days with poor air quality, do not exercise outside.

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4. Preventing Infection: A flu or commonly called as cold or any other respiratory infections can be severe if not taken seriously especially in this time of COVID-19. 

To safeguard yourself, you can do the following:

  • You should wash your hands regularly with the use of good quality soap and water. If you are unable to wash, alcohol-based cleaners are an excellent alternative.
  • During the cold and flu season, you should avoid crowded places.
  • You can avoid infections caused by the germs in your mouth by practicing good oral hygiene. Visit your dentist at least once every six months and brush your teeth at least twice a day.
  • Influenza vaccination should be done each year. Find out if the pneumonia vaccine is right for you by talking to your doctor. If you have access to the COVID-19 vaccine, you should take advantage of this safe and efficient method of avoiding serious illness.
  • Keep your illness to yourself if you get it! Keep distance from the people around you, including your loved ones. You should avoid going to work or school until you feel better.
  • Even if you're feeling well, getting regular checkups can help prevent diseases. This is especially true when it comes to lung diseases, which can go unnoticed until they become serious. Your healthcare provider will pay attention to your concerns and your breathing during a checkup.


When to Consult A specialist

In the event that your lungs are harmed or you have a difficult disease like COPD or cellular breakdown in the lungs, you might encounter at least one of the associated symptoms:

  • SOB or shortness of breath during simple daily activities
  • Pain while breathing
  • Dizziness with change in activity
  • A persistent cough
  • Wheezing 
  • Cough that is increased with workout
  • Pain in the airway (the path that air follows to get into and out of the lungs)

See your primary care doctor if you have any of these symptoms. They can run tests to figure out the cause or refer you to a specialist if needed.

Talk to your doctor about how often you should have your lungs checked if you have history of smoking. You can recover from the damage and monitor your progress during checkups if you quit smoking.

Simple Strategies To Strengthen Your Lungs


Diaphragmatic Breathing: Diaphragmatic breathing is also called as Belly or abdominal breathing. It is one of the best exercises to strengthen the diaphragm and rib cage muscles. Diaphragmatic breathing decreases the efforts of breathing, and uses less energy. 

Diaphragmatic breathing includes following steps:
  • Lie down straight in relaxing position and place your hands on your stomach.
  • Inhaling through your nose, make ensure your abdomen moves outward,
  • Breathe out slowly moving your stomach inwards 
  • There should not be any chest movement during inhalation and exhalation.
  • Repeat this for three to four times.

Simple Deep Breathing: When you breathe deeply, you can get closer to using all of your lungs. 

Deep Breathing includes following steps:
  • Consciously expand your belly with awareness of lowering the diaphragm as you inhale slowly. 
  • The next step is to open up your ribs so that they can float open like wings. 
  • Last but not least, let the upper chest expand and lift. 
  • After that, exhale as completely as you can by letting your chest fall, contracting your ribs, lifting your diaphragm, and then bringing your stomach muscles in and up to exhale the air.
  • Repeat this for three to four times.

Count Your Breaths: Keeping track of your breaths You can also lengthen your inhalations and exhalations to increase your lung capacity. Start by keeping track of how long it takes to take a normal breath. If it takes to the count of five to breaths in, it should take count of five to breaths out. Try to keep the same count for both inhalation and exhalation. After determining the count for your typical breath, increase the count for each inhale and exhale by one count until you are able to comfortably extend the time it takes to fill and empty your lungs. The goal is to make the process easy and gradual, avoiding strain or discomfort.

Keeping An Eye On Your Posture: Because the lungs are flexible structures, they only occupy the space you make for them. There are several studies which show that a slumped and poor posture significantly decrease the lung capacity and expiratory flow. Make sure to maintain a good upright posture especially while using your smartphone/laptop.

Take Healthy Diet: Make a habit to consume healthy diet which includes fresh fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, plant oils and fish. Avoid processed, refined, high-saturated fat foods, sweets, red meats, and beverages containing sugar. Drinking enough water is just as important for the lungs as it is for the body as a whole.

Laughing: It is an excellent form of exercise for strengthening the abdominal muscles and increasing lung capacity. It clears out your lungs by forcing sufficient old air out that permits natural air to go into more areas of the lung.

Exercise Regularly: You need to challenge the lungs with more intense activity because your regular day-to-day activities don't help you use your lungs to their full potential. Being physically active can help keep your lungs healthy. 
Exercise Regularly
Exercise Regularly
Exercise should be done regularly whether you are young or old, physically active or suffering from a chronic illness or disability. Regular, moderately vigorous activity is good for the lungs. Every day, aim for at least 20 minutes of consistent, moderately vigorous exercise, such as a fast walk, jogging, running, swimming or bike ride whichever suits you.


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3 comments:

  1. I would like to stress the importance of paying attention to things like how long a cough hangs around. Not getting to the root of the problem can cause major issues later.

    ReplyDelete
  2. These are great tips. My father died of COPD and it's incurable. The more we can do in the way of prevention, the better.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Interesting, may help to direct some my clients to this page.

    ReplyDelete

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