What is affecting lung health?
Traditional Chinese medicine calls the lung "dirty", and the external environment is easy to cause damage to the lung and affect its normal physiological operation. What factors can cause damage to the lungs?
First of all, seasonal changes are easy to cause damage to the lungs. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the lungs are delicate, not cold-resistant, hot and dry, and the lungs are connected with the outside world. Exogenous pathogens are the most likely to hurt the lungs, among which lung problems caused by dryness in autumn and winter are the most common. Lung dryness is the most likely to damage body fluid. Because the lung fluid is injured, the lung loses moisture, which is easy to cause cough and asthma, qi deficiency, shortness of breath, dryness of lips, tongue, pharynx and nose. Over time, it will affect the normal physiological function of the lungs.
Secondly, substances in modern living environment are endangering lung health all the time. A research report recently published by British researchers pointed out that modern office equipment such as photocopiers will emit gases harmful to human body, which may lead to breathing difficulties, and if you stay in this environment for a long time, it will also lead to lung lesions.
For housewives, long-term exposure to kitchen fumes is also very harmful to the lungs. In addition, harmful gases such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides discharged into the atmosphere from highly polluting factories are also a great threat to lung health.
Smoking is harmful to health, and the influence of tobacco smoke on the lungs can not be ignored. Smoke inhalation attacks the lungs first, which can cause cough, excessive phlegm, chest tightness, dizziness and dry mouth. According to the report of the World Health Organization, about 5 million people worldwide die of diseases caused by smoking every year.
Living in the city, no one can avoid the increasingly serious air pollution, the harm of second-hand smoke to human body and the seasonal changes in nature. These have brought more and more damage to the fragile lungs. In addition to changing living habits, only by strengthening the healthy conditioning of the lungs can we enhance the resistance of the lungs.
TCM Conditioning Injects New Vitality into Lung
"Preventing disease before it happens" and "Prevention is better than cure" are the principles of Chinese medicine to regulate the body. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has always attached importance to food with the same origin of medicine and food, which has the effect of clearing away lung heat and moistening lung and has a positive effect on lung health. If we can adhere to the concept of diet conditioning and integrate nutritious food into daily diet, it will play a positive role in preventing the damage of seasonal changes, environment and life to the lungs.
There are direct and indirect methods to regulate lung in TCM health preservation. Generally speaking, direct conditioning can be divided into eight methods: dispersing lung, inhibiting lung, clearing lung, purging lung, warming lung, moistening lung, tonifying lung and astringing lung.
"Tonifying-moistening-clearing": A Three-step Process of Regulating the Lung
The experience of TCM in lung conditioning can take "nourishing-moistening-clearing" as the main line of action, strengthen the body resistance, consolidate the foundation and eliminate evil spirits, and regulate the lung as a whole from these three steps.
The first is "lung": "lung" belongs to physical fitness. When people breathe, they inhale tiny particles such as dust suspended in the air, and some of them will be swallowed up by macrophages in alveoli; However, if the other part stays in the lung, it will damage the normal function of the lung, easily lead to lung qi deficiency and affect the normal operation of the respiratory system. Figs and lilies can be used as raw materials to replenish lung, which can regulate lung qi, nourish yin and replenish qi, and lay a good foundation for moistening lung.
Secondly, "moistening lung": "moistening lung" focuses on consolidating the foundation, has the functions of "strengthening the body resistance" and "eliminating evil", and is a process of maintaining and consolidating lung function. Figs, bamboo cane and horseshoe can be used as raw materials for moistening lung, which can promote fluid production and moisten dryness, detoxify and neutralize, and help to discharge harmful substances remaining in lung while moistening lung.
Finally, "clearing lung": "clearing lung" belongs to eliminating evil spirits. Maogen, horseshoe, etc. It has the functions of clearing lung heat, clearing lung excess heat and benefiting throat, and the effect goes from lung to throat. Honey can play a positive auxiliary role in the whole lung conditioning process.
Lung maintenance is a long-term process, and it is impossible to achieve it in one step, but as long as we can take good care and pay attention to conditioning in our daily life, we can keep our lungs healthy and inject vitality into our bodies!
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Nowadays, people pay more and more attention to health and quality of life. Breathing health and how to breathe healthily have become the focus of people's attention at present and in the future. Because the air environment we live in is constantly being destroyed, the respiratory system is the only closed organ in the human body that constantly communicates with the outside world. All kinds of bacteria, viruses and harmful substances inside and outside the body enter the lungs through the uninterrupted breathing of the human body. At present, there are 600 million people suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 300 million people suffering from asthma, and the incidence of respiratory diseases is increasing year by year. Respiratory diseases have become the fourth most deadly disease in the world, and they are called "silent killers". More importantly, traditional treatment methods can't help the treatment and prevention of respiratory diseases, and the disability mortality rate caused by respiratory diseases remains high, which seriously affects the public's health and quality of life.
Section 1 What factors can cause respiratory diseases?
Respiratory diseases are common diseases in China. Due to virus and bacterial infection, physical and chemical stimulation, air pollution, smoking and industrial development, inhalation of physical and chemical factors and biological factors, reduced intake of some nutrients, allergic reactions and other factors, non-tissue and related airway mucosa damage is caused. In recent years, the incidence of respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and bronchial asthma has increased significantly.
Basic knowledge of respiratory system in the second quarter
1, what is breathing?
