Your lungs are under constant assault. That’s why COPD is the third leading cause of death according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 15 million Americans …
Now It’s In The Air We Breathe
When I started practicing medicine, I made a discovery that changed my view of the world forever. It was something few understood at the time. I’m talking about an “alien …
Runners high
There goes another one… Yesterday morning, as I left my office building to walk across the parking lot to our new building, I saw a runner. I see a lot …
Reader Questions Lungpower
Q: Dear Dr. Sears, I’ve been trying to do P.A.C.E., but I get so winded! I can’t catch my breath fast enough and end up making myself dizzy from lack …
More Lung Power, More Life
Lung power is the number-one predictor of how long you’ll live. How well you breathe determines how long you’ll stay active and healthy.
The medical journal Chest did a 29-year follow up to the Buffalo Health Study, which followed over 1,100 people up to age 89. They found that the better your lungs work, the less likely you are to die of any cause. The correlation was even stronger for heart disease.1
This makes me wonder about all those workout “gurus.” They keep telling you to do “cardio” which only wears down your heart and lungs. The studies prove that lungpower – not wearing down your heart with hours of aerobics – will keep you going.
Most doctors aren’t aware of this, either. They don’t bother to measure your lungpower during a doctor visit. Yet it’s easy to do, and I measure it at my clinic.
The best way to tell how powerful your lungs are is a measurement called VO2 max.
Waiting to Exhale
On my last trip to India, I met a yoga teacher at the center where I stayed. Every morning we’d wake before dawn. As we watched the sunrise over the mountain, he taught me how to breathe.
Yoga breathing balances your parasympathetic nervous system. This is your “rest and digest” system. It’s what makes you relax and recuperate. These days, we’re so over-stimulated, we’re always in a state of “fight or flight” (your sympathetic nervous system). Too much stimulation leads to an over dominance of sympathetic tone.
Breathing can change that…
How Old Are Your Lungs?
Today is my 53rd birthday and to celebrate I invited some of my family out West.
We’re here in Flagstaff preparing to climb Humphreys Peak, Arizona’s highest mountain. My brother Dave and my son Dylan are here with me. Tomorrow morning we leave base camp.
'My What’s Shrinking?!'
“Your lungs… I said your lungs are shrinking.” I’ve actually said this more than a couple of times to my patients. You see, I mean the size of my patients’ lungs. Why? Because they shrink with age. And that’s not good.