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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Respiratory Health- what you should know!

The following is a guest post by Keith hoffiel, a writer for onlineschools.org

The most widely known and important part of the respiratory system is the lungs, a pair of organs that are located within the chest. The respiratory system also involves the trachea, windpipe, and those parts involved with blood circulation.

Without our lungs we wouldn’t be able to breathe, and without breathing we wouldn’t be able to live. The primary function of the lungs is to allow oxygen to enter our bodies. They are also needed for the release of carbon dioxide. Without oxygen our internal organs would not be able to function. Too much carbon dioxide in the body causes all sorts of health issues.

Factors That Affect Your Respiratory Health

There are several factors that have a large affect on your respiratory health. These factors can negatively and positively affect how healthy or unhealthy you are when considering your lungs.

Weight

You may know of the various benefits of living with a healthy weight and BMI, but not many people are aware that your weight can affect your overall respiratory health. Those who are overweight are more prone to developing respiratory health conditions such as asthma, bronchitis, and others. This means if you’ve already been diagnosed with asthma, losing weight may lessen the symptoms. If you don’t have asthma but are overweight, making the scale move downwards will greatly decrease your chance of being diagnosed with the health condition.

The less weight your body has to carry around, the less strenuously your body, especially your lungs, need to work. Think of it this way: someone who is fit and at an average weight can usually run for much longer without feeling light-headed and out of breath when compared to someone who is overweight.

Stress

Stress plays a large role on our health. When looking at the respiratory system, bad stress is known to cause an increase in breathing which means an increased heart rate, higher blood pressure, and other effects. If your life is full of a lot of bad stress, your respiratory health may be negatively affected. Stress is known to cause asthma attacks and overall decreases the strength of your immune system. This makes you more susceptible to illnesses of all kind.

These and other factors will determine how healthy your respiratory system is.

Keeping Up With Your Respiratory Health

If you’re looking to increase the health of your respiratory system, there are various things you can do. Doing something as easy as taking a vitamin each day can greatly increase how healthy your lungs are. The overall health of your body and other internal systems will have an effect on your lungs.

For example, having a healthy heart can greatly increase your respiratory health. Exercising or eating right to improve your cardiovascular health is just one way to improve your respiratory health. Since the respiratory and cardiovascular systems are heavily reliant and connected, it is no surprise the health of each go hand in hand.

A very common way to improve respiratory health is to kick habits such as smoking. Smoking has proven to be detrimental to the lungs and other connected organs. Ridding of this type of habit is sure to improve your respiratory health.

For some, respiratory therapy is an ideal way for proper care of the lungs. This type of therapy is best for those who suffer from chronic respiratory infections or respiratory illnesses such as COPD and asthma.

If you’re looking to become an expert with respiratory health or if you’re looking to learn more information about your lungs, it may be a good idea to find an online respiratory therapy school
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Remember that taking care of your lungs is a full-time job. This means quitting any harmful habits and taking the proper medicines and vitamins to treat the flu, the common cold, or a respiratory infection.

It’s important to take care of your lungs when you are sick and when you aren’t it’s even more critical to keep them working properly and free of any type of infection.

Keith hoffield is a avid writer and a loves to learn. When he is not writing for onlineschools.org he enjoys diving into a good book.


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