How to protect your lungs?
1. Stop smoking
2. Avoid exposure to pollutants
3. Healthy eating:
- Green leafy vegetables
- Fruit and nut
- Complex carbohydrates
- Reduce intake of simple and processed carbs: rice, potato, white bread
- Fish
- Eat good protein
- Eat good oil
- Enough fiber intake
4. Drink adequate amount of water
5. Maintain a healthy weight
6. Optimal level of nutritional supplementation
Nutrients that protect our lungs
1. Vitamin C
- 5 studies to show how it can prevent pneumonia
- Protects lung cells
2. Vitamin E
- Protects lung function when you age
- Fat soluble: prevents chronic inflammation caused by free radicals
- Protects airways and lung tissue
3. Vitamin D
- Deficiency linked to asthma, COPD or lung infection associated inflammation and reduction of lung function
4. Vitamin A, ß-carotene
- Boosts immune system
- Increases risk of lung infection
- Assists lungs to detox
5. Resveratrol
- 2004 study: reduces inflammation, speeds up repairing of lung cells
6. Green tea
- Study shows that it may protect lung cells from damage from smokers
Minerals that protect our lungs
1. Zinc
- Strengthens immune system
2. Selenium
- Helps lung to detox
3. Calcium
- Essential for normal cellular function
- Important for contraction and relaxation of lung tissues and airways
4. Magnesium
- Low level in people with asthma
- Balances the electric transmission of nerve
- Important for relaxation of airways and lung tissue
Other antioxidants that protect our lungs
1. Grape seed extract
- Reduces inflammation
- Animal study: improves lung sac structure and capillary obstruction
- Helps to increase the elasticity of capillaries
2. Omega 3 fatty acids
- Reduce inflammation, repair cells
- A healthy oil
- Low level in asthma sufferers
- Most powerful antioxidant inside the cell