When
it comes to physical health, few things are more important than “lung
power”. While getting enough oxygen is crucial for a robust life, be
aware that lungs tend to shrink with age.
Sooner or later, you tend to get tired more quickly, you’re less virile, you get colds and the flu more often and it takes longer to recover from illness in general.
By age of 20, you stop growing lung tissue and your lung capacity stabilizes. This lasts for about 10 years. By age 30, your lungs start to decline. The alveoli, tiny air sacs in your lungs that deliver oxygen to your blood, begin to die off. Most people start toning down their activities gradually in order to adapt to their diminishing lung capacity.
Unless you prevent it, you lose 20 percent of your vital lung capacity by about age 35. By 50, you’ve lost 40 percent of your breathing capacity and the decline continues for life.
If you get the flu at age 35 or 40, you can shrug it off. That’s because you have the extra lung capacity you need to sustain yourself, even if the flu or pneumonia reduces your lung volume through the accumulation of fluid. But if you’re 65 or 70 and you get a bout of flu or pneumonia, you won’t have the reserve lung capacity to withstand the illness.
Bigger lungs supply your body with more oxygen while restoring cell health by removing carbon dioxide. When there’s plenty of circulating oxygen, your muscles can afford to build reserve sources of energy for times of stress or exertion. But as your lung capacity decreases, your normal everyday activity takes up more of the oxygen, leaving very little in energy reserves.
Moreover, as your lung capacity diminishes, you’re more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke. Lack of oxygen reserves cause 50 percent of all heart attacks.
How to improve your lung capacity and minimize the loss of lung volume:
What’s the best way to do this?
Sooner or later, you tend to get tired more quickly, you’re less virile, you get colds and the flu more often and it takes longer to recover from illness in general.
By age of 20, you stop growing lung tissue and your lung capacity stabilizes. This lasts for about 10 years. By age 30, your lungs start to decline. The alveoli, tiny air sacs in your lungs that deliver oxygen to your blood, begin to die off. Most people start toning down their activities gradually in order to adapt to their diminishing lung capacity.
Unless you prevent it, you lose 20 percent of your vital lung capacity by about age 35. By 50, you’ve lost 40 percent of your breathing capacity and the decline continues for life.
If you get the flu at age 35 or 40, you can shrug it off. That’s because you have the extra lung capacity you need to sustain yourself, even if the flu or pneumonia reduces your lung volume through the accumulation of fluid. But if you’re 65 or 70 and you get a bout of flu or pneumonia, you won’t have the reserve lung capacity to withstand the illness.
Bigger lungs supply your body with more oxygen while restoring cell health by removing carbon dioxide. When there’s plenty of circulating oxygen, your muscles can afford to build reserve sources of energy for times of stress or exertion. But as your lung capacity decreases, your normal everyday activity takes up more of the oxygen, leaving very little in energy reserves.
Moreover, as your lung capacity diminishes, you’re more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke. Lack of oxygen reserves cause 50 percent of all heart attacks.
How to improve your lung capacity and minimize the loss of lung volume:
- Improve Lung Elasticity
- Improve Posture
- Improve the function of your diaphragm
What’s the best way to do this?
- Get rid of anger and hostility in your life
(Anger and hostility compromise lung function and hasten the natural decline in lung power – British Medical Journal)
- Yoga or Zen Breathing Exercises (A good teacher can help)
- High intensity, short-interval workouts (eg. Sprint in short bursts of about 30 seconds and allow your heart rate to come down to normal before another burst. Repeat 7 times).
- Eat a diet rich in protein (You need protein to build organ tissue).
- Eat raw vegetables and sprouts along with a good multivitamin (to get adequate amounts of beta-carotene, selenium, vitamins A, C and E), for faster results.
Note:
Contrary to popular belief, intensity, not duration in exercise is what
increases lung capacity. Accordingly, go for high-intensity,
short-interval workouts rather than long-drawn, low or
moderate-intensity workouts.
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