Exercise has many benefits. First, it decreases shortness of breath and improves your energy level. It also decreases the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, depression, high blood sugar and side effects from medicine (steroids). Exercise increases bone strength, muscle strength, endurance, relaxation and restful sleep. Overall, exercise will improve your quality of life.

By using coordinated breathing techniques and starting out slowly, you will be able to find an exercise program that works for you. When you have shortness of breath, it can cause you to become anxious. This can lead to inactivity. The more inactive you are, the more short of breath you become. The increased shortness of breath in turn increases your anxiety about activity. This is called the “Vicious Cycle of Dyspnoea.” If you exercise, you can beat this cycle. This will give you more energy, decrease your level of breathlessness (dyspnoea) and decrease some of the anxiety that comes with being short of breath. 

Often, participating in a pulmonary rehabilitation program can help one resume regular physical activity.

Shortness of breath in COPD is caused by too much air remaining in the lungs, decreasing the amount of room left in the lungs to breathe. Pursed lip breathing will help you feel less short of breath by reducing the amount of trapped air in the lungs, giving you more room to breathe. It also helps increase your oxygen saturation. Pursed lip breathing causes a positive pressure in your airways, keeping them open longer while you are breathing out. This helps move air out of your lungs more easily, thus allowing fresh air to come into the lungs.

If your health care provider has prescribed oxygen for activity, it is very important that you wear it when you exercise. Oxygen is prescribed when the oxygen level in your blood drops below an acceptable level either at rest or with activity. Using your prescribed oxygen will allow you to feel less shortness of breath when you are active and allow you to do more. Wearing your oxygen will not make you become “addicted” to it. It only makes up for what your lungs are unable to do at that time.

Generally, this may occur because of your breathing technique. Two possible explanations may be:

• If you did not apply the coordinated breathing technique while climbing the stairs, you may feel more short of breath after the task due to the energy expended. You asked your muscles to do more work while climbing the stairs. Your body needs an increased amount of oxygen as it is rapidly trying to pump it to all of your muscles. If the oxygen need is greater than the demand or your capacity, you may feel more short of breath.
• If you were so focused on coordinating your breathing with the rhythm of stair climbing that when you stopped, your coordinated breathing stopped as well, breathe slowly, deeply, and rhythmically with a focus as you exhale throughout the stair climbing activity to decrease your feeling of breathlessness.

This is a good question to ask your health care provider. Some people may need to continue oxygen therapy routinely to maintain the oxygen level in their blood. We all need oxygen to survive and for our bodies to operate more efficiently and effectively. It is important that you have the proper levels of oxygen in your body so that your heart and lungs are not working too hard and/or inefficiently. Depending on the progression of your disease, sometimes exercise will help your body systems work more effectively and may decrease the amount of supplemental oxygen needed.

No, even if you used tobacco for many years, you will benefit from quitting smoking. When you quit smoking, the lung damage will progress more slowly. In addition, your breathing and response to your medicines may noticeably improve.

Not necessarily, do ask your doctor about a breathing test, known as spirometry. Spirometry is a better test for detecting early stages of lung damage. A chest X-ray is more likely to show COPD at a later stage, when there is more damage.

Fortunately, there are other steps that you can take to lessen your risk of lung infections with COPD. Ask your health care provider about the yearly flu vaccine (every fall) and the pneumonia vaccines. The pneumonia vaccines prevent common types of bacterial pneumonia. Avoid touching your nose, mouth or eyes, and wash your hands thoroughly (with soap) and frequently. Good hand washing is one of the easiest and best ways to avoid getting all sorts of infections. Keep in mind that it is still important to avoid close contact with people who are coughing and sneezing.

Quitting smoking is the one thing you can do that has been proven to slow the progression of COPD

There is no time limit on how long a person can live, even with very severe COPD. If you exercise safely and effectively, and pay attention to early warning signs of acute exacerbation of COPD—and act on those early warning signs—you can live a full life.

To remain stable and eliminate or decrease these episodes, you must learn about triggers, early warning signs of COPD flare-ups (exacerbations), and have a written action plan worked out with your health care provider. Taking your medications as prescribed will also help you stay healthy. Make sure you take your flu and pneumonia shots. Quitting smoking also help reduce the number of exacerbations you may get.

A trained respiratory health care professional can teach you techniques to keep yourself calm, even when you’re short of breath. Participation in pulmonary rehabilitation is the best way to learn and get reinforcement for this important issue. There is also treatment available, so be sure to bring this up at your next health care provider appointment.