The lungs are amazing structures that allow your body to produce oxygen and release carbon dioxide.
This exchange is the basis for a number of other processes in your body.
However, patients with other chronic lung diseases can have issues breathing normally. Lung detox is one way that you might be able to improve your ability to breathe.
What Is a Lung Detox?
Lung detox is a natural process that your body uses to cleanse harmful materials from the lungs.
Many “medicines” and other products claim to help with lung detox, but the best option for successfully detoxing your lungs is to avoid exposing them to airborne pollutants.
This will mean quitting smoking for those who smoke since smoking deposits toxic chemicals and tar in your airways and lungs.
Over time, these toxins can damage airways and lung tissue and make it harder to breathe. Also, vaping can lead to similar types of lung damage.
Quitting smoking or vaping is one of the best natural ways to increase the success of lung detox.
3 Other Natural Ways to Increase the Success of Lung Detox
It is possible to detox your lungs by avoiding toxic chemicals and pollutants by quitting smoking or vaping, but there are other steps you can take to detox your lungs naturally.
Here are 3 effective ways to support natural lung detox:
1. Making dietary changes
Studies show that antioxidants can help cleanse toxins from the body, and you can get more antioxidants by eating foods like leafy green vegetables and berries.
Vitamins like vitamin C have also been shown to help the lung detox process by reducing inflammatory chemicals in the body.
2. Exercising regularly
Aerobic exercise can be beneficial because studies show it improves blood flow to the lungs.
Lung blood flow improvements can allow the body to move more toxins to the liver and kidneys, and these organs can then filter them out of the blood and remove them from your body.
Any small exercise you can do can help.
3. Improving indoor air quality
Most people know that outdoor air quality can be bad, but you might not know that the air quality inside your home can be just as bad or worse.
You can take simple steps to improve indoor air quality, such as bringing in more plants that filter toxins and changing your HVAC system’s filters regularly.
Christine Kingsley, APRN is the Health and Wellness Director at the Lung Institute where she focuses on providing helpful online resources for people looking for information on various lung diseases, breathing exercises, and healthy lifestyle choices. She advocates for holistic care that involves working with your doctor to explore all options including traditional and alternative care while focusing on diet and exercise as proactive measures.