Rehab Select Blog

Have you recently been diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD? If so, you're not alone. Approximately 24 million people in the US currently live with this disease.

Coping with COPD doesn't necessarily mean you have to give up your normal life however. Instead, you can learn how to manage your disease so that you can live fully and actively.

COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder) represents two conditions and their associated symptoms. Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are both symptoms that are present in and related to COPD. As a result, patients can suffer from oxidative stress, which makes it imperative that rehab professionals combine their care efforts with a dietitian to plan meals that reduce breathlessness or shortness of breath.

Since there is no cure for chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD), learning to live with and manage the condition is vital. Physicians will recommend pulmonary rehabilitation as part of a comprehensive treatment plan, but ultimately, it is the lifestyle changes that may have the greatest impact. Those affected with this condition find that what they do at home makes them feel better, and according to the Mayo Clinic, slows lung damage at the same time.

It is a challenge people living with COPD face; how to accommodate their disease without giving up the benefit of regular exercise. It might seem that exercise is impossible when you have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but really, the opposite is true, according to the American Lung Association. A sedentary lifestyle will only make breathing difficulties worse.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease that makes breathing difficult for sufferers. There are multiple reasons why a person could find it difficult to breathe, ranging from decreased elasticity of the airways to increased inflammation of the airways.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affects more than 6.3 percent of American adults. It's a life-threatening lung disease that kills millions of people every year.