Healthy lungs are a crucial aspect of a healthy body. Without strong lungs, it is difficult to get the cardiovascular exercise needed for your heart, or to enjoy many of your everyday activities (even talking can become laborious).
Maintaining Healthy Lungs
To make sure that you keep your lungs healthy and strong, follow some of the tips discussed below.
1. Avoid Cigarette Smoke
First of all if you smoke regularly, you should stop. Obviously smoking is bad for your lung health, but it also increases your risk for a multitude of cancers. Even if you don’t smoke yourself, you should avoid cigarette and other types of smoke as much as possible; it is one of the leading causes of lung disease.
2. Brush your Teeth
You might be wondering how your oral hygiene relates to your lungs, but a statement released by the American Academy of Periodontology found a correlation between poor oral hygiene and poor lung health. Some believe that this could be related to bacteria from the mouth traveling to the lungs. Be sure to oil pull, floss and brush daily, and visit your dentist consistently.
3. Respond Quickly to Illness
To avoid a minor cold or flu turning into something worse like pneumonia, take action right away. Be sure to get plenty of rest, drink fluids, and up your vitamin C intake. Sicknesses like pneumonia and bronchitis can have lasting effects on your lungs, so do as much as you can to avoid contracting these.
4. Check for Radon
Radon is odorless and tasteless, and may pose a serious risk to the health of your lungs. If you are living or working in a building with high levels of radon, you may not even know it, but your lungs will surely suffer. To be sure that you are not being affected by radon, install a detector or purchase a radon test kit, and then seek professional services if needed.
5. Get Regular Exercise
Ever heard the phrase, “if you don’t use it you lose it”? This can apply to our lungs as well. If you don’t get regular aerobic exercise, your lungs can become very weak, making it difficult for them to ever get to function well again. Anything that makes you breathe a little harder is considered a good exercise.
6. Stretch the Upper Body
Stretching the upper body can loosen up and elongate the diaphragm, which supports strong, healthy lungs.
7. Breathing Techniques
Targeted and controlled breathing can help strengthen and improve the health of your lungs (as well as calm your mind). Try to breathe through pursed lips, or engage in some deep belly-breathing for about ten minutes every day. Also try to take slower, deeper breaths in and out (about four seconds each way) to increase your lung capacity.
8. Watch Your Diet
There are some foods that also contribute to the health of your lungs. Some of these include leafy green vegetables (such as kale, spinach, and broccoli) and apples. Try to include a wide variety of colorful, fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet. Also, remember that being significantly overweight puts more pressure on your lungs, making it difficult to breathe increasing the stress on these organs.
We all want to keep our lungs strong and healthy for as long as possible. To protect these organs and ensure that you can continue to talk, laugh, workout, and engage in all of the other activities you enjoy for as long as possible, try incorporating some of these tips into your life today.