HOW TO DETOXIFY YOUR LUNGS AT HOME- Lung Detoxification for Smokers

Hello and welcome to medsimplified. In this video we are going to talk about how you can detoxify your lungs and keep them healthy. Our lungs are one of the most important organs of our body, performing the vital function of delivering oxygen to our blood which is a lifeline of every cell in our body. However, lungs are among the organs which are constantly exposed to the outside environment and its pollutants. Breathing in air pollution, cigarette smoke, and other toxins can damage the lungs and even cause serious health conditions. The cigarette smoke settles on the bronchial tubes and air sacs causing a decrease in breathing capacity and inhaled carbon monoxide disrupts the body's oxygenation. To give you an estimate of the burden of disease, cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States alone, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from second-hand smoke exposure. This is about 1 in 5 deaths annually or 1,300 deaths per day. According to the World Health Organization, exposure to air pollution results in 4.2 million deaths worldwide each year. Lung detoxification techniques can benefit people who smoke, people who get regular exposure to air pollution, and those with chronic conditions that affect the respiratory system, diseases like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or cystic fibrosis. So in this video, we will be talking about how you can protect your lungs from further damage and methods you could use to detoxify your lungs. Then we will look at some of the foods and supplements you can include in your diet to keep your lungs healthy. So without further ado, let's get started with the number one thing that we have in our list which is to protect your lungs from any further damage. While you can't entirely undo years of damage from cigarette smoking, the best thing you can do to detox is to protect your lungs from any further damage. The most important thing smokers can do in this regard is to obviously stop smoking altogether. Now I know for most of the smokers it can be an impossible task, but you can always try. There are plenty of resources available on the internet for smoking de-addiction and I will leave all the links in the description bar down below. Nevertheless, if you're not planning on quitting anytime soon, what you can do is reduce your frequency of smoking. That is very important. For non-smokers, it is also very important to avoid secondhand smoke. While quitting smoking is the most important thing you can do for your lungs, it's crucial not to breathe in other people's smoke as well. Use face masks in places where there is high level of air pollution. The air passages in our lungs have microscopic finger-like projections on them known as cilia. The cilia and sticky mucus work together to protect the lungs from infection. The mucus traps any bacteria or pathogens as they enter the lungs, and the cilia move in a synchronized pattern to move the mucus up into the airway, back into our throat, where it can be swallowed and any pathogens can be killed by the acidity of the stomach. If we are smoking constantly or we are getting exposed to high levels of air pollution, the cilia in our lungs do not function properly, and they are unable to clear our lungs from various particles in the smoke as well as bacteria and other pathogens. So, if we want to detoxify our lungs and implement the other methods we are going to talk about next in this video, it is very important first that we reduce our exposure to smoke and other forms of pollution. This allows our cilia to function properly and help in the recovery of lungs in a much better way. Second thing to do is to control your indoor air pollution. Indoor air quality also contributes to lung diseases. Dust, irritants, and chemicals can build up in your home. People with lung diseases usually spend a lot of time indoors, and it's important to do so on days when outdoor air quality is poor. Here are a few suggestions Clean up. Vacuum oftenly and invest in a good-quality vacuum cleaner. Mop your floors, but try not to use chemical-laden cleaners. Dehumidify your rooms. Dust and mold grow very quickly in a humid environment. Use a dehumidifier or keep your exhaust fan running while cooking, to prevent the growth of mold. Test for radon gas. Radon is a radioactive gas occurring naturally in the ground, and it contributes to lung cancer. It can get in your home from the foundation. Pick up a radon test kit at any home improvement store. Go chemical-free. Use natural cleaning products, fragrance-free products, and avoid aerosol sprays. Purify the air inside your home. Indoor plants such as fern, spider, or aloe vera can help purify your air. You can also use an air purifier. I've included some of the best air purifiers that automatically sense the air quality and remove 99.97% airborne pollutants, as small as 0.003 microns. So these were the first two things in our list. Cutting down or completely avoiding smoking, avoiding outdoor air pollution, and cutting down the levels of indoor air pollution. Now let's talk about the ways you can detox your lungs. These include postural drainage, proper diet, and exercise. Let's talk about them one by one. Postural drainage Postural drainage is the drainage of lung secretions using gravity. In postural drainage, the patient's body is