“Healthy lungs are not only essential for the vital functions of your body, but also they allow you to exercise, talk and conduct your daily activities,” says Robert Kotloff, M.D., chair of pulmonary medicine at Cleveland Clinic. Those two conical-shaped organs do yeoman’s work, allowing you to inhale and exhale about 12 to 15 times per minute at rest—or about 20,000 times per day—and work in tandem with the rest of your respiratory system to carry oxygen throughout your body and remove carbon dioxide, a waste gas, from your blood. When lungs aren’t at their best, you know it, as anyone who has wheezed, had trouble catching her breath, coughed nonstop or developed chest pain will attest. In fact, lung diseases, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer, affect millions of Americans. And each year, pesky lung infections such as colds, flu and bronchitis make plenty of us plain miserable. What’s more, like knees, eyes and other body parts, lungs show the effects of time. “They reach their maximal function in your mid-20s and decline as you get older,” says Albert A. Rizzo, senior medical adviser to the American Lung Association.
15 Ways to Keep Your Lungs Healthy
Like your muscles, lung tissue may start to lose some elasticity as you age, causing you to breathe with a little more effort. The good news: Simple strategies can lower the risk of lung disease, keep you healthy during cold and flu season and minimize age-related changes. There’s plenty you can do to keep your lungs strong and healthy, even as you (and they) get a little older. Here’s how to be proactive about protecting them:
Don’t smoke.
“It’s the most important thing you can do to maintain normal lung function,” says Kotloff. Steer clear of secondhand smoke too. “Both impair the ability of cilia, hair-like fibers that coat the lungs, to clear infectious agents from the lungs,” he adds. That ups the risk for respiratory infections, including pneumonia. Cigarette smoke also destroys elastic fibers in lungs so they don’t empty air as rapidly as they should, causing emphysema. And it goes without saying, cigarette smoke raises the risk of lung cancer.
Avoid secondhand smoke, especially if you’ve just quit.
It’s not just about resisting temptation: German researchers found that a receptor in your lungs called Frizzled 4 is blocked when you inhale cigarette smoke. Frizzled 4 helps your lungs heal and grow healthy new cells; without it, symptoms of bronchitis or COPD can get worse.
Don’t hop on the vaping trend.
E-cigarettes may not be as harmless as you think. In 2019, a mysterious lung disease, now called EVALI, shows that vaping has its own serious health risks—as well as some pretty gross side effects and evidence that vaping impacts fertility. Vaping affects your lungs, too. It can affect genes that defend your immune system in your upper airway, which could leave you more vulnerable to respiratory infections. Work with your doctor on a smoking cessation plan before you start vaping.
Minimize pollutants.
All that nasty stuff in the air can take a toll on lungs. A 2014 study of more than 7,600 Europeans found that people regularly exposed to higher levels of air pollutants, including those associated with traffic, scored lower on tests that measure the amount of air that enters the lungs when they inhale. “Many pollutants will cause airways to constrict, leading to shortness of breath and worsening of disorders like asthma and COPD,” says Kotloff. Even household solvents, such as bleach, ammonia, air fresheners and furniture and floor polish, can trigger an asthma-like response regardless of whether or not someone has sensitive airways, especially if they’re concentrated or used in a non-ventilated area. Other culprits include allergens such as cat and dog dander, dust mites and mold. “These can cause inflammation in the airways,” says Rizzo, section chief, pulmonary/critical care medicine, Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Delaware. The result: Airways can narrow and produce excess mucous, leading to shortness of breath,” he adds. What to do? During the summer, check air quality. When there’s an ozone alert, stay indoors—and run the AC—or do your errands and outdoor workout in the morning before ozone levels climb. Minimize your use of household products containing irritating chemicals; when you do use them, make sure the area is ventilated; prevent mold and if you have it, hire a pro to clean it up; and vacuum regularly to get rid of dander and dust mites.
Slim down your middle.
Belly bulge isn’t just bad for your heart. A study published in 2009 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine found a strong association between abdominal obesity—one symptom of metabolic syndrome, a risk factor for heart disease—and impaired lung function. A too-big tummy “makes it hard for your diaphragm to expand and fill with air when you inhale,” says Rizzo. That can cause shortness of breath especially when you, say, climb stairs or bend over to tie your shoes. To lower the risk of heart disease, aim for a waist circumference of no more than 40 inches if you’re a man and no more than 35 inches if you’re a woman, advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It makes sense this would be good for healthier lungs, too.
Work up a sweat.
