IMPROVING LUNG HEALTH AFTER COVID-19

It is not uncommon to experience respiratory issues after you have recovered from COVID-19. You need to primarily focus on restoring healthy lung function once you have recovered from COVID-19. Your battle with COVID-19 has left your lungs vulnerable to complications and there are many benefits on focusing on a long-term lung health restoration regime. Your lungs need to regain proper function and capacity as means of the recovery process. An improvement in your lung function will also clear your lungs of sputum, making it easier to breathe.

You can follow the strategies given below to markedly improve your lung function post COVID-19 and reduce the chances of respiratory complications:

Quit Smoking and Alcohol Consumption: You need to begin first with a major lifestyle change. Smoking can cause many functional and structural changes to your lungs as well as your immune cells. Smoking induces extra stress your vital organs as well as reduces your lung’s functionality. You may face long-term pulmonary complications and infections if you continue to smoke post COVID-19.

Alcohol also places additional stress on your body’s vital organs and functions. Making it harder for your body to fight infections. Making this major lifestyle change will put you on the fast track to gaining your lung health.

Make Healthy eating choices: There is no shortcut to gaining your health back specially when it comes to making healthy eating choices and being on a healthy diet. You need to include foods that are rich in antioxidants that will improve your overall health and boost your immune system which will have a direct impact on your lung health. Healthy foods will provide your body with all the essential nutrients that you need to make your lungs function at their optimum. Below are a few tips:

• Increase Water intake: It is necessary to increase water intake during COVID-19 recovery. Water plays a crucial role in boosting your bodily functions.
• Avoid: Processed foods with empty calories, Sugar, trans fat, salt, caffeine and fast food.
• Include: Fresh Green Vegetables, seasonal fruits, beans and legumes, nuts, grains, fresh juices, home cooked meals and foods high in fiber.

Fitness Training: The best way to impact lung health and build its capacity is to exercise. Exercise that help you improve your lung function work the same way as any training program. The primary focus is on expanding your lung capacity and strengthening it while avoiding total exhaustion. Here are a few tips:

• Always take a phase-wise approach to physical training. You need to gradually build your body’s capacity and your lung health. Active Pulmonary rehabilitation program will help in reducing shortness of breath which is a common side-effect of COVID-19. It is important to start with breathing exercises in order to improve your lung capacity after you have recovered fully from COVID-19.

Below are a few tips:

Breathing Exercises while laying on your back:

• Lie on a comfortable surface and bend your knees. The bottom of your feet should be resting about a foot from your body.
• Place your hands on your lower belly.
• Keep your mouth closed and place your tongue on the roof of your mouth.
• Take a deep breath from your nose while imagining that you are pulling air down to your lower belly where your hands are.
• Exhale slowly through your nose.
• Try to make sure that take you inhale and exhale completely and try timing yourself.
• Now match the timing of your inhale to your exhale so if it takes you a full 5 seconds to inhale completely, your exhalation should also take 5 full seconds.
• Repeat deep breaths for one full minute, give yourself a minute of rest and then repeat.
• You can do these exercises once a day preferably on an empty stomach.

These lifestyle alterations will help you boost your lung function and will aide recovery from COVID-19.

GET WELL SOON!