Breathing is a symbol of human existence. The first breath begins with the baby's first cry. The so-called breathing is to exhale and inhale the gas in the lungs with the movement of the thorax and diaphragm. This rhythmic alternating movement of breathing and inhaling is called breathing.
What's the use of breathing? Modern science tells us that people constantly consume itching and produce carbon dioxide in the process of metabolism. Therefore, the body must constantly exchange gas with the external environment, that is, inhale oxygen and expel carbon dioxide to ensure metabolism. So the main function of breathing is to inhale oxygen and expel carbon dioxide.
2, the human respiratory system
The respiratory system, including nose, pharynx, larynx, trachea, bronchus and lung, is an organ for ventilation and ventilation. The respiratory tract is usually divided into upper and lower parts. The lower respiratory tract starts from the trachea, and the bronchi reach the alveoli through gradual branches. The conduction part is above the terminal bronchiole, and the ventilation part is below the respiratory bronchiole. Clinically, bronchioles and bronchioles with diameters less than 2 mm are usually called small airways.
Upper respiratory tract: including nose, pharynx and larynx. Its main function is to filter and humidify the air inhaled from the outside, so that the inhaled air can be adjusted to about 37 degrees in the nasal mucosa, and the relative humidity can reach 95%, thus making the inhaled air meet the physiological requirements of people.
Lower respiratory tract: including trachea, general bronchus, lobar bronchus, segmental bronchus, bronchioles, bronchioles and bronchioles. It has the function of gas conduction and exchange.
The mucosal structure of respiratory system has poor anti-invasion ability, and its warm and humid environment is most conducive to the survival of bacteria and viruses. Protein's sputum is a hotbed of bacteria and viruses, so the respiratory system is the organ with the highest concentration of bacteria and viruses in human organs.
3, trachea, bronchus, alveoli
Trachea, bronchus and alveoli can be vividly represented by an inverted tree with dense branches and leaves. Trachea is like the trunk of a tree, bronchi and branches at all levels (24 branches reach alveoli), just like branches branch from thick to thin, step by step. Because the bronchial tree extends to the periphery of the lung and is divided into many small branches, the total cross-sectional area of the pipe diameter is greatly increased, so the inhaled air is dispersed, the airflow speed is reduced, and it evenly enters the alveoli on both sides. If the ambient air pollution is serious, or if you smoke frequently, all kinds of particles, smoke or pathogenic microorganisms mixed in the inhaled air may be gradually deposited on the tracheal-bronchial wall due to the decrease of the inhaled airflow speed. When allergy, inflammation, mucus obstruction or fibroplasia occur, it is easy to narrow, distort or block the small airway, which is clinically called small airway disease. Bronchial asthma, chronic tracheitis, obstructive emphysema and other diseases mostly start from small airways.
4. How to achieve respiratory function?
The main function of trachea-bronchus at all levels is to conduct gas. Breathing bronchioles to alveoli is the gas exchange site. The airflow enters through the bronchus, and the inhaled air creates a vortex when it enters through the airway. When it reaches the small airway, the cross-sectional area increases, and the inhaled air disperses here to form laminar flow, and the speed gradually slows down, which is beneficial to the uniform distribution of inhaled air in all alveoli. Breathing includes two processes: exhaling and inhaling. Exhale is to expel carbon dioxide from the lungs; Inhalation refers to inhaling oxygen from the air into the lungs. The human body continuously enriches the oxygen in the blood and eliminates the carbon dioxide in the blood through breathing, so as to maintain normal life activities.
In medicine, the gas exchange between pulmonary circulation and the external environment is called external respiration, and the gas exchange between tissues and cells is called internal respiration (oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange between alveoli and pulmonary capillary blood). The process of gas inhalation into the lungs through nasal cavity is called ventilation, while the process of gas exchange between inhaled oxygen and carbon dioxide between alveoli and pulmonary capillaries is called ventilation.
The elastic contraction movement of each respiratory muscle group and fiber tissue is the basis of maintaining the respiratory balance movement, and the respiratory movement depends more on it. The balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide in the lung is the basis of maintaining normal gas exchange. If the balance relationship is broken, it will cause acid-base poisoning or airway spasm or atresia, leading to the end of life.
5, the importance of the respiratory system
Since birth, people keep breathing, absorbing oxygen and discharging carbon dioxide to maintain the normal metabolism of the body. As an important organ of human circulation, respiratory system plays an extremely important role in maintaining life metabolism. People can live for a few days without water and a week without food, but only a few minutes without air. Therefore, caring for breathing health is better than caring for life.
The respiratory system is the most direct system for our human body to communicate with the outside world, that is, it is the "portal" and an important organ for maintaining human circulation. Usually, breathing means inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide. Our simple breathing and inhaling action is the work of pulling out a hundred hairs, which involves many organs of the whole body. The direct communication between the respiratory system and the outside world causes harmful substances such as microorganisms, dust, allergens and harmful gases to be directly inhaled into the respiratory tract, causing various damages; Pathogens from other organs of the body can also spread to the lungs through lymph and blood circulation; Diseases of systemic organs, such as autoimmune diseases, blood and metabolism, can also involve the lungs; There is also a hemodynamic relationship between lung and heart, and their pathological changes also affect each other. It can be seen that the respiratory system is not independent, and its importance is also evident.
The best of both worlds, refreshing lungs, surprisingly relaxed and carefree.