positioned so that the trachea is inclined downwards. Frames, tilt tables, and pillows may be used to support patients in these positions. Here are some techniques to perform postural drainage. Position is done by lying on your back. Lie down on the floor or a bed. Place pillows under the hips to ensure that the chest is lower than the hips. Then slowly inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Each exhale should be taken twice as long as the inhale, which is called 1-2 breathing. This should be continued for a few minutes. The number 2nd position will be performed by lying on your side. Lie on one side, resting the head on an arm or a pillow. Place pillows under the hip and practice the 1-2 breathing pattern. Continue for a few minutes and then repeat on the other side. The 3rd position will be done by lying on your stomach. Place a stack of pillows on the floor and lie down with the stomach over the pillows. Remember to keep the hips above the chest. Fold the arms under the head for support. Practice 1-2 breathing pattern and continue for a few minutes. Postural drainage relies on the effect of gravity to drain the secretions from one or more lung segments into the central airways where it can be removed by huffing or light cuffing techniques. Each position is usually held for 10 minutes and these should be done for 4-5 days per week. Do these positions in the morning to clear mucus that's been built up overnight or right before bed to prevent cuffing during the night. Avoid doing postural drainage after meals. So this was about postural drainage. The next important thing that you can do to detox your lungs is exercise. Just like regular exercise makes your muscles stronger, it also makes your lungs and heart stronger. Now exercises for lungs can be divided into two types. The first one is your regular cardio and aerobic exercises which include jogging, cycling, swimming or any sport that pumps up your heart. Choose what suits you the best and perform at least 30-40 minutes of these exercises 5 times per week. Cardio and aerobic exercises are very good for lung health because when you perform these exercises, the blood flow in your pulmonary vessels increases many folds. This helps to heal the damaged tissue of our lungs and helps in the overall process of lung detoxification. The second type of exercises you can do for better lung health are breathing exercises. Breathing exercises help to improve the lung function and lung capacity as well, especially for individuals who are smokers, who have smoked in the past or who have lung damage from a chronic lung disease. Now there are many types of breathing exercises. For example, diaphragmatic breathing, burst lip breathing etc. I will leave links to some of these videos in the description box down below that will explain the procedure of how you perform these exercises. So this was about the exercises you should do to help to recover your lungs to a healthy state. Now let's talk about some of the things you should include in your diet for lung detox. Number one is green tea. Green tea contains many antioxidants that help to reduce the inflammation in the lungs. These compounds may even protect the lung tissue from the harmful effects of smoke inhalation. A recent study involving more than 1000 adults in Korea reported that people who drank at least two cups of green tea per day had better lung function than those who drank none. You can also include vitamin D in your diet. A vitamin D rich diet also improves your lung health. The best food sources of vitamin D are usually animal products such as salmon, sardines, eggs, milk, butter etc. Make sure to give 10 to 20 minutes of exposure to sunlight per day so that the vitamin in your body could be converted into its active form. You should also include antioxidant foods in your diet. Nutrient dense foods especially those abundant in antioxidants are well known for helping the lungs recover to their optimal health. Antioxidant rich diet helps to neutralize the free radicals that damage the lung cells. Thus it is very important to consume foods that are packed with antioxidants to promote overall lung health. Some of these foods include apples which contain a variety of phytochemicals including quercetin, catechin, fluorescein, and chlorogenic acid, all of which are strong antioxidants. Red bell peppers also contain abundant antioxidants, vitamin C, and carotenoids. Turmeric and its powerful ingredient curcumin have powerful antioxidant health benefits as well. Blueberries are believed to have one of the highest antioxidant levels of all common fruits and vegetables. The main antioxidant compounds in blueberries are known as flavonoids. Some other very good foods that have abundant antioxidants include green leafy vegetables, lentils, beans, grapes, walnuts, and garlic. So these were some of the foods that you should include in your diet that will help in your lung detox process. You can also consider taking antioxidant supplementation. I have included links to some of the best antioxidants I have found in the description box down below. I hope you liked the video. If you did, support us by hitting the like button below and you can also support medsimplified by clicking the join button below or joining us on patreon page. All links are in the description box down below. Thank you so much for watching this video. See you in the next one.