By Geoffrey Hogan (M.Ost) Farringdon Osteopaths
With the seasons changing, our likelihood of getting seasonal respiratory illnesses increases. This coincides with more time spent indoors and a decrease in vitamin D levels due to lack of sunlight exposure. There are ways that we can improve our resilience during the darker seasons. An important thing that we can do is to supplement the vitamin D that we are not getting from sunlight exposure. According to the World Health Organization this should be 600 international units (IU) per day.
In addition to this we can help our respiratory system to function better by doing activities that engage our full lung capacity. A fantastic exercise for this is swimming. Swimming encourages rotation and movement through the rib cage whilst forcing the swimmer to use their full lung capacity. This is a great work-out for the respiratory system.
Yoga is also a very effective exercise for the respiratory system as it includes mobilization of the rib cage whilst simultaneously focusing on breathing.
Other exercises and activities that focus on breathing such as pilates and singing as well as any cardiovascular exercise that leaves you out of breath is helping the respiratory system also.
Taking vitamin D and doing at least one exercise regularly that challenges the respiratory system will not prevent you from being exposed to pathogens. However, it will certainly give you a greater capacity to fight off respiratory infections that you may become exposed to over the coming months.