Introduction
Facts found in the famous "Framingham Heart Study" states that "The bigger that your lungs are the longer your life will be". information about the general health of the lungs.
The average human lungs hold about 5 liters of air. It was recently revealed that Grant Hacket, an Australian swimmer and one of the supreme athletes of world sport, has a whooping 13 liter lung capacity. Females tend to have 20-25% lower capacity than males and tall people tend to have more then shorter people.
Unfortunately the capacity for the lungs can not be physically increased, but there are many ways to improve the efficiency of your lungs and prevent volume loss as you age.
Cardio Exercise
Regular exercise is a great way to improve your lung capacity to a degree by exercise that tends to use the large muscles of the body in a rhythmic motion. Moving consistently increases the demand for oxygen and therefore so does the rate of breathing. This works by challenging the heart and lungs and will increase the lungs capacity for work.
Train at Higher Altitudes
Some athletes permanently live at high altitude, only returning to sea level to compete, but their training may suffer due to less available oxygen for workouts. It will be larger than higher altitudes of The body adapts to the relative lack of oxygen by increasing the concentration of red blood cells and the concentration of red blood cells and there is only 74% If you come to sea level, they have a larger overall lung capacity for 10 to 14 days because they will still have a higher concentration of red blood cells. But be careful. If you go too too and train too hard you could develop altitude sickness because your lungs can not process enough oxygen for the body & # 39; s needs.
Breathing Exercises
Proper breathing such as that learned in yoga, will restore concentration and inner calmness when you feel stressed, angry or anxious. Breathing techniques are a powerful tool to calm your nervous system, slow your heartbeat, relieve insomnia, and lessen or even kill pain.
It takes about 10 minutes. When taking a learning the technique, you should lie flat on a bed with your head on a pillow. Then exhales through the mouth with the lips pursed, making a hissing sound. The exhalation should be twice as long as the inhalation, so that pressure is experienced in the windpipe, and chest and trapped air is forced out.
The idea is to inhale deeply and slowly, holding the breath for five to 10 seconds. Then cough gently on exhalation.
Playing Instruments
This work by helping you learning to control breathing and expansion your lung capacity to utilize all the alveoli. Playing with correct diaphragm breathing techniques can increase it even further. Singing is also a great way to get the same results.
Diet and Supplements
Various studies have shown that diets rich in antioxidants, such as vitamins E and C, selenium, and beta carotene, improve lung function and may provide some protection against lung damage from COPD among smokers. They are eaten through the smoking years.) Foods rich in such antioxidants include dark colored fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts (selenium), and vegetable oils and wheat germ (vitamin E).
Beta carotene is the antioxidant compound that gives mangos, carrots, peppers, cantaloupe, sweet potatoes, apricots, and many other fruits and veggies their brilliant red, yellow, and orange hues. Over this 8-year study, people who had had the highest blood levels of beta carotene lost the least lung function. Beta carotene is a major scavenger of certain types of free radicals that are particularly notable The same study concluded that beta carotene and vitamin E are protective even in heavy smokers.
Inflammation Descreases Lung Capacity
June 2007 - A group of New Zealand researchers at the University of Otago in Dunedin took measures of lung capacity and inflammation in 1,000 young adults aged 26 to 32.
They measured inflammation by looking at blood levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) which is a marker of inflammation. Inflammation is also linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
The association between higher CRP levels and lower lung function was not related to smoking, lung disease or obesity. To our knowledge, this is the first report of an inverse association between lung function and CRP in young adults.
The association between poor lung function and cardiovascular disease may be somehow mediated by inflammation. Their next step is to establish whether inflammatory leads to reduced lung function, or vice versa.
Like other studies have already shown that foods high in antioxidants protection against loss of lung capacity. So again the evidence points to eat healthy to slow your aging.
Statins Reduce Loss of Function And Keep Old Lungs Young
According to researchers in Boston, it may be statins & # 39; anti-inflammatory (Oct 2007 - Statins which are known better to lower cholesterol now have another reported benefit. and antioxidant properties that help achieve this effect.
Dr. Joel Schwartz, Ph.D., professor of environmental epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health, was the first to examine the relationships between statins and lung function decline.
The link between lung function and mortality and the reduced levels of lung function in the elderly indicating importance of a possibility of reducing the rate of decline, "wrote Dr. Schwartz.
To investigate whether statements had an effect of loss of lung function used data from the ongoing and longitudinal Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study, which began in 1963. They analyzed 803 people who had had their lung function measured at least twice between January 1995 and June 2005. Both forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) were measured. The study subjects also completed on pulmonary disorders, smoking and medication usage.
In FEV 1, statin users lost 10.9 ml on average, whereas nonusers lost an average of 23.9 ml each year - more than twice that similar to statin group. Similarly, statin users lost an average of 14 ml a year in FVC, whereas nonusers lost an average of 36.2 ml.
All this translations protein, which to to systemic inflammatory, and to protect against oxidative damage. All this translates in this literature. to overall protection from losing lung volume.
