Respiratory Health: From the Layman’s Desk

Right from secondary school, we’ve always been taught that respiration deals with breathing, and I have decided to follow the biology class for the purpose of this study. As much as you may not want a secondary school student giving you a tutorial on respiratory health, spoiler alert, that’s exactly what I am doing.

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By the way, what was biology like in your secondary school? Can you still remember a thing or two, just like I did? Enter the comment section.

As simple as breathing in and out seems, I have seen people lose their breath, gasp for breath, or have a breathing issue one way or another. Asides the technical terms and medical jargon, a few things I believe we can do aside from visiting a doctor (lol! They thought I shaded them) are to take a few precautions, which I’ll try to summarize and give practical examples as much as possible (you are in for a treat; the secondary school boy wants to lecture, lol).

Where I grew up, I often saw lots of cars with bad engines emitting crazy smoke, which polluted the air, and people didn’t see this as a problem. One of the major dangers to the respiratory health of humans is pollution. In a country like Nigeria, only a few urban locations are not affected by the highlighted concern (kindly let me know if pollution affects your territory too and how). A lot of people sniff these emitted smokes and develop complications from the effects. How can we curb this? As a driver, make sure your car's engine is in good condition (if you know of any related hive accounts on car maintenance, kindly recommend them). Cover your nose if you find yourself in a smoky area (a lot of people brag and sniff the smoke, feeling like they’ve achieved a feat!)

While I was in secondary school, I had a lot of friends, but there were two guys relevant to this piece. Tobi and Niyi always sit very close. There was this day when Tobi had a cold and catarrh, and he sneezed several times. As kids, we don’t count sneezing or yawning as anything, so covering the mouth or nose wasn’t really something to worry about (surprisingly, some adults don’t care either). We were surprised that Niyi came down with the same flu the next day.
Lastly, I’ll say to mind what goes into your mouth; don’t just eat anything new or just anything you feel like eating. Also, go for a periodic medical checkup to detect any respiratory defects you may have.

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At this juncture, I would love to invite medical gurus and health experts to drop in on this writeup. Thank you.