Natural Remedies and Prevention Tips

A lung detox helps maintain your lung function by supporting self-cleaning processes. Threats include smoke, pollutants, and age, which can damage your lungs.

Several factors can influence your lung health, including environmental, lifestyle, and genetic factors. 

Environmental 

Your environment significantly impacts your lung health. Exposure to particle pollution—small, sometimes invisible particles in the air—can irritate your airways and lungs, trigger inflammation, and contribute to lung damage and respiratory diseases.

Factors that contribute to poor air quality include:

• Wood burning, such as wildfires, fireplaces, and wood stoves
• Vehicle exhaust 
• Industrial emissions 
• Mold spores
• Fuel-burning appliances 
• Secondhand smoke
• Allergens (e.g., pollen, pet dander, dust mites)
• Chemicals from household cleaning products

Lifestyle 

Lifestyle habits that impact lung health include:

• Activity levels: Staying active trains your lungs to absorb oxygen efficiently for transport to your bloodstream and your body’s tissues. A sedentary lifestyle (lack of physical activity) is associated with reduced lung function. 
• Smoking: Smoking and vaping with e-cigarettes irritate your airways and lung tissues, leading to inflammation and scarring (fibrosis). Inhaling toxins in cigarettes, vapes, and cigars can decrease lung function and cause lung disease.
• Occupation: Exposure to dust, chemicals, metals, or fumes can irritate and damage your airways and lungs. Firefighters, miners, lumber workers, agricultural workers, and people exposed to metals and other irritants have an increased risk of occupation-related lung disease.

Genetic 

Some factors that influence your lung health are not within your control, including:

• Genetics: Certain gene mutations passed down through families can influence lung function and increase your risk of lung disease, including lung cancer.
• Age: Lung function naturally declines with age as muscles and other supportive tissues that keep your airways open lose their strength. The alveoli (lungs’ air sacs) become baggy, and the immune system weakens. These factors can decrease lung function as you get older.

Prolonged or repeated exposure to harmful lung irritants can damage your lungs over time and increase your risk of lung disease. If you have early warning signs of lung damage, see a doctor for an evaluation.

Symptoms of lung damage and disease include:

• Chronic cough lasting eight weeks or longer
• Shortness of breath, especially during physical activity 
• Coughing up mucus or blood 
• Wheezing (high-pitched breathing sounds) 
• Chest discomfort or tightness

Your body has natural defenses to protect your lungs and respiratory health. Mucus, immune cells, and cilia help your lungs detoxify.

Mucociliary Clearance

The inner lining of your airways—the epithelium—traps inhaled pathogens (germs) and particles that may harm your lungs in a thin layer of mucus.

Tiny, hair-like structures called cilia line the epithelium, moving in coordinated waves. These waves propel mucus and trapped dust, germs, allergens, and other threats away from your lungs and into your throat, prompting you to cough or swallow.

This process is highly effective at protecting your lungs from harmful irritants. However, prolonged exposure to these threats, such as smoking or air pollution, can damage the cilia and increase mucus production.

This makes it harder for your body to trap harmful particles from the air, expel mucus, and protect your lungs.

Phagocytosis 

Alveoli are tiny air sacs in the lungs that are essential for exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide.

When foreign particles and pathogens pass your airways’ first line of defense (mucus and cilia), specialized immune cells in the alveoli called alveolar macrophages help detox your lungs.

During phagocytosis, alveolar macrophages capture particles that pass through the mucus layer. They move the particles out of your lungs and into the upper airways or lymphatic system for elimination.

While this process works to remove most foreign particles, smaller-sized threats can evade these cells and linger in your lungs for years.

By making lung-friendly lifestyle choices, you can support your lungs’ natural self-cleaning abilities.

Limit Exposure to Pollutants 

Keep the air in your home clean from pollutants like dust, mold, and chemicals from cleaning products by:

• Using indoor air purifiers
• Changing air conditioning and heating filters regularly
• Using natural cleaning products, such as vinegar, in place of products containing chemicals
• Do not smoke or allow others to smoke in your home

To limit exposure to outdoor pollutants, check the air quality index where you live and avoid exercising outdoors when the air is more polluted.

If your job involves exposure to chemicals, dust, or other irritants, talk to your employer about wearing protective equipment.

Avoid Smoking 

Avoiding smoking and your exposure to secondhand smoke is an important part of protecting your lung health. Smoking paralyzes and destroys cilia, irritates the airways, and causes inflammation, which can cause lung damage and disease over time.

Exercise Regularly 

Regular exercise, especially aerobic activities like brisk walking, running, yard work, and swimming, improves lung function. It makes your body absorb and transport oxygen more efficiently to your body’s tissues.

