My TruDiagnostic results came back in May.

Biological age: 45.8. Chronological age: 54. Telomeres running 13 years younger than my body. Inflammation markers in the top 93% for women my age. Organ system after organ system aging slowly, quietly, ahead of schedule.

And then one number.

My lung age: 53.6.

Essentially my chronological age. The oldest system in the entire report. Every other part of me was running years ahead. My lungs were keeping pace with the calendar and nothing more.

I sat with that for a long time. Because it made no sense on the surface. I have never smoked a single day in my life. I run almost every day. I have built a life around movement and attention to what my body needs. My lungs should have been ahead too.

So I went looking.

I live in Long Beach, California. I work in a warehouse. And in January 2025, I lived through the Eaton Fire.

I remember the air. I remember how thick it was, how long it stayed that way, how it settled into everything. What I did not fully understand until I went looking is that the Eaton Fire was not just a wildfire. It destroyed more than nine thousand structures. When structures burn, the smoke carries an entirely different load than burning brush does. Lead. Asbestos. Benzene. Formaldehyde. Heavy metals from cars and appliances and decades of building materials. That air moved through my lungs for weeks.

My body processed something serious. The report was reading the aftermath.

The curiosity that started with one number sent me somewhere I needed to go. And once I understood the reasons I could account for, I knew exactly what to do about them.

9,418. The number of structures destroyed in the Eaton Fire.

That number matters because of what burning structures release. Wildland fire smoke is one thing. Structural fire smoke is a different category of exposure entirely. Every material in every home, every car, every building that burned contributed to what was in the air across Los Angeles for weeks in January 2025.

I was breathing it. My lungs were doing their job. That is what lungs do. They filter, they process, they take in whatever is in the air and they keep you alive. Mine did exactly that.

The second number: Long Beach sits alongside one of the busiest ports in the world. Diesel particulate from trucks and ships moves through the air around the clock. The 710 freeway corridor adds to it. The EPA's regional air quality average does not capture what is happening block by block near the port. The reading on your phone and the air in your neighborhood can be two different things entirely.

My lungs were not failing. They were keeping pace with what they had been given.

That distinction changed how I approached everything that followed.

I am treating my lungs the way I would treat any system in the body that is worth protecting: with intention and with specificity.

I have invested in two Winix C535 air purifiers, one for my home in Roanoke and one for Long Beach. The CADR rating on the C535 is strong enough to turn over the air in a room several times per hour. The washable pre-filter means the ongoing cost is low and the maintenance is sustainable. The air I breathe inside my home is now within my control in a way it was not before.

I am running by the clock and the wind. Early morning in Los Angeles, before 8am, before ground-level ozone has had time to build. Routes that move toward the water and away from the 710 corridor. After rain, when the air is as clean as it gets. I am also breathing differently on those runs: in through the nose, out through the mouth. The nose filters, warms, and humidifies air before it reaches the lungs. Mouth breathing during exercise bypasses every one of those protections. That one shift costs nothing.

Shoes come off at the door. Particles from outside settle into floors and get redistributed through every step indoors. Keeping them out is one of the simplest interventions available.

I am also researching NAC, N-acetyl cysteine, a precursor to glutathione with peer-reviewed support for respiratory health and lung tissue protection. Pulmonologists have used it clinically for decades. Given what my lungs processed in January 2025, it is worth a serious conversation with my doctor.

My lung age is 53.6. I intend to see a different number at my next report.

Download PurpleAir.

Not AirNow. Not the weather app. PurpleAir uses hyperlocal sensors placed throughout neighborhoods and shows you the actual air quality on your specific block, in real time, right now.

Open it and look at where you live. Then look at where you run, where your children play, where you spend time outdoors. The regional average your phone has been showing you and the air in your neighborhood may be two different readings entirely. In cities like Los Angeles, sometimes a single mile separates clean from concerning.

You cannot make decisions about when to open your windows, when to run, or when to keep your children inside based on a regional average. You need your number. PurpleAir gives you your number.

Download it tonight. Look at what you have been breathing.

Stay curious. Stay in charge.

— Holly