Live Longer Better
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Lung maintenance

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Look after your Lungs



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The NHS calls this the respiratory system so in a hospital there is not a lung department but a respiratory department but almost all of the business of a respiratory department is the management of problems affecting the lungs, including the tubes that lead from the nose and mouth down to the lungs.  
The trachea is the big central tube which splits into two bronchi one for each lung and these branch into smaller and smaller tubes until they reach the alveoli where the work of the lungs take place, namely taking in oxygen and passing out carbon dioxide.

What are the effects of ageing?
Ageing does affect the lungs, like all of tissues and organs, and lungs become less efficient at oxygen transfer as a result but ageing by itself is relatively unimportant unless you want to run a hundred metres or a marathon.  Even then if you were lucky enough to have lungs undamaged by pollution including cigarette smoking and disease you can still make pretty good time as shown in the world records below
 
How can you minimise the effects of ageing?

There is little that can be done to affect lung ageing but as we have emphasised it is not a major cause of problems which are  principally due to disease, smoking, air pollution  and loss of fitness.  

What can you do to reduce the risk of disease?

For many people lung function is affected in their childhood, particularly for people who grew up before the Clean Air Act of 1956 when black fogs paralysed cities and damaged lungs.  In that time also antibiotics were less available and less widely used so many people got severe lung damage from measles which reduced lung capacity to transfer oxygen and carbon dioxide.  Then of course came cigarette smoking and lung cancer but cigarette smoking also increases heart disease and a long term condition called chronic bronchitis or, more commonly nowadays, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease or COPD for short. Finally it looks as though pollution is coming back albeit pollution of a different sort. So to reduce the risk of disease


  • stop smoking, even if you have tried before
  • try and avoid pollution and if you can afford it consider buying  a machine for removing particles from the air
  • increase fitness
  • make sure you get flu immunisation

How can you maintain and increase fitness?

When fitness increases the change is not so much in the lungs as in the muscles.  By doing moderate intensity training the muscles become more efficient in extracting the oxygen from the blood that is passing through them so lung function does not change but the muscle function does and this allows people to do more activity  without feeling breathless because the feeling of breathlessness occurs as a result of carbon dioxide building up in the body.
The priority is to try to increase stamina and the way to do this is to do activity that makes you a little breathless, this is called activity of moderate intensity where you can feel that you are breathing faster but you can still carry on a conversation.  In high intensity activity you cannot carry on a conversation and of course you can do high intensity activity that is all to the good  but moderate intensity is good enough, for example
  • brisk walking, for ten minutes three times a day, but five minutes or even three will do if that is all you can manage
  • cycling
  • swimming
  • dancing
  • working with a trainer either in your home or a gym
 

Who can help?
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Your GP or practice nurse can help you stop smoking but most of the work done to improve lung fitness and the function of lungs is straightforward and can be done by you  Remember healthcare is what people do for themselves.  

The British Lung Foundation is a great charity providing information not only to reduce your risk of lung disease but also for people with lung disease 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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