It's another month to put your health in check. Eating good food won't make much of a difference; while eating good food, check your respiratory health too because it is an important factor that determines how sound and fit you are. If your respiratory health isn't impressive, eating good food doesn't make a difference. People tend to forget that breathing in and out requires proper attention, but we neglect this part the most because we think once you wake up and you breathe, it signifies you are alive, and the rate of your heartbeats and function is considered normal.
I was opportune to discuss with a woman with high blood pressure how she breathes, and while talking to her, I noticed she is ignorant about many things. I asked why she is breathing heavily despite sitting down and not engaging in any strenuous activities, and she answered and said that is how she has been breathing for like 2 years. I was surprised because her heavy breathing is so obvious that if you sit next to her, you will hear the sound of her breathe. I asked when she last went for a checkup, and she smiled, saying she doesn't have enough resources to go for a checkup. I referred her to a friend of mine who is a doctor in a hospital here in Kwara State to help run some minor tests on her because the woman in question happens to be my hair stylist.
Her result shows she had high blood pressure and frequently exposed to secondhand cigarette smoking, which is having a serious effect on the passage of air in her lungs. I took my time to explain to her, and she opened up that her husband is an addicted smoker. Aside from that, she lives in an environment where she is surrounded by hard drug, cigarette, and alcohol addicts. She inhaled the smoke of tobacco indiscriminately, and it was then that I realized the source of her respiratory problems. I advised her to change her apartment to save her life and that of her children and I'm glad she heeded to the advice and today she is better by adhering strictly to her medications and living in a healthy environment.
In our society today, people take smoking as an anti-depressant, and the thought that only smokers are liable to die young makes people forget that even secondhand and thirdhand smokers too can be affected, causing problems to their respiratory health. Tobacco smoking irritates the trachea (windpipe) and larynx (voice box); this is why you see heavy smokers with thick voices, and you will be wondering why their voice is so masculine. It also reduces lung function and breathlessness due to swelling and narrowing of the lung airways and excess mucus in the lung passages. Smokers spit out mucus often and to them it is normal, it is a means of getting rid of the dirt in their throat unknown to them the damage they had caused to their respiratory organs.
In some cases, the respiratory disorder doesn't relate to smokers alone; environmental factors also play a part in the detrimental effects on respiratory health. Inhaling toxic chemicals in chemical industries, toxic smoke in mechanical industries, and air pollutants can irritate your airways and may cause shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, and chest pain and put you at risk of lung cancer, chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs), chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD), heart attack, acute reversible decrement in pulmonary function, pulmonary fibrosis, asthma, pneumonia, and extreme cases of premature death.
According to WHO, chronic obstruction pulmonary disease is the 3rd leading cause of death worldwide causing 3.23 million deaths in 2019. Going for regular checkups will go a long way in helping the individual to be conscious of how their respiratory organs are functioning and the state of their respiratory health. This will make early diagnosis easy and proper precautions will be taken to avoid the health condition from escalating.
Eating good food also contributes to one's respiratory health, the consumption of a high-fiber diet is recommended and it helps lower the risk of COPD, fiber does your lung a favor. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), of the high-fiber consumers, 68.3% had normal lung function, fiber association reduces inflammation in the lung. Aerobic activities like walking, running, and jumping rope give your heart and lungs the kind of workout they need to function efficiently.
