Dear Health Conscious Reader,
Today is my 53rd birthday and to celebrate I invited some of my family out West.
We’re here in Flagstaff preparing to climb Humphreys Peak, Arizona’s highest mountain. My brother Dave and my son Dylan are here with me. Tomorrow morning we leave base camp.
The climb will take the entire day and with an elevation of 12,633 feet, the high altitude will be a real challenge. But my lungs are up for it.
I recently measured my lung strength with a “Vo2 max” test at my clinic. I scored better than what an 18-year-old is expected to do. Not bad for someone in their 50s.
Your Vo2 max is the amount of oxygen you can use in a given time period. It’s a good way to measure your true lungpower. A lot my patients have lungs that act much older than they really are. And that’s bad news.
Your lungs are your number one risk factor of dying… of all causes.
That’s what the independent, longest-running study in medical history, the Framingham Heart Study, concluded. And a study by the American College of Chest Physicians not only confirmed this, it also found that even people with only moderate lung impairment risked an early death.
I know this from my own practice as well. Reconditioning your heart and lungs is the foundation of my PACE program.
With the right type of exertion you can rebuild your lungpower. It’s not pseudoscience or fantasy. Most people are skeptical, but I have definitive proof. A German doctor in the late 1960s and early 1970s proved that elderly men who practice an aspect of PACE could have the lungpower of someone in their 30s or 40s.
You’ll discover more of the details when the new edition of my PACE book comes out. But I’ve tested this technique on myself as well. That’s why I consider mountain climbing to be a “worthy challenge.” The higher you go, the harder it is for you to breathe. Your lungs need to be in top shape.
But you don’t need a mountain to get the right type of challenge. You can boost your lungpower right at home… right in your own neighborhood.
I have patients in Cincinnati that live near a hill. They practice PACE by walking up the hill as fast as they can. And by now they can run up the hill. He’s in his 70s and she’s in her 60s. They say it’s changed their lives.
Do you live on a hilly street? Is there a park in your town with a hill? You can follow their PACE workout too.
Here’s how you do it:
Start by walking up the hill. Measure your heart rate when you get to the top after walking. Then walk slowly down the hill.
The next time you go up the hill, give yourself more of a challenge. If you walked the first time, then “power walk” the next time. Get your arms out in front of you and move your hips when you walk. Take your heart rate again, stop and relax. Get a drink of water.
On your third time up the hill, try jogging. You’ll start to notice that it takes more effort for each set. You’ll be winded and panting. This is what we call “oxygen debt.” When your body realizes that you are demanding more oxygen, it triggers the adaptive response of increasing your lung size.
If you feel light-headed or dizzy, stop and relax. Respect your limits.
Even if you don’t have a hill or a park in your neighborhood, if you think creatively, you can find opportunities in your daily life to practice PACE. Try this: The next time you go to the grocery store, park as far away as possible and speed walk to the store.
Or if you live near the beach, try walking as fast as you can in sand.
You’ll be amazed by the results.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD