How can breathing exercises and monitoring oxygen with a pulse oximeter improve your lung capacity? Whether recovering from smoking or managing lung nodules, deep breathing is essential for vitality.
CPAP, or continuous positive airway pressure, is a relatively safe and effective treatment for sleep apnea and certain other breathing problems, according to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. A CPAP machine blows a steady stream of air into a mask that the patient wears over the mouth and nose.
Read more →
Quitting smoking results in healing within the lungs.The sooner you quit, the better the chance for reversing the harmful effects of tobacco smoke on the lungs.
Read more →
Jump lunges are a plyometric bodyweight exercise. If you want to add them to your workout, you have to know proper technique.
Read more →
Most people breathe without even thinking about it. The purpose of breathing is to bring oxygen into the body when you breathe in and move carbon dioxide out of the body when you breathe out. The diaphragm, a large muscle that separates the lungs from the abdomen, is the main muscle responsible for normal breathing.
Read more →
Excess mucus in the airways or lungs is not healthy, and may be caused by irritants, allergens, infectious agents or certain medical conditions.
Read more →
Lunges and split squats share similarities that make the two exercises easy to confuse. To understand the differences between them, focus on the muscles they activate and the form considerations of each. The differences may appear subtle, but the exercises differ significantly.
Read more →
Inflammation of pleurisy is an inflammation of the membrane around the lungs, called the pleura. This membrane is two layers thick and lines the chest cavity, thereby protecting the lungs. In healthy individuals, there is a thick layer of fluid between the two pleura.
Read more →
Alternate nostril breathing is also called "anuloma viloma" or "nadi shodhana" (in Sanskrit, the ancient language of yoga). As the name suggests, this breathing exercise involves alternating which nostril you breathe out of by blocking the opposite nostril.
Read more →
Lung inflammation can lead to a host of medical conditions. Inflammation happens in the small airways, air sacs and capillaries of your lungs. Symptoms first appear as shortness of breath, fatigue, decreased appetite, weight loss, dry cough, trouble breathing and chest discomfort.
Read more →
Vehicles crowding roadways, power plants pumping smoke and chemicals from consumer products have many people thinking about air pollution and how it affects the planet. Air pollution is a complicated problem with many causes and effects and few solutions.
Read more →
According to the American Geriatrics Society, breathing problems such as shortness of breath, discomfort in chest, coughing and wheezing, often have causes in underlying illnesses. These respiratory illnesses include chronic bronchitis, asthma and pulmonary emphysema as reported by National Jewish Health.
Read more →
Deep breathing can release stress and provide other noticeable health benefits. You will likely feel calmer after performing deep breathing exercises, and may trade feelings of anger or fear for a focused, relaxed state of mind.
Read more →
Pollution from car exhaust, factory emissions, fuel combustion and other sources can hang a brown cloud over some cities. Air pollution not only contributes to respiratory diseases in humans and damages buildings, it can also affect plants. The effects of air pollution on plants develop over time and can't be undone.
Read more →
According to MedlinePlus.com, the average adult takes about 8 to 16 breaths each minute. Air enters your body through your nose and travels down your bronchial tubes and into your lungs. Phlegm works with your respiratory system, interacting with the air you breathe.
Read more →
With the passage of so many new smoking bans and other smoking ordinances, there has been a new wave of publicity about the dangers of smoking. You may be aware that smoking is the second leading cause of death in the United States.
Read more →
As humans ascend higher into the atmosphere, air density declines. While air composition remains similar, the drop in air pressure, and in return, air volume, effectively makes the respiratory system work much harder in order to supply the same levels of oxygen to the blood stream.
Read more →
An upper respiratory infection can affect any of the breathing mechanisms of your head and chest, including the nose, throat and sinuses. In addition to difficulty breathing, you may experience a sore throat, nasal congestion, cough, watery eyes, headache and ear stuffiness as a result of this infection.
Read more →
Benign lung nodules are small, noncancerous masses of tissue typically discovered incidentally on a chest x-ray or CT scan. One out of every 500 to 1,000 chest x-rays reveals an unexpected lung nodule.
Read more →
Hyperventilation is defined as rapid breathing. The normal breathing rate is 14 to 18 breaths per minute. Carbon dioxide is the gas that normally regulates the rate of breathing. A rapid rate of breathing can occur normally after exercise.
Read more →
Lunges are a compound exercise, which articulate your knee and hip joints and activate over 10 different muscles in your lower body. The primary muscles used in lunges are your quadriceps. Each quadricep muscle comprises four smaller muscle segments, which attach to different parts of lower body skeletal structures.
Read more →