Exercise is good for your lungs in more ways than one. For one, it will keep your weight down and your tummy trim. Also, the deeper breathing you do when you exercise helps clear mucous from the lower lungs, Rizzo says. That makes the lungs more efficient at getting oxygen into the bloodstream and getting rid of carbon dioxide, he says. And new research from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago suggests there may be another perk. After analyzing data from a study that measured the lung function of people over the course of 20 years, the researchers found that those who were the fittest when the study began, as well as those who sustained their level of fitness or improved upon it, experienced the smallest decline in lung function. How much is enough? It’s too soon to say but to lower disease risk the CDC recommends getting 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise.
Eat healthfully.
While there’s no such thing as an eat-for-lung-health meal plan, a study published in 2015 in The BMJ reported that people who ate more whole grains, polyunsaturated fatty acids such as olive and sunflower oil, nuts, foods rich in omega 3-fatty acids such as salmon and mackerel, and ate low amounts of red and processed meat, refined grains and sugar-sweetened drinks had a lower risk of COPD, which includes bronchitis and emphysema. Researchers can’t say how much or how little of these foods it takes to keep lungs healthy. “Eating a combination of healthy foods and limiting unhealthy foods appears to be most effective,” says study co-author Walter C. Willett, M.D., chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “The healthier the diet, the healthier the lungs.”
Steer clear of infections.
To reduce your risk for colds, flu and other infections that could settle in your lungs, wash your hands regularly. Get an annual flu shot to lower your risk for influenza—an estimated 200,000 people are hospitalized each year due to flu-related infections, including pneumonia; and if you’re 65 and over get the pneumococcal vaccine to reduce your risk for bacterial pneumonia. (The vaccine is also recommended for children, so consult your pediatrician.)
Never ignore shortness of breath.
Feeling consistently winded lately when you walk upstairs? Don’t shrug it off as simply being out of shape. Swedish researchers recently found that shortness of breath on exertion can be an overlooked symptom of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a term now used to describe a group of progressive lung diseases including emphysema and chronic bronchitis. It’s key to listen to your body—if your breathlessness is new, persistent or worsening, let your doctor know. “There are interventions that can prevent or minimize shortness of breath,” says Ben Wano, a respiratory therapy department educator at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas. These include bronchodilators to open up airways, supplemental oxygen, chest physiotherapy to help you cough up lung-clogging secretions and breathing exercises to strengthen the diaphragm and help you breathe easier.
Try fish oil.
A study from the University of Rochester Medical Center found that a high-quality fish oil supplement containing the compound 17-HDHA can cut your risk of asthma. This kind of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid was shown to actually reduce production of IgE, an antibody that triggers asthma in the body.
Get real about radon.
It’s the leading cause of lung cancer in nonsmokers, according to the American Cancer Society. You can buy a radon test kit at home improvement stores to check that you’re not being exposed to unsafe levels of this odorless gas.
Go to the dentist.
Getting checkups and cleanings twice a year reduces bacteria in your mouth. That’s important, because you can inhale bacteria like strep and staph and end up with bacterial pneumonia, according to the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Get the right treatment for PE.
Pulmonary embolism (PE), a blood clot in your lung, kills as many as 100,000 people per year. If you develop a PE—often the result of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in your leg—ask your doctor about a little known catheter-directed treatment, which delivers clot-busting drugs directly to your lung. Researchers presenting at the American College of Cardiology’s most recent Scientific Session report that the extremely effective treatment is not as widely used as it should be.
Up your vitamin D.
New research shows that taking a high-dose vitamin D supplement can chop your chances of getting bronchitis and pneumonia. Ask your doctor about the right dose for you.
Get screened for lung cancer.
“Lung cancer claims the lives of more than 400 men and women in the United States every day,” says Andrea McKee, MD, advisory board member for the American Lung Association. Better screening in the form of computerized tomography (CT) scans is a promising new tool in the battle against the disease. “CT lung screening can find lung cancer at an early curable stage before symptoms develop and is now recommended for individuals at high risk,” McKee says, including current or former smokers aged 55 or older who have smoked an average of a pack of cigarettes a day for 30 years. “The test takes only a few seconds and most centers that perform the screening do not require you to change out of your clothes.”
How to Keep Your Lungs Healthy in Colder Weather
Did you know that changes in weather can affect your lungs? It’s true—your lungs need TLC all year round, but consider taking extra care when temperatures start dropping. Watch the video below for Dr. Sumita Khatri at Cleveland Clinic’s specific tips for keeping your lungs healthy in cold weather. Parade teamed up with Cleveland Clinic to conduct a survey related to lung health, and the results are in! Here are some of our most surprising findings: Half a tennis court The size of the total internal surface area of adult lungs (only 15 percent of respondents got that one right: most picked the size of a frying pan!) 20 minutes How long after quitting smoking before your body experiences positive changes (29 percent of respondents got this right)
