Boosting our lungs

Wayne Kublalsingh

I have always felt that our lungs are the engines of our bodies. A doctor once told me it’s the liver. I bow to her superior knowledge. But I still hold the lungs in the highest of esteem. The lungs have a tremendous capacity for revival, resuscitation, recovery and repair. Even now, whatever the state of your lungs, you can boost it. Fortify it. Strengthen it as you commit to all the other drills required to resist viral infections.

In football, coaches kill for players with good engines. Lungs. These players run up and down the pitch for full ninety minutes. I used to have good lungs. In primary school I used to run and run rings around the playfield. We were in training, my friend Wayne told me. I lived high up on a hill in Claxton Bay. Every evening after school, in college, I loved nothing better to eye the hill, laugh at it, run up and destroy its monstrous authority. But then I was struck down. Tuberculosis!

In form three in Naparima College I was in the science class. I stopped going to school for a term and a half. No more Chemistry, Biology and Physics for me, which I enjoyed. It inserted me, after my illness, into a career in Economics, Geography and History, which I pursued in form six. But throughout my bout with the dreaded killer disease (I had a slight attack) I kept on running, using my lungs. I ran the school marathons, nothing more than three milers really, around and round the grounds at Lewis Street, and up and down Paradise Pasture to the San Fernando Hospital and back. My lungs never disappointed. They recovered after two year doses of injections and tetracycline.

In army life you need two vital assets. A good brain and a good engine. It was in Britain. I have been called everything from a Monkey, a Wanker, a Peasant, deprecations against my brain really, but my lungs were unchallengeable. Running with kit, sometimes seventy pounds, and heavy weaponry requires good engines. My lungs never disappointed.

Back in Trinidad, I kept running. But then with activism, came stress. No sooner than you finish one struggle – Chatham, La Brea, Otaheite, Claxton Bay, Pranz Gardens, Savonetta, Debe to Mon Desir, St Augustine Nursuies – than they come again, more tractors! Stress like that! Attacking or prime economic assets for a fistful of dollars. Stress took its toll. Around 2007, I was diagnosed with mild rheumatoid arthritis. Following a particularly violent arrest in Debe in 2012, my contition was aggravated considerably.

Rheumatoid arthritis is an auto-immune disease. The immune system overreacts. It attacks vital organs leading to inflammatory conditions. My lungs were once again under attack. Rheum and inflammation!

Two hunger strikes between 2012 and 2013 did physical harm to kidneys, heart and my undaunted lungs. After seven years they are still not up to mark. However, my rheumatoid arthritis has almost disappeared. As they say, one trouble gone, another come; this is the story of my lungs. A doctor recommended intrusive surgery to my lungs; I said, ‘nah’ leave that alone. ‘Through the eddoes through the corn’.

The covid19 virus attacks the lungs. It migrates deep into the lungs and populates skilfully. In extreme cases morbidity and sepsis set in. Your lungs get clogged! Inflammation sent in to heal, clogs and overpowers. Other organs suffer. Your organs need an engine, your lungs, to supply them with oxygen. The lungs of the species are under mortal attack!

It is vital that we work very hard to protect and boost our lungs. Here are seven recommendations for healthier lungs:

1. Loads of Vitamin C. West Indian cherries, carambola, citrus and a range of local fruits. Use lemon juice in warm water, no sugar please. If it proves impossible to get fruits, get Vitamin C ‘fizzy’ tablets which diffuses readily in the mouth and stomach.

2. Deep breathe. Each morning, find a nice quiet spot and relax, slowly exhale all the air from of your body. Imagine your body is your factory, expelling used air. Hold for seven seconds, breathe in and fill up to the top of your spine, neck. Hold for seven seconds. At first, this might be difficult. But you get used to it. Don’t do too much. You might get bored. Start with three times and then go to seven as time passes.

3. Sunlight. This is a free source of Vitamin D. Vitamin D helps to build your immune system. Ten to fifteen minutes of early morning sun loads you up. Turn like a flower in the sunlight.

4. Exercise. No smoking. Use your porches, corridors, garages, back-yards to walk. In fifteen minutes a day you cover, depending on your pace, one thousand meters to a kilometre. Exercise strengthens your immune system, your lungs and the muscles which support them.

5. Meditate. Meditation is the act of silencing your mind. Once the mind is silenced, you become stress-free. Stress strains the immune system. A properly function immune system protects the lungs.

6. Diet. Avoid acid-forming foods, too much processed sugars. Use green leafy vegetables, cucumbers, carailli, bodi, lentils, walnuts, squash, sweet potatoes, yam, cantaloupe etc. The tulsi leaf, in tea or chewed (two leaves) reduces acid, is alkaline-forming.

7. Rest. Rest heals. Take every opportunity to rest. ‘Sleep is the gift of God’.