Coronavirus is a serious respiratory condition. At present, there is neither a vaccine nor a cure for it. This means that if you contract it, all medical staff can do is treat its symptoms and hope that this is enough to keep you going until your body fights off the virus on its own. Your chances of fighting off any illness are generally in direct proportion to your general health. In the case of Coronavirus, your lung health also matters.
Taking care of your general health
It has been noted that obesity seems to raise the risk of Coronavirus. As yet, the link is unclear, however, given the severity of the pandemic and the fact that obesity is linked to multiple health issues, now could be the perfect time to tackle it.
Obesity is essentially what happens when you consume more calories than you burn. Controlling it means that you have to reduce the number of calories you consume and/or take more exercise. Reducing the number of calories you consume can be as straightforward as cutting out (or at least cutting back on) “treat” foods, heavily-processed foods and alcohol.
Increasing the amount of exercise you take is possible even if you’re stuck indoors in a small space. As an absolute minimum, you could jog on the spot and there are probably lots of other options. If you haven’t exercised in a while or are prone to injury, please do not take risks or overextend yourself.
Taking care of your lung health
If you’re still smoking, ideally you should stop. There are lots of reasons for this, of which the Coronavirus is just one. If, however, you’re already struggling to deal with life in lockdown, now might not be the time to give up completely. You might, however, want to consider switching to e-cigarettes. For clarity, these are not healthy options (at least not if you use nicotine-based products). They do, however, eliminate smoke and tar and hence make life a bit easier for your lungs.
Watch your posture. Your lungs are soft and hence can be squeezed out of shape fairly easily. For example, if you’re working from home and sitting hunched up over a computer, you could be squeezing your lungs, you’ll almost certainly be damaging your back. Sit up straight, shoulders back.
Drink plenty of water. It cleanses the body as a whole and this includes the lungs. Specifically, it cleans and thins the mucosal linings. If you can, give yourself steam treatments because hot water cleanses even more thoroughly than cold water.
You could invest in a steam generator, steam shower or even facial steamer. The low-cost approach, however, is just to put some boiling water in a bowl and hold your face over it. Cover your head with a towel to trap as much of the steam as you can. You may recognise this as a treatment for colds. It’s the same idea. You want the steam to get into the lungs and give them a proper, deep clean.
The importance of exercising your lungs
Breathing exercises your lungs. The more effort you put into breathing, the stronger your lungs become. While there are no guarantees, now seems like a good time to do anything possible to get your lungs into top shape. Taking regular general exercise, especially cardio, will make you pant and this will exercise your lungs. If, however, you can’t do this or if you want to give your lungs a specific workout, perhaps you’re prone to respiratory conditions and are particularly vulnerable, then deep-breathing exercises may help.
The simplest way to start deep breathing is to count how long it takes you to inhale and exhale. Then start extending your breaths focusing on filling your lungs as much as possible before emptying them as much as possible. If you really want to challenge yourself, however, you could look at diaphragmatic breathing, which is the deep-breathing technique used by musicians, especially singers.
