Passive Smoking

You? Smoke? Of course not. Never did, never will. But that doesn’t mean you’re free of all of the health dangers that tobacco smoke can pose. Because every time you sit in the living room with Aunt Madge and her ultra slims or in a restaurant next to Joe Schmoe and his menthols, you’re a passive smoker, breathing in their hazardous secondhand smoke.

The link between passive smoking and lung cancer becomes clearer every day. For example, studies show that children and teens are at greater risk of developing lung cancer sometime in their lives if they grow up in homes with smokers. The smartest thing to do, of course, is avoid secondhand smoke. But that’s not always possible. The natural remedies in this chapter, used with the approval of your doctor, may help lessen the damaging effects of secondhand smoke, according to some health professionals.

Food Therapy

Just as research shows that eating more antioxidant-rich foods can help smokers by reducing at least some of the damage caused by cigarettes, it can also benefit the people around them, says Julian Whitaker, M.D., founder and president of the Whitaker Wellness Center in Newport Beach, California. He says that people who are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke should consume more foods high in beta-carotene (carrots, squash, yams, sweet potatoes and other yellow-orange vegetables) as well as foods rich in vitamin C (citrus fruits, peppers and broccoli) and vitamin E (wheat germ and nuts). For other food sources of vitamin C and vitamin E, see “Getting What You Need” on page 142.

Vitamin and Mineral Therapy

“If you’re around someone who smokes heavily, you need high doses of vitamin C to offset the oxidative damage done by the secondhand smoke,” says Michael Janson, M.D., director of the Center for Preventive Medicine in Barnstable, Massachusetts, and an officer of the American College for Advancement in Medicine. He recommends taking a minimum of 3,000 milligrams of vitamin C a day.

Yoga

After being exposed to secondhand smoke, you can remove bad air from your lungs with a breathing exercise called kapalabhati, says Stephen A. Nezezon, M.D., yoga teacher and staff physician at the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. His instructions: Sit upright in a chair or on the floor, with your legs in a comfortable position. Practice a few minutes of the complete breath exercise (see page 152) to make sure you’re breathing with the aid of your diaphragm. To start kapalabhati, breathe out forcefully, using your stomach muscles and diaphragm. Then relax the muscles and allow air to gently flow into your lungs; the inhalation should be comfortably deep. Repeat this seven to ten times, then return to normal breathing.