5 ways to have a better day with COPD
Living with COPD can be challenging, but small changes to your daily routine—like eating a healthy breakfast, staying active, and staying connected—can help you breathe easier and feel better.
No one needs to tell you how having chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can affect your mood — and quality of life. But there are five simple things you can do throughout the day to help boost your energy and ease symptoms.
Find top doctors near you
Discovering a doctor or specialist near you is easier than ever.
Start your search
Eat a healthy breakfast
Making healthy choices in the morning is a good way for someone with COPD to kick off their day. You’re more likely to feel energetic enough to prep and eat a bigger meal at that time. Try to include foods that have a more positive effect on your breathing, like proteins and heart-healthy fats.
Here’s why: Our bodies produce more carbon dioxide when we metabolize carbohydrates than when we eat protein or fat. COPD can make it harder for your lungs to remove carbon dioxide from your body, which makes it more difficult to breathe.
You don’t have to avoid carbs altogether. Just focus on complex ones, like whole grains (think oats), fruits and/or vegetables. So, for instance, rather than starting the day with a bowl of sugary cereal, try eating a cup of whole-milk yogurt with berries or scrambled eggs with avocados.
Go for a walk
Walking is a low-impact way to help ease shortness of breath and fatigue, improve physical fitness and ease feelings of anxiety and depression in people who have COPD. Try to carve out time for a 20-minute walk a few times a week, or break them up into two 10-minute walks.
If walking isn’t your preference, try swimming, water aerobics, or biking three or four times a week. All can help people with COPD use oxygen more efficiently. Resistance training, such as using hand weights or resistance bands, can improve your breathing too.
Plus, the more you move, the easier it will be to keep being active. Even if exercise won’t fully restore your lung function, it does strengthen your muscles and heart. That keeps you stronger and may help you feel less winded over time.
If you’re not exercising already, or if your mobility is limited, talk to your doctor about tailoring an exercise plan that works for you.
Medications your way
Stay hydrated
Drinking water throughout the day can also make it easier for you to breathe. It helps make mucus thinner, so it’s easier to cough out. Try to drink between 6 to 8 glasses of water, or some other noncaffeinated beverage, each day. Soup counts, as do fruits and veggies with high water content, like melons, strawberries, and cucumbers.
Just pay close attention to how much water you’re sipping if you also have heart disease, as too much fluid may lead to heart failure, warns Natalia Moguillansky, M.D. She is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Florida Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. If you fall into this category, be sure to follow your doctor’s recommendations.
Catch up with friends
The physical challenges of COPD can affect your mood and emotional health. That’s why it’s important to stay connected with the supportive people in your life. Whether you do that in person or online, “all socialization is good,” says Dr. Mouguillansky.
Joining a support group with people who understand and share your experience is another great way to socialize and lower your stress and anxiety levels. There are groups online and in person. Go to the American Lung Association to find one.
Use your inhaler before bedtime
Evenings can be rough for some people with COPD. “People with uncontrolled COPD and asthma may have more symptoms, especially a cough, at night,” explains Dr. Moguillansky.
If this is the case for you, “taking the inhaler prior to bedtime may help,” Dr. Moguillansky suggests. If you’re not currently using one, talk with your doctor about prescribing one.
