6 ways to keep your lungs healthy and reduce shortness of breath

Maintain good posture, practice breathing exercises, meditate, and avoid smoking to keep your lungs healthy and improve respiratory function.

Air quality, temperature changes, and extreme weather conditions all impact the lungs and respiratory system. Drier air due to a lack of humidity can irritate the airways of people with lung disease, causing wheezing, shortness of breath, and coughing. While these changes are more noticeable in people with impaired respiratory function, they also affect those without the disease.

Here are some ways to make breathing easier.

Adjust your sleeping position.

Lying on your side with pillows propped up under your head, and one placed between your legs to keep your spine aligned, supports an open airway and helps prevent snoring.

Lying on your back with your knees bent and a pillow under your knees can also help with breathing. However, this position can cause the tongue and soft palate to fall back against the throat, reducing airflow into the lungs and causing snoring. People with sleep apnea or frequent snoring should avoid this position.

Lifestyle changes

Changing unhealthy lifestyle habits can keep your lungs healthy and improve respiratory function. Maintain a healthy weight, eat nutritious foods rich in antioxidants to reduce inflammation. Get flu and pneumonia vaccines to prevent lung infections and respiratory illnesses.

Avoid smoking, secondhand smoke, and environmental irritants. Improve indoor air quality by using air filters and reducing irritants such as artificial fragrances, mold, and dust mites.

Meditation

Meditation helps you relax and focus on your breath, thereby reducing shortness of breath, which in turn leads to a clearer mind and less stress.

Maintain good posture.

The diaphragm, a dome-shaped muscle located beneath the lungs, separates the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity and is the primary muscle used for breathing. The diaphragm tightens during inhalation, creating space in the chest cavity that allows the lungs to fully expand and take in air. Maintaining an upright posture ensures the chest can fully expand during breathing, which is beneficial for both exercise and daily activities.

Singing

Singing can help improve breathing and lung function. People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who practice singing regularly experience less shortness of breath and better control of their symptoms.

Singing can also benefit people with lung disease by helping them practice slower, deeper breathing, strengthening the muscles involved in breathing.

Practice breathing exercises.

There are many different breathing techniques that people with lung disease can practice. Diaphragmatic breathing can reduce labored breathing in people with COPD.

Instructions: Sit in a chair with your back straight and your legs slightly apart. Place one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen. Inhale through your nose, raising your diaphragm (the muscle between your abdomen and rib cage) to allow as much air as possible into your abdomen. Tighten your lips and exhale, lowering your diaphragm back to its original position.

Deep breathing helps you focus on your breath to increase the amount of air entering your lungs.

Instructions: Lie on your back with your arms at your sides. Breathe slowly and deeply through your nostrils. Place one hand comfortably on your stomach as you breathe. Observe the expansion and contraction of your abdomen with each breath.

Performing this exercise regularly also helps patients control their breathing, relax, sleep better, and have more energy.

Bao Bao (According to Healthline )

Readers can post questions about respiratory illnesses here for doctors to answer.

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