Sweeper Wisdom

To protect and preserve your irreplaceable lungs and to avoid chronic breathing problems:

1. Wear a dust mask EVERY single time you vacuum (which should be often) or,
2. INVEST in a good quality vacuum cleaner with a special filter like a HEPA.

Since the more advanced machines cost a little more, I would suggest you do your homework before purchase to be sure you are getting your money’s worth. There are review magazines available in your public library. Dealers often pad the online reviews.

The old-fashioned sweepers without filters simply churn and blow carpet garbage directly into your face (please do not make me draw another dust mite)!

Huge amounts of irritating airborne stuff will eventually settle onto your carpets and floors. In addition carpets collect all that disgusting street mess that gets tracked in on shoes and boots.

If you have a vacuum with a disposable bag, ALWAYS wear a dust mask when you dump and replace the bag. It’s a good idea to have your carpets cleaned professionally as often as you can afford. The carpets (and your lungs) will last longer.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

LINK: Sleeping with Monsters

To Smoke Or Not To Smoke

To keep your lungs healthy, the layer of mucus that covers the windpipe and bronchial tubes must be moist enough to be pushed along easily, and the tiny pushy cilia must remain strong and busy. Infection, smoking, lack of fluids, and allergies can stun or cripple the cilia, and can alter the consistency of the mucus.

When this beautiful system is challenged, damaged, or clogged, the incoming irritants and microbes are either trapped against the wall of the respiratory tract like a dirty bandage that rarely gets changed, or the irritants find an unobstructed, direct path into the deep lungs and ultimately into the bloodstream. Without the cooperative efforts of the cilia and mucus blanket, your crippled respiratory system is finally unable to cleanse itself.
Be well. Breathe beautifully.

LINK: The Path From Throat To Lungs

The Extraordinary Exchange

A net of blood vessels (so fine that the blood must squeak through one cell at a time) is laced tightly around each air sac (alveolus). The alveolar walls here are as thin as soap bubbles about to burst. This ingenious design allows oxygen to pass easily from the incoming breath, through the thin shared wall of the air sac and blood vessels and finally into the blood stream.

While the blood is sucking up oxygen from the air sac, it simultaneously gives up its carbon dioxide into that same tiny sac. Carbon dioxide is spent fuel that now must be carried away in the air about to be exhaled from all alveoli.

Your blood at that point has been refreshed with a new supply of oxygen and is ready to resume its unending duties on your behalf. It is the extraordinary exchange of gases in this inner sanctum that fuels all that you do, all that you are.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Link: The Path From Throat To Lungs

Late-Night Snack Attacks

Who hasn’t enjoyed the guilty pleasure of a big bowl of buttery popcorn, a comfy couch and a late movie? Buttery popcorn is probably OK for an occasional treat. But the comfy couch tends to scrunch you down into a position less than ideal for moving food easily into the stomach. The movie is your choice (although Texas Chainsaw Massacre is likely to mess with your dreams).

It takes a couple hours to chew food well, move it down your esophagus and into your stomach. If your popcorn, the dish of Rocky Road and a big slice of cold pepperoni pizza (yes, I was watching) is half-chewed, spread out along the esophagus, the food will lie in there undigested most of the night. There is always the troubling possibility that a lump of food will throw your esophagus into spasm or cause you to choke.

There is the possibility of coughing up food or stomach acid in your sleep and aspirating it into your lungs. I know it is a lot to ask that you chew each bite carefully while you are watching a horror movie. You need and deserve these occasional guilty pleasures but would you at least consider sitting up a little straighter and watching your movie at eight instead of midnight? Thanks.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Finding Your Center

And where exactly is your center and why should you care? YOUR CENTER IS THAT EXACT POINT WHERE YOUR MIND, YOUR BODY AND YOUR SPIRIT ARE IN PERFECT BALANCE. Even though your center is invisible, you have probably sensed it from time to time. We often read about star athletes who describe having been “in the zone” when they did something extraordinary. Amazing things happen when you are “in the zone.”

It is understandable that, as the day wears on, we become fragmented – the intellect is wrestling with monster problems at the computer while the neglected body slumps over the keyboard like a big bag of beans. The spirit and the body are often forgotten completely. Fortunately you have the power to quickly center yourself at will. Remember that your breathing bridges the mind, the body and the spirit. Easy access.

Mother Nature wouldn’t have made this centering process difficult since it is essential for your well-being and personal growth. FREQUENTLY during your busy day, straighten your spine, relax your shoulders and your jaws, close your eyes, breathe out the stale air and take four or five very slow and very deep breaths. Nothing fancy.

A pitcher holds more cream if the pitcher is all in one piece instead of broken fragments scattered across the floor. You will be so much more efficient, effective and comfortable if you take a few minutes to pull all parts of you together.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Plague on the Plane!

You are flying home for a wedding and the person in the seat next to you has a super-sloppy sneezy cold. The FAA takes a dim view of your stuffing a passenger into the overhead. The flight attendant will be terribly amused when you ask to be moved to another seat.

Some travel specialists suggest putting a little antibiotic cream in your nose although that won’t defend you from a viral ambush. Vaseline in your nose, however, will help keep you hydrated for the journey and hydration is crucial! Dried out nose, sinuses, eyes and throat cripple your glorious glistening pulmonary mucus blanket that is designed to trap and repel dangerous incoming stuff. Once this protective layer dries out, you are a sitting dried-out duck.

Drink lots and lots of water the day before the trip and lots and lots of water on the plane. LOTS. Notice I did not say coffee, soda, or alcohol, all of which dry you out. Take along eye drops and hand-sanitizer gel that comply with carry-on restrictions. You could wear a tight-fitting mask and tell everyone you are protecting everyone else from YOUR cold. Not very practical but then if you are to be the maid-of-honor . . . . .

You need to be up and moving whenever the aisle is clear to keep your legs free of possible clots anyway and with Typhoid Mary shoulder to shoulder, it is even more important.

And finally, DO NOT SLEEP ON THE PLANE. This is dangerous for your legs and very dangerous for your respiratory system. You will mouth-breathe and you can’t afford it.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Pluck Not

Not even once! Remember that the stiff tiny nose hairs that ring the inside of each nostril provide the initial barrier between the environment and your vulnerable deep lung tissue.

Nose hairs provide an important protective “screen door.” Since our species is oxygen-dependent, there is no choice but to inhale air that is a microscopic mess of pollens, bits of tires, bacteria, molds, soot, dust, pollens, and animal dander.

Breaking the skin in your nose is a very bad idea. Your nose serves as a filter and filters tend to get dirty. Pulling a hair breaks the skin and leaves you vulnerable to infection. Your nose is too close to the brain to take the risk.

After a certain age all the good hairs fly away and the wicked-witch hairs spring up like weeds! It is tempting to pluck. Don’t. Buy a pair of little round-tip scissors and prune if you must.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.