I know, stupidest headline ever, but is it? Want to live longer? It starts here.
Oh, and I’m not a doctor, I’m just interested in this stuff, read a lot and want to pass it on for your benefit. What I write is just my take on what I’ve learned and please look it up for yourselves and decide. YOUR DOCTOR IS ALWAYS RIGHT. WHAT YOUR DOCTOR SAYS SHOULD BE LISTENED TO OVER ANYTHING I SAY< ALWAYS. If your doctor says it’s just old age, it’s too late, just take it easy, THAT’S WHAT YOU SHOULD DO.
Biological death is the irreversible cessation of all bodily functions, including the brain, at the molecular and cellular level. It occurs when cells in the brain, heart, and other organs die due to a lack of oxygen, resulting in permanent damage. NOTE. Yes brain, heart, lungs, organs fail and you die but they die because of a lack of oxygen. Got that? Good.
When we get older, less oxygen gets to our brains, hearts, lungs and other organs. Those organs start to fail. We get sick, they get worse, we get worse, we die.
So all we have to do is get more oxygen and we’ll live longer? It will certainly help, yes. There I said it.
Why is this worse in older people like us? Well because we’re old, our bodies are old and we’ve been mistreating them for longer. Our lungs don’t work as well as they should because;
They’re damaged, by disease or illness
Smoking
Exposure to “dirty air”, dusty, chemicals etc
They’re older and have become less efficient at getting oxygen into your body
Sounds glum, I’m old, lungs are old, so I can’t enough oxygen into my body, so my organs are slowly packing in and I die. Thanks Ray, you cheered me up.
Don’t reach for the remote just yet, When was the last time you took a deep breath? Do it now. Let’s be honest here, you are going to breathe aren’t you? So just make a bit of an effort and take a deep breath, Even if you already have trouble breathing, just breathe as deeply as you feel comfortable. You just exercised, congratulations.
And that friends is the first lesson.
Exercise makes to breathe harder, maybe a lot harder but hey, every little bit helps
You just took in more oxygen in one breath than you’ve done in ages. And your body will thank you for it. If you do it regularly it’s called “breathwork” and it’s now widely accepted as a Good Thing To Do.
I try to do Breathwork every day and guess what? When I started I could hold my breath for 30 seconds, now I can hold it for up to 3 minutes and the session takes about 13 minutes of breathing, holding your breath, breathing. And you can do it lying down. And whilst you’re doing it you may also be experiencing Mindfulness. But that’s another story.
I’ve left a link to a site on Wim hof. There’s alway been breathwork but he’s made it more mainstream. I try and do his routine every day, https://www.wimhofmethod.com . There will be loads of others.
There are obviously loads of other ways to get your lungs working better and to get your oxygen hit such as
Getting some fresh air
Exercising
Exercising in the fresh air
Sitting in an oxygen chamber (joking…not joking) athletes use them to recover after exercise and to increase lung capacity
Live at altitude.
As always, remember it’s probably taken you 40+ years to get to this level of (un) fitness, you will improve a lot quicker than you think and feel the difference but
It Needs to be Something you Do, not something you’ve Done or Did. Consistency is everything from now on. That’s the hard bit really, for the last 60 years Life has told you what to do and you’ve gone along with it. Now you’re calling the shots. Get it done. The grand kids will think you’re well cool as well.