If you’re interested in anti-aging, this is important. Even if you’re not, it’s STILL important!
As we pack on the years, our lungs can become increasingly inefficient. Our lung capacity diminishes rather dramatically. And how does this affect our overall health? It’s because, for starters, diminished lung capacity is directly linked to diminished heart health.
When your lungs don’t provide you with as much oxygen as they used to, the heart doesn’t get as much oxygen either.
And this is bad news.
Even a small decline in lung capacity increases heart disease risk by 200%. And it doesn’t matter about your family history of heart health. It’s all about the lungs—according to a study by the European Society of Cardiology.
Another prestigious study, by the Copenhagen City Heart Study, showed that a loss of lung volume also makes it more likely that a stroke can occur. The chance of a first time stroke is over 30%, and the chance of a fatal stroke increases by over 200%.
And yet another study, by the European Journal of Heart Failure, found that lung capacity increases the risk of heart failure a huge amount. They followed 16, 000 people for 15 years, adjusting for age, previous heart disease and other risk factors such as smoking. But even if they NEVER smoked a day in their lives, for the people with the lowest lung volume, they found as much as a 391% increased chance of heart failure.
Yikes!
According to Dr. Dean Ward, who worked diligently on lung volume and how it affects aging, in the 70’s, lung capacity is the key indicator of how long you’ll live.
The most common way of exercise, endurance exercising like aerobics, is actually the WRONG way to exercise!
How often have you heard of really well conditioned endurance runners dropping dead of heart attacks? There have been several. Their rate of sudden cardiac death is 50% HIGHER than the rate for other athletes.
And the reason makes so much sense. When there is a need for a sudden increase in cardiac demand, their heart isn’t conditioned for that. Their heart and lungs have become conditioned to only endurance training.
It’s much better to gradually increase the challenge to our lungs and heart, by incrementally challenging them and then accelerating the effort. That way, the lungs receive that extra capacity needed for everyday life.
In essence, you need to exercise until you have to catch your breath. That builds lung capacity.
By breathing hard, your body is making the effort to get more oxygen faster.
With aerobics, you reach your endurance pace, where you can go longer distances or time—never really challenging your lungs or heart.
We do Dr. Sears’ P.A.C.E program, but any program that pumps oxygen-rich blood to your vital organs is good—in fact, it’s life extending.
And we know, personally, P.A.C.E. works to expand lung capacity. My husband had a chest x-ray, before a minor surgery, and they were surprised to have to take two x-rays of each lung, because his lungs were so long! They commented on what great lung capacity he had.
By all means, look into a program that builds lung capacity! I recommend P.A.C.E., because I know it works. You can go to AlSearsMD.com and get more information.
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