Runner, Save Your Breath
Q: I run to work, so I have to put up with lungfuls of car exhaust. Is it doing me any harm? Should I wear a breathing mask?
A: Remember, when you run, your lungs inhale 10 times the amount of air they do when you’re simply breathing. If you can avoid the evil exhaust, do so. “it absolutely can do you harm,” says Alfred Munzer, M.D., a lung specialist at Adventist Hospital, Washington, D.C. The chemical brutes are sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, and hydrocarbons. These substances irritate the lungs and actually constrict the air passages, making it difficult to breathe. A mask won’t help: It doesn’t filter the fine particles and gases of exhaust. Worse yet, you’ll look like Michael Jackson.
So I don’t recommend overexerting yourself in front of cars in a city area because you will get 10x carcinogens. I recently joined an indoor gym after given a free trial for a few days from a friend. What sold me was their steam room–the perfect sweat-detox, cherry-on-top ending to a workout 
However, I will have to learn more about the steam-room because I might be subjecting my lungs to the city’s vaporized-water/eucalyptus-mix. It is quite delicious though, so I don’t know if I want to know it’s deep, dark chlorine-filled secrets. I could just switch to using the sauna instead (which Dr. Weil also recommends in his straight-forward book 8 weeks to Optimum Health). The muscle relaxation is pleasant and addictive. Afterward you take a shower and that’s when it really ‘sears in the juices’ for maximum endorphin rush 
The heat in a steam room is great place to stretch too (never stretch cold muscles).
People say gyms are boring compared to sports or moving around outside, but I just see them as a safe alternative (less competition, less injuries due to overexertion) for me. The fluoro-lights are a bit bright/harsh so I’ll put on my polarized shades to lower the intensity, and just listen to an audiobook with noise-canceling headphones and drown out the background music. I don’t count reps on anything and just engross myself in a book. I now consider going to the gym an educative resource, like a library, and afterward I feel like I’m coming back from a health-spa (see my little ‘sears in the juices’ comment). Plus a grocery store is on the way back so I’ll be in the healthy mindset to shop for healthy produce. I’m listening to In Defense of Food right now (it’s a fair compendium of the nutritional pitfalls and whiplash America has gone through and he lays out the most current findings and refinements that seem seem almost counter-intuitive).
I used to relax at the end of a day with a 30 minute bath but haven’t had one for 2 years (only a shower head) so I’ll hit up the gym’s hot tub and zen out for a bit 
(relaxation and avoiding stress are important at keeping inflammation down). I’ll also sip on my green smoothie to sustain my energy levels and this allows me to workout for 2-3 hours or more without feeling fatigued (I could never achieve this when I was a freshmen in college sipping the high-fructose Gatorade/Powerades). The 40oz smoothie also fits in a backpack for when I walk my dog –I haven’t given up walking outside– I find it beneficial for a general sense of well-being. 8 Weeks to Optimum Health recommends walking even if you already have a primary form of exercise: it’s the most basic, low-intensity, easily-learned routine anyone can do — and do for long periods of time for the rest of our lives (great for regulating insulin, and great for getting a good night’s sleep). So always take the opportunity to walk to your locations, and climb stairs when you can (sometimes that’s primary form of exerise on busy days).
Here is an excerpt on indoor air quality from my favorite book Transcend (pass it on to parents and friends):
How much clean air do we need?
Many of us wonder what Lee Iacoca, former CEO of Chrysler, had in mind when he said, “We’ve got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?” There’s no question the air we breathe is hazardous to our health. From factories and power plants to planes, trains, and automobiles, we pump an enormous amount of toxins into the sky every day. With the increasing emphasis on reducing the energy used to heat and cool our homes and work places, we are insulating and caulking every last crevice, sealing in even more indoor air pollutants, including outgassing from plastics and other materials, vapors from solvents and cleaners, and tobacco smoke.
Your best defense is to reduce your exposure. Some simple things you can do to limit airborne toxins:
- Conventional “all-purpose,” oven, and toilet cleaners, glass cleaners, and detergents contain toxic ingredients. Lemon juice, baking soda, borax, and vinegar can be used instead and are nontoxic. (See “Home and Work Hazards” below for specific suggestions.) Commercially available products from Earth Friendly, Ecover, and Seventh Generation are also safe.
- Keep insects at bay with botanical-based pest control products.
- Use stand-alone air filters. Indoor air contains bacteria, viruses, dust mites, pollen, smoke, dead skin, and more. You want a device that removes both large particles that you can see as well as microscopic particles such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi.
- Keep lots of houseplants–plants are ideal for reducing airborne toxins such as benzene and formaldehyde that air filters can’t remove.
- Keep printers, copiers, and fax machines as far as possible from your workspace and ventilate the area where these machines are used. The toner cartridges in laser printers, for example, release ultrafine particles that are inhales into the lungs at a rate comparable to that from a burning cigarette.
- Wear water-washable clothing, and if you must dry clean, let clothes “outgas” outdoors or in your garage before bringing them into your home. The main solvent used in dry cleaning, perchloroethylene, is on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s list of suspected carcinogens. People who live in the neighborhoods of dry cleaners appear to have increased rates of cancer.
- Install a gas fireplace to avoid toxins put out by wood-burning fireplaces and wood- or coal-burning stoves.
- Install a radon mitigation system if test show infiltration through your foundation. Radon gas is formed from the radioactive decay of uranium found in rock and soil. The EPA has found that one in 15 homes has unsafe levels of radon, with higher levels in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions. Inhalation of radon gas is the second leading cause of lung cancer (after cigarette smoking) and has been linked to over 21,000 deaths per year in the United States.
- Most important, don’t smoke or allow others to smoke in your home, and avoid venues where smoking is allowed.
So radon is the #2 cause of lung cancer after smoking. A good idea is to open a window every day to flush out indoor toxins. And it may be a good idea to not officially live in the “Midwest and Rocky Mountain regions (see speckled orange)” as radon may be present in many indoor areas. Cold areas may be extra susceptible because of all the insulation.
Oprah’s Dr. Oz (who looks similar to the late Patrick Swayze who died of cancer) immediately mentions radon when talking to this woman in Tennessee:
I live and work on the first floor of my apartment and I have a radon test kit now. Time to test this place for the good of all that live in this apartment. The instructions say I have to keep the windows closed for 12 hours, then deploy these two camera-roll sized caps out for 48 hours to collect any air debris. If I test positive maybe I can use that as an excuse to move away to Hawaii or at least one of those sunbelt, non-Midwest, non-Rocky Mountain states.
