Improving our lung health is one of the best things we can do to boost our cognitive functions and lead a healthier lifestyle. It’s easy to take our lungs for granted, as it’s out of sight and out of mind most of the time. They function without us even thinking about them and are one of the primary components of keeping us alive. It’s very important that you don’t diminish your lung health if you want to live a long and happy life.
There are proven ways that you can protect the lungs by keeping any toxins out and pulling in the beneficial nutrients that will support how well they work. Trying out a variety of methods to improve your lung health will allow you to find the perfect strategy for you. We will explore these lung optimising methods in hopes of inspiring you with the best ways of improving your lung capacity and helping you breathe easier.
Make sure to continue reading and begin incorporating these tips into your daily life to ensure that your lungs are in top condition.
How to Optimise Lung Health
Avoid Unhealthy Habits
Avoiding habits that are considered to be unhealthy will benefit your lung health. The biggest habit you should want to kick is smoking, as this can negatively affect your lungs and limit their capacity. Smoking is the leading cause of poor lung health and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The more you smoke and the longer you smoke, the greater the risk of lung infections.
Most people smoke due to nicotine cravings, so it’s important to seek alternatives to help with your overall health, especially your lungs. Using nicopods to ease these cravings will be better for your lungs, as you aren’t inhaling any smoke.
Exercise Regularly
Being physically active can heavily benefit your body and lead to you living a healthier lifestyle. Your heart and lungs need to work hard to supply oxygen to your muscles that they require for strong growth. This makes both your heart and lungs stronger too, which leads to optimised health that could last a lifetime. When people first start exercising, they are often short of breath and this will improve with the more they exercise so their lung capacity will be better.
Your lungs can also get more oxygen with exercising, as there are some types of exercises that can strengthen your neck and chest muscles. This improves inhaling and exhaling power, which will make your lungs function more efficiently in the future.
Improve Indoor Air Quality
The air quality makes a huge difference to how well our lungs function, especially if it’s the air quality in the home. You will spend most of your life in your home (90%), which is why you need to ensure that air quality is optimised so that your lungs can benefit and you can breathe easier. There are many ways that you can improve the air quality of your home, such as making it a smoke-free environment, reducing mould and removing chemicals.
Adding plants to your home can be great for air circulation, so you should do this as much as possible. It can also boost your mood, improve concentration and increase productivity.
Diaphragmatic Breathing
Diaphragmatic breathing makes you use your lungs to their full capacity, as you consciously use your diaphragm to take deep breaths which helps increase lung efficiency. Normal breathing occurs without us thinking about it, so we aren’t using our lungs to their full ability whereas diaphragmatic breathing can get your breath usage up to 100%. The best technique to adopt when doing this method is lying on your back with your knees bent and head supported. You can also sit down with your knees up with your head and neck relaxed.
Regular practising diaphragmatic breathing will ensure that your lungs are in good condition and will help you with completing this exercise better in the future.
Control Your Posture
While most people want to have good posture to benefit their appearance, it also has many hidden benefits for your health. Maintaining good posture helps to improve lung capacity and promotes healthier digestion. This makes it essential for our internal organs to function optimally. If your posture is unhealthy, you are likely hindering your thoracic cavity’s range of motion, which prevents the ribs from acting as a natural bucket handle and limits lung capacity.
There are several ways that you can improve your posture to help with your lung health, such as specific exercises, maintaining a healthy weight and sleeping on supportive mattresses. You could also try out posture improving equipment to see if they have any positive changes to your posture.
Keep Hydrated
Drinking water and keeping your body hydrated are one of the best ways to boost your health and wellbeing. It’s very beneficial for your lungs, as it can help thin the mucus lining of your airways and lungs so you can breathe freer and easier. Dehydration has the opposite effect on the body, as your mucus will become thicker and stickier which can slow down your respiratory functions. Good hydration is also important if you have COPD, as it will help you cough up any excess mucus.
There are special bottles that you can use to help you with drinking enough water throughout the day, as they have specific time markings on them to show you how much you should have drank by a certain time. You can also create a water drinking schedule to help you.
Balanced Diet
It’s always important to watch what you eat, as some foods are better for your overall health than others. Having a balanced diet is great for you, so you will need to have a good food plan. For your lungs, there are specific foods that you can try that will improve their health such as protein, as well as healthy fats and carbs. Vegan protein is also a great solution. Some specific types of foods you should include in your diet are nuts, eggs and lean meats.
There are some types of foods that you should avoid, as they can negatively affect your lung health. These foods include salty foods, dairy products, processed meats, fried foods and carbonated beverages.
Conclusion
Your lungs are crucial to your health, as they control your breathing. Maintaining good lung health is very important, so you should look at all the different ways stated above and incorporate them into your life. We hope that this article has given you the knowledge needed to live a healthier lifestyle with optimal lung health.