I had a scuba diving medical a few years back and one part of the medical was to take a peak flow reading. My result was terrible, and the doctor said that she should really have failed me for the test, although kindly she didn't, but she told me to get more exercise.

So out of curiosity I have recently bought a peak flow reading. The readings are still terrible. I'm male, 39 and 5' 10'' so I believe an appropriate reading would be around 640. I get readings of 510-530. I don't smoke and I do in fact get quite a lot of exercise, so I don't know why my readings should be so low. Should I be worried?

It doesn't seem to be a problem from day to day, although I do some mountaineering and when I'm doing something very physically demanding on the mountain I really start to struggle, even compared to people whom I believe are less fit than me.

Hi
It may well be that you are fit and healthy!
Peak flow is usually a good measure of lung function, but it's really good for looking at change over time.
Recommended values are based on age, gender, body mass and ethnicity. So lots of factors are variable and can change.
Plus some people have small lungs or some are better at doing the test than others so will get better/worse results.
Does this help?
Best wishes

Thanks. I am very healthy apart from this. I've taken my age, gender and height into account in determining what my reading should be. And I'm white Caucasian so I don't think my ethnicity could explain the abnormal reading.

So I guess I just have small lungs and it's not really worth worrying about. Getting more exercise seems to make no difference - I've been doing rowing exercises over the last month and haven't noticed any improvement at all. I suppose I just have to live with it, although as I say, it can be a bit limiting physically, which is frustrating.

Maybe also this is more a reflection of a small airway rather than small lungs?