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

Maintain a straight back 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 can affect the lungs and respiratory system. Dryer air due to lack of humidity can irritate the airways of people with lung disease, causing wheezing, shortness of breath, and coughing. Although these changes are more noticeable in people with poor respiratory function, they also affect people without the disease.

Here's how to make breathing easier.

Adjust sleeping position

Lie on your side with your head elevated, one pillow between your legs to keep your spine aligned, supporting clear airways and preventing snoring.

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

Change your lifestyle

Changing unhealthy lifestyle habits can keep your lungs healthy and improve respiratory function. Maintain a healthy weight and eat nutritious, antioxidant-rich foods to reduce inflammation. Get vaccinated against influenza and pneumonia to prevent lung infections and respiratory diseases.

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

Meditation

Meditation helps you relax, focus on your breathing, thereby reducing shortness of breath, thereby making your mind clear and less stressed.

Maintain good posture

The dome-shaped diaphragm, located below the lungs and separating the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity, is the main muscle used for breathing. The diaphragm contracts during inhalation, creating space in the chest cavity to allow the lungs to expand fully to take in air. A straight back posture ensures that the chest can expand fully during breathing, which is effective both during exercise and everyday activities.

Singing

Singing improves breathing and lung function. People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who practice regularly have less difficulty breathing and better control of their symptoms.

Singing also benefits people with lung disease by practicing slower, deeper breathing, strengthening the muscles that perform breathing functions.

Do breathing exercises

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

Execution: Sit in a chair with your back straight and your legs slightly apart. Place one hand on your chest and the other on your belly. Inhale through your nose, lifting your diaphragm (the muscle between your abdomen and rib cage) so that as much air as possible enters your belly. Purse your lips tightly and exhale, lowering your diaphragm back to its starting position.

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

How to do it: Lie on your back with your arms at your sides. Breathe slowly and deeply through your nose. Place one hand comfortably on your belly as you breathe. Observe your belly rising and falling with each breath.

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

Bao Bao (According to Healthline )

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