COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, can be tough to manage. With symptoms like wheezing, chest tightness, coughing, and overall shortness of breath, it’s no wonder that everyday activities become more difficult.
There’s no cure for COPD so it’s often that many patients feel hopeless when it comes to improving their breathing. But it’s important to remember (even though there’s no cure) that the disease is manageable.
There are many ways to manage your COPD, rooted in easing your breathing and adding your lung support.
Analyze and Change Your Diet
Choosing the right foods for you is all about choosing which nutrients you need the most. Your body needs nutrients to function successfully, and by getting the right nutrients, your body can support the lungs and the air transferring from it.
For a few days, or maybe a week, it would be vital to pay attention to the foods you eat, and how they make you feel after you eat them. If you’re starting to notice that your favorite snack causes you to be tired for the next hour or so, take a look at the label and figure out what could be the cause. Is it sodium? Is it carbohydrates?
Take note and continue the process.
If you eat a snack or a meal and you find that you have more energy, or at the very least, the same amount of energy, take a look at what’s in that food. Then compare it to the other ingredients you took note of. Find out what’s helping and what’s hurting you.
Foods like french fries may have been fine before your COPD diagnosis but could now cause you harm due to the increased sodium. Foods you didn’t care to eat before like avocados, could now be essential going forward because they provide the right fats and fiber.
These small changes to your diet can better aid your lungs and help your body function better with COPD.
RELATED: 4 Breathing Techniques to Ease COPD Symptoms
Actually Drink Water
Every health tip in the world seems to have this one, but it never seems to be taken seriously.
Besides the fact that drinking water is a general necessity, it more specifically helps with breathing when
