The other day I was driving with my wife and took a Deep Breath. My wife looked at me with concern and asked "Are you OK?". "Yes", I responded, "I'm just breathing deep to clear my lungs and relax. Everything is OK. It's just something I read recently that we don't do enough." She was a bit surprised at my answer.
"Just Keep Breathing" is the motto of the "The 100+ Club" for which the only eligibility criteria is to reach age 100.
The Benefits of Deep Breathing
Recent (and not so recent) research (April 2018) from Harvard Men's Health Watch
"Breathing life into your lungs" suggests that we "can keep our lungs working at an optimal level" even as we age. They suggest that "you should still take steps to preserve your lung function and maybe even slow its natural decline."
What are Deep Breathing health benefits?
There are many benefits to Deep Breathing including cleaner lungs, improved blood pressure and heart rate according to Rebecca Taylor - Kent-Teach Advisor in Wellbeing.
How do you clear out "old, stale air" from your lungs?
According to Kevita Devgan "Some air always remains in the lungs and is not replaced with fresh air as we breathe." So he recommends "Deep Breathing" to "clear out some of that old, stale air" as well as other breathing exercises.
How does modern work impact our breathing?
According to Wanda Thibodeaux, "If you sit most of the day, you likely need to reteach your body how to breathe deeply again." The main reason is that we are "hunched over" and our shoulders remain in a "rounded" position for long periods of time. "Rene Cailliet, former director of the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the University of Southern California, asserts that the reduction in lung capacity can be as much as 30 percent."
Wanda provides some techniques to improve your breathing in the following article.
Deep Breathing makes keeping your lungs young is easy. Deep Breathing may just give you a healthier long life.