With COVID wreaking havoc on our daily lives, there is a need to increase the oxygen levels of our bodies, now more than ever before. This is because the disease is known to affect the lung capacity adversely as well as reduce the levels of oxygen in our blood. While there are numerous tips which you can incorporate in your lives to protect yourself from this dangerous disease, this article is not really about that. If you need more information on the same, you may want to refer to the previous article which is up on our website blog.
In this article, we will be discussing the various ways which can help you to improve the oxygen levels of your body, without the use of any external sources or machines. This practice is more important now than ever to safeguard yourself from the repercussions of coronavirus. If your oxygen levels are satisfactory or good, chances are that even if you do end up getting affected with the disease, it will not be able to have any major harmful impact on your lungs or your overall health and wellness in the long run. Read on to know all about these ways.
- Engage In Yoga Regularly:
Yoga has many amazing health benefits, apart from helping to increase your body’s oxygen levels. Yoga has been around for a long time in our country but it has gained popularity all over the world these days and rightfully so. Few physical activities can provide the host of benefits which yoga can, hence there are so many people who swear by it. Some basic asanas can increase your lung capacity and help you to take in more oxygen. This will also lead to most of your bodily functions working well in the long run. Make it a point to engage in it for at least thirty minutes every single day.
- Practice Deep Breathing:
If doing yoga on a regular basis is not up your alley, you can definitely practice deep breathing instead and get largely the same results. The benefits of deep breathing include cooling down your body, helping you to relax your mind as well as get a good night’s sleep. The best thing about practicing deep breathing is that you do not need any special equipment to do it and you can engage in it at any particular time in the day, although it has been proven that doing it early in the morning increases your oxygen intake.
- Keep A Regular Check On It:
One of the worst things about getting afflicted with coronavirus is that it can hit very unexpectedly and lead to a sudden fall in your oxygen levels. So checking your oxygen levels on a regular basis with the aid of a pulse oximeter can prove to be extremely helpful in this regard. There are no known detriments to checking your oxygen so you can even do it twice or thrice in a single day, owing to your particular needs. If you notice that your oxygen levels are anywhere below 91 consistently, you may want to consult your doctor about the same.
- Spend More Time Breathing In Fresh Air:
Breathing in fresh air is extremely important for our overall health and wellbeing. This is because if you stay indoors for a long period of time, the air inside is bound to get stale after some amount of time. This can reduce the level of oxygen which you are able to breathe in. Therefore, fashion it into your schedule to get up earlier in the morning to spend some time outdoors. The air at that time is fresher in comparison to any other time of the day due to lesser pollution as well as plants letting out oxygen all around you.
- Make Sure Your Home Is Well Ventilated:
This next point ties in with our previous point of breathing in more fresh air on a regular basis. With strict curfew and lockdown regulations imposed by the government, we all are spending most of our time indoors these days. As we have mentioned before, the air inside your house or your room can get stale after a few hours. Therefore it is imperative to make sure that your entire house is well ventilated at all times. This will continuously bring in fresh oxygen from outside for you to breathe in. Keeping your doors and windows open can really help with cross ventilation of air in your house.
- Lay In The Proning Position:
With more and more people suffering from the side effects of coronavirus these days, scientists have come up with a position called proning which has been proven to increase the level of oxygen in your blood almost instantaneously. This is especially helpful in the case that the patient’s oxygen levels are falling rapidly and an oxygen cylinder is not available immediately. It involves periodically lying on your belly, then facing one side, sitting up with legs extended forward and then facing the other side. If you need a more in depth tutorial on this position, you can look up videos of how to do this in a proper way.
- Incorporate Antioxidants Rich Foods In Your Diet:
The one major benefit of incorporating foods which contain a good amount of antioxidants in your diet is that they help to make your body use oxygen in a much more efficient way. This can help in making sure that the oxygen which you are breathing in, is utilised fully in a proper way. Some antioxidant rich foods which you can make a part of your daily diet are berries like blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and green leafy vegetables such as spinach, cabbage, kale and broccoli. If you have trouble eating them in their raw form, you can blend them up and consume them easily as smoothies.
So now that you have seen all the different ways through which you can increase the level of oxygen in your body, make it a point to share this useful information with all your near and dear ones who may need it. Keeping your oxygen levels healthy and consistent can go a long way in making sure that you are safeguarded from COVID.