Muscle-strengthening exercises, like weightlifting, can tone your breathing muscles (e.g., diaphragm) and improve your posture. They make it easier for your lungs to bring in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.

Practice Breathing Exercises

Breathing exercises are a powerful way to improve lung function and respiratory health.

Incorporating breathing exercises into your daily routine can help strengthen your diaphragm. It increases how much oxygen you breathe and allows your lungs to expel stale air that builds up due to decreased lung function.

Breathing exercises that help your lungs function better include:

• Diaphragmatic (deep belly) breathing
• Pursed lip breathing
• Slow, deep breathing
• Relaxation (paced) breathing 

Stay Hydrated 

Drinking water helps thin mucus in your airways, making it easier for your body to clear mucus and trapped debris.

When dehydrated, mucus can become thicker and stickier, slow your breathing rate, and increase the risk of respiratory infections when mucus and germs get trapped in your airways.

Practice Controlled Coughing

Coughing helps clear accumulated mucus and trapped debris from your airways. Controlled coughing is a quick way to expel excess mucus buildup from your airways and make breathing easier.

To engage in controlled coughing, try:

• Sit in a chair with your feet on the floor.
• Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose and hold for two seconds.
• Lean forward in the chair.
• Cough two short coughs.
• Relax and repeat as needed.

Try Herbal Teas

Drinking herbal teas with anti-inflammatory herbs, like ginger or turmeric, may decrease airway inflammation.

Some herbs, such as mullein, have expectorant properties—meaning they help you expel mucus from your airways—and antitussive properties, which soothe a nagging cough.

Talk to a doctor before using herbal supplements. Some herbs may not be safe for everyone and can interact with medications.

Healthy lifestyle habits can support your lungs’ natural self-cleaning mechanisms. However, there are times when medical treatments are necessary.

A chronic cough, shortness of breath, wheezing, and chest pain or tightness may be signs of an underlying lung disease, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Medical treatments for lung damage and disease focus on addressing the underlying cause of your symptoms to decrease their frequency and severity, not attempting a “detox.”

Depending on your diagnosis, treatments may include:

• Bronchodilators: These medications relax the airway muscles to make breathing easier. 
• Anti-inflammatory drugs: Inhaled corticosteroids decrease inflammation and mucus production in the airways. A doctor may prescribe oral corticosteroids (taken by mouth) for a short period if your symptoms worsen.
• Antibiotics: If you develop a bacterial respiratory infection, antibiotics can help your body kill the bacteria to fight the infection and promote healing.  
• Oxygen therapy: People with severe lung damage and hypoxemia (low blood oxygen levels) may need supplemental oxygen to boost oxygen levels and prevent complications. 
• Pulmonary rehabilitation: This method combines exercise, education, and counseling to help people with chronic lung conditions manage symptoms and live well. 

The idea of a quick fix for lung health is appealing—a quick Google search for “lung detox products” shows a vast array of options, from supplements to inhalers to teas. 

Be wary of products that claim to “detoxify your lungs in three days.” These claims lack scientific evidence to support them. Individual ingredients in some products may have properties that are beneficial to lung health, but their effectiveness in “detoxifying” is unproven.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not regulate herbal supplements and other “lung detox” products, which may contain ingredients that are more harmful than helpful. Products you inhale can irritate the airways and worsen respiratory conditions.

Rather than relying on unproven remedies, focus on supporting your lungs’ natural detoxification process by adopting healthy habits and seeking medical guidance for any concerns. 

You can keep your lungs healthy and protect them from damage by making simple, healthy lifestyle choices:

• Eat a nutritious diet, including fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains.
• Avoid smoking and secondhand smoke exposure.
• Exercise regularly.
• Stay hydrated with plenty of water.
• Limit exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollution.
• Practice deep breathing.
• Wash your hands frequently, and avoid exposure to people with respiratory illnesses (e.g., common cold, flu).
• Stay up to date on your vaccines, including pneumococcal pneumonia and COVID-19.
• Get regular check-ups with a doctor.
• Listen to your body, and seek medical attention if you have symptoms of lung damage like a chronic cough, shortness of breath, wheezing, and chest pain.

• Eat a nutritious diet, including fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains.
• Avoid smoking and secondhand smoke exposure.
• Exercise regularly.
• Stay hydrated with plenty of water.
• Limit exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollution.
• Practice deep breathing.
• Wash your hands frequently, and avoid exposure to people with respiratory illnesses (e.g., common cold, flu).
• Stay up to date on your vaccines, including pneumococcal pneumonia and COVID-19.
• Get regular check-ups with a doctor.
• Listen to your body, and seek medical attention if you have symptoms of lung damage like a chronic cough, shortness of breath, wheezing, and chest pain.