Plenty of environmental factors contribute to deteriorating lung health. From the high levels of pollutants and dust around us to climatic changes, lungs are regularly exposed to toxic substances that cause severe infections and diseases.
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) had the second-highest death count after a heart attack in 2018 having killed around 9,58,000 people worldwide.
While reducing pollution levels or reversing the effects of climatic change require a collective effort, we can strive to individually take additional care of our lungs, and maintain lung health.
In this article, we will discuss 10 easy ways to keep our lungs healthy.
How Can You Keep Your Lungs Healthy?
1. Spend time amidst greenery
To keep lungs naturally healthy, make it a point to spend quality time outdoors in parks or lawns surrounded by lush green plants to breathe in the fresh air.
Doctors recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week for overall good health.
This includes brisk walking, running, yoga, or general cardio to improve your breathing and heart health.
2. Avoid smoking
This one is a no-brainer. Excessive smoking is one of the leading causes of adverse lung issues. It is also one of the major reasons for lung cancer. Smoking can narrow the air passage making it difficult to breathe.
Chain smokers are at risk of destroying lung tissues which can, in turn, increase the chance of getting lung cancer.
By deciding to quit smoking today, you would be doing your lungs a huge favor. Steering clear of tobacco-based products is one of the best tips for healthy lungs.
3. Practice deep breathing
Deep breathing helps to open the lungs to full capacity, making it easier to breathe. Not breathing deeply enough is something each one of us is guilty of ignoring during the course of a day.
As we grow older, deep breathing is no longer an instinctive response. Shallow breathing can have adverse effects on your lungs as muscles that are not trained/used on a regular basis tend to become dormant. It is also a cause of several respiratory conditions, and eventually cardiovascular diseases.
Therefore, it is important to allow your chest to lift when you inhale and breathe using your diaphragm. When you exhale, don’t forget to relax your stomach muscles and lift the diaphragm to let out every bit of air.
Lung capacity can also be increased by increasing the length of inhalations and exhalations. For people wondering how to keep their lungs healthy, you can begin with timing your natural breathing. If your inhaling takes five seconds, the exhaling process must also take up the same amount of time.
Once you discover the time taken for natural breathing, add one second each to the exhaling and inhaling process. Increase this gradually until you can extend the length of the time.
This will help your body to avoid a stress reaction to external stimuli.
4. Focus on overall health
To overcome the impact of external factors and reverse the effects of smoking, the onus is on us as individuals to control our unhealthy food habits, sedentary lifestyle, and negligence towards our fitness.
Following a healthy physical routine, eating a quantified diet, regulating the sleep cycle, increasing supplement intake, and consuming detoxifying syrups like Tar Free are a few things we can incorporate in our days to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
5. Stay hydrated
Getting enough water is as important for the lungs as for any other part of the body. Experts say that the mucosal line in the lungs remains thin as we consume plenty of fluids in a day.
By staying hydrated, the lungs function better and allow you to carry out strenuous activities.
6. Improve your posture
Poor posture can cause a lot of health issues, one of which is associated with lung damage. Your lungs will expand as per the room you provide them.
Sitting down with your back hunched constantly narrows the space, causing lung strain every time you inhale and exhale.
Slouching is also known to decrease lung capacity. Therefore, always make sure you sit up straight and stand up straight for better breathing.
Practice leaning back and pushing out your chest a couple of times a day to give extra room to your lungs.
7. Eat lung-friendly foods
A good diet is vital to ensuring optimum functioning of the lungs.
Constantly feasting on highly processed food can impair your lungs, while a balanced diet with adequate amounts of fruits and leafy vegetables helps reduce the risk of COPD as well as improve any related symptoms.
Keeping a tab on iron intake is also important. It acts as a building block for hemoglobin which is the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to different parts of the body.
When hemoglobin levels are low, you tend to also feel extra time, which is also an early symptom of lung infections and diseases.
8. Avoid passive smoking
Second-hand smoking or passive smoking is inhaling harmful chemicals released by cigarette smoking.
It is reported that almost two-thirds of the smoke from a cigarette is released into the air, and passes on to whoever is standing nearby.
If you are in a habit of smoking, here’s how you can prevent second-hand smoking:
- Restrict from smoking in public areas, homes, and offices
- Encouraging no-smoking zones
- Make sure your children aren’t exposed to second-hand smoke
For those who are exposed to pollutants released from smoking, it is advisable to maintain distance from chain smokers.
9. Work up a sweat
Exercise is excellent for your lungs. It helps keep your weight down and body healthy, and ensures good lung health.
The mucous from your lower lungs gets cleared as you breathe optimally during workouts. This makes the lungs more efficient at getting oxygen into the bloodstream and ridding the body of carbon dioxide.
Choose a physical activity of your choice and indulge in it for at least 30 mins, 5 times a week. Hitting the gym and going for morning walks are other options you can try.
If you find it boring to walk alone, get your gang to join you.
10. Use a Lung Detox Syrup
Although lungs are self-sufficient organs that can carry out cleansing on their own if you are regularly exposed to air pollutants and cigarette smoke, you can have a lung detox syrup for taking extra care and minimizing their harmful effects.
Lung detox syrups do it by flushing out accumulated pollutants and clearing the airway for improving lung capacity.
They can help in removing harmful toxins from the lungs, reduce congestion, improve stamina, and help you to take up strenuous tasks without experiencing breathlessness.
Detoxify Lungs To Improve Overall Health
Lung infections are a result of a wide range of environmental factors, from dust, toxic pollutants, and harmful chemicals we breathe in every day.
We have limited control over external factors that impact the well-being of our lungs. But what we have discussed here are simple tips that each of us can incorporate into our daily lives to detoxify our lungs and keep them naturally healthier.
Let us plan and start our journey towards healthy lungs and fitter bodies today.
Image Credit: Freepik
Vedic Vitals is a modern age Ayurvedic company known for its healthy ayurvedic products that are prepared with hand-picked natural herbs. One of their most popular products is Tar Free syrup which is the ultimate lung detox syrup.
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