You breathe without thinking, so it’s easy to take your lungs for granted. You depend on your lungs, but do you know how to care for them? Most lung care advice begins and ends with “don’t smoke, or quit if you do.” With smoking on the decline, you may think there’s nothing more you can do to protect your lungs. However, even nonsmokers can and should take care of their lung health, especially while our respiratory systems are under attack. The health care experts at NurseWise, a national multilingual nurse triage and health education provider, are pleased to provide tips to keep you breathing easily in honor of November’s Lung Cancer Awareness Month.
According to the CDC, lung cancer is the deadliest cancer for both women and men in the United States, killing more Americans than breast, colorectal and prostate cancers combined. And not all lung cancer cases happen in current or former smokers: Nearly 18% of lung cancers are diagnosed in people who never smoked. Try out these tips for maintaining healthy lungs:
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1. Filter it out! You clean your floors, your kitchen counters and your bathroom. So why not the air you breathe, too? Replace your furnace filters and clean the filters on air conditioners and dehumidifiers every one to three months. For additional air filtration, plants like aloe vera, the peace lily and the spider plant scrub out many indoor pollutants.