6 Habits that Damage your Lung Health
Your lungs give life to your body, but it’s essential to take care of them. You can do this by avoiding certain habits that can be damaging to your lung health. Don’t let bad habits affect your well-being.
The lungs are an extensive organ that have a vulnerable surface. Their function is to take in oxygen from the environment and to expel harmful gases from the body.
Our lungs take in oxygen and clean the blood of its impurities. In addition, they help the brain function properly. The problem is, with the hectic life we lead, we stop breathing properly and often adopt bad habits that negatively affect our lung health.
Bad Habits that Damage Lung Health
When talking about lung health, we refer to the prevention and management of lung disease. Lung health seeks to understand the relation between the individual and the environment surrounding them.
Among the different lung diseases, we can find asthma, bronchitis and inflammation in the lungs or respiratory airways. However, these diseases don’t develop on their own. They’re often linked to bad habits that we practice daily.
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Here, we’ll take a look at six habits that damage your lungs. Avoid these harmful habits and your lungs will be stronger you’ll live a healthier life. Breathe and fill your body with vitality!
1. Lack of Exercise
Exercising helps the lungs carry more oxygen. This allows the lungs to provide energy and eliminate a greater amount of carbon dioxide from the body. If you don’t exercise and lead a sedentary life, your lung health will be negatively affected.
As mentioned, exercise fill you with energy… and leads to healthier lungs. In addition, it stimulates the nervous system. You can choose the type of exercise you do; just sit around the house.
Generally, a lack of exercise is a cause for physical and mental fatigue. A sedentary lifestyle is not healthy. So, step outside your comfort zone and exercise to improve your lung health. Move your body!
2. Practice Breathing Exercises and Improve Your Lung Health
Daily life often makes us forget how to breathe correctly, which is essential for the body. Because of this, we sometimes feel more tired. So, leave your thoughts behind and dedicate a few minutes a day to inhaling and exhaling slowly.
This way, oxygen enters your lungs and airways better. Don’t allow stress and your troubles to consume you. In fact, breathing exercises help your lung health and will help you to relax to better complete the tasks on your list.
3. Smoking
Smoking is a bad habit and is one of the main causes of lung disease. In fact, cigarettes and tobacco contain nicotine, and this also affects the proper functioning of the lungs. Plus, smoking becomes a vice and causes nicotine addiction.
Smoking is a constant risk factor for lung cancer and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), which obstructs airflow and causes difficulty breathing.
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Quitting smoking is the best choice for your lung health. You’ll breathe better and increase your quality of life.
4. Clean Your House and Work Space
Having a clean home and workplace is important to prevent lung disease. Dirty habits is harmful to the lungs long-term.
Accumulated dust particles get inside the respiratory tract and limit the free circulation of oxygen. Keeping you space clean is a great habit to practice because it helps your lung health in addition to keeping you more organized.
5. Protect Yourself from the Weather
Exposure to rain or low temperatures is a risk factor for influenza and viruses.
If you’re going out and see it’s cloudy or if it’s winter time, remember to keep warm.
As expected, catching the flu or having allergies caused by changes in climate can affect your lung health. To avoid this, bundle up and take vitamin C to strengthen your immune system and protect yourself from viruses in the environment.
6. A Bad Diet
Believe it or not, eating a poor diet is a bad habit that affects your lung health negatively. The body needs vitamins and minerals to strengthen your lungs and airways that are best obtained from healthy foods.
Include fruits and vegetables in your diet that help your body process oxygen. These are foods that are rich in vitamin C and E, especially citrus fruits, avocados and nuts.
Overall, the six habits mentioned above damage your lung health and make it more challenging for you to lead a healthy life. Cut out these bad habits to give your body the quality of life it deserves.
Take care of your lungs and breathe well!
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- American Lung Association. Asthma and Nutrition: How Food Affects Your Lungs. (2018). Recuperado el 10 de febrero de 2021. https://www.lung.org/blog/asthma-and-nutrition#:~:text=Eating%20the%20right%20foods%20and,cases%2C%20help%20minimize%20asthma%20symptoms.
- Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. What are the Effects of Dust on the Lungs? (2021). Recuperado el 10 de febrero de 2021. https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/chemicals/lungs_dust.html
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking. (2020). Recuperado el 10 de febrero de 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/effects_cig_smoking/index.htm