Keeping your Lungs Healthy│National Healthy Lung Month
Hello everybody!
As you may or may not
know, October is National healthy lung month and because of that I was asked by
a lovely Heather Von St. James to help raise awareness. At first I was a bit
sceptical, as I thought how can a seventeen year old girl help to raise the
awareness of such an important thing as keeping your lungs healthy and lung
diseases such as cancer? Would people even take my words serious or would my
voice just vanish in a crowd of more important voices?
I know how it is to
lose someone you love due to cancer. My grandmother died because of cancer
before I was even born, so I didn’t get a chance to meet her. And it sucks that
people lose their family, friends, neighbours etc. because of cancer. And that
encouraged me in writing about Healthy lung month. Because it doesn’t matter
how old are you, if you have survived cancer or if you know someone who has
cancer... We all have the power to spread our words about anything we want and
if those words can bring something good to other people or can help them in any
way possible- then we shouldn’t remain silent.
You may ask yourself,
why should we even talk about lung cancer?
Well lung cancer is
the number one killer of women (and also men) and the lung death rate in women
has more than doubled over the past 35 years. Here in Slovenia, the incidence
of lung cancer in women has been continually increasing, and in 1998 (the year
when I was born), the lung cancer represented 5% of all cancers.
And anyone can get lung
cancer. Some people may think that they don’t need to care about lung cancer,
because it hadn’t affected them or people close to them. But we shouldn’t just
care about the things that are affecting us and we should do our best to help
people that have survived cancer, have cancer and people that have lost someone
due to cancer.
So how should we keep our
lungs healthy and at least try to prevent lung cancer? Here are some of the
causes of lung cancer and some tips on how to prevent it:
Smoke
I’ve just realised that this
may turn into a total personal rant, but I hate people that smoke. Smoking is
the main contributor to lung cancer and cigarette smoke contain at least 73
known carcinogens. That’s why I hate seeing people smoking, especially seeing
young mothers holding baby in one hand and a cigarette in other hand.
And the most disgusting thing
I find about smokers- people that surround them can get lung cancer too.
Passive smoking causes about 3400 deaths from lung cancer each year in the USA.
So don’t smoke. Especially if
you have children, don’t smoke. Don’t increase the chances of getting a lung
cancer and don’t make them passive smokers. Smoking doesn’t only harm your
lungs, but if affects nearly every organ of your body and also your overall
health.
Radon gas and asbestos
Since I think that those two
causes are more common in USA, I admit I haven’t known much about the affects
of radon gas and asbestos before, so I had to do a little research. Usually,
the time from exposure to onset of illness is long, as people fall ill after 20
to 40 years after exposure.
Asbestos can cause variety of
lung diseases, including asbestosis and lung cancer- it can cause a rare form
of cancer, called mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that most
commonly attacks the lining of the lungs. Since mesothelioma is quite a rare form of cancer and not many people know about it, you can read about it here.
Asbestos is used in many consumer and construction products and is not yet banned in the U.S. and Canada, but it is banned in Slovenia since 2003. Cigarette smokers who are also exposed to asbestos are about 50 to 84 times more likely to develop asbestos related diseases.
Asbestos is used in many consumer and construction products and is not yet banned in the U.S. and Canada, but it is banned in Slovenia since 2003. Cigarette smokers who are also exposed to asbestos are about 50 to 84 times more likely to develop asbestos related diseases.
Air pollution
Outdoor pollution has a small
effect on increasing the risk of lung cancer, but we’re breathing dangerously
high levels of polluted air every day. I know we can’t do much to prevent air
pollution, but we can at least ride a bike or walk to school/ work, work from
home...
Genetics
Lung cancer can be genetic, in
relatives with lung cancer, the risk is increased 2.4 times. If your family has
a history of cancer, you should monitor your symptoms carefully.
It’s true that October is the National
healthy lung month, but you should try and keep your lungs healthy throughout
the whole year. You can do that by practising deep breathing exercises or any
other breathing technique, by staying hydrated, because drinking enough water
is important for your lungs and also for the rest of your body and by
exercising.
And finally, in my opinion the
most important thing to keep your lungs healthy, is laughing. Believe it or
not, laughing is a great exercise to work the abdominal muscles and increase
lung capacity, so don’t forget to laugh every day!
I’m really grateful to Heather, who really encouraged me in researching and writing about lung cancer with her heartbreaking story. You can read her story about surviving cancer here.
Here are some of Heather's photos:
Love, Sara
9 comments:
Hello everybody!
Feel free to leave a comment telling me what you think about my blog. I'll read all of them and leave a comment on your blog.
If you start to follow me, don't forget to mention that in a comment, so I can follow you back. :)
Love, Sara