Our lungs do a lot for us. Even though most of us don’t think of the lungs as something we can exercise, it’s possible to take steps to help them work better.

The air we breathe can be contaminated with many kinds of pollutants. Everything from pollen, to chemicals, to secondhand smoke can be trapped in the air and enter our lungs.

Our lungs are mostly a self-cleaning organ, but there are certain things you can do to help them function at the optimal level. A lung cleanse may be helpful for individuals who have a health condition that causes breathing difficulties, such as asthma, COPD, or cystic fibrosis.The human body demonstrates an amazing ability to promote the healing of itself, and the lungs are no exception. However, long-term inhalation of smoke, smog or other harmful substances can overcome the lungs’ ability to flush themselves clean.

There are many ways you can practice a lung cleanse, including making lifestyle changes and performing exercises to help drain the lungs of fluid. Here’s the complete list of five tips for keeping your lungs clean.

Stop smoking!

If you have been a long-term smoker—of anything, be it cigarettes, a pipe, or marijuana—your lungs are scarred. Tobacco smoke in particular contains carbon monoxide (poison), tar (gums up those little air sacs we need to breathe), and a plethora of additives Big Tobacco has so infamously added to keep smokers smoking (more poison).

Smoking tobacco is one of the leading causes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Smoking can also cause emphysema and lung cancer. The toxins from cigarettes can cause damaging inflammation in the bronchus, making it difficult to breathe.

New studies have found that some companies use a flavouring in e-cigarettes which comes from a toxic chemical called Diacetyl. This chemical has been linked to constrictive bronchiolitis, a rare and life-threatening form of non-reversible obstructive lung disease in which the bronchioles are compressed and narrowed by scar tissue and/or inflammation.