Those who struggle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have a difficult fight every day. For most, taking a breath is the most natural thing in the world but for those with this disease, there is a struggle for every breath. There are two different types of lung conditions associated with COPD, those with emphysema and those with bronchitis. Together these conditions can reduce the amount of oxygen taken into the lungs causing shortness of breath, wheezing, and a chronic cough with phlegm. Depending on the extent of disease, it can affect your ability to function normally when doing even the most basic things. However, there are COPD breathing basics that can be done to improve your ability to get more oxygen into your lungs.
Breathing Exercises
Sometimes, patients need to learn how to breathe in order to get more oxygen into their lungs. There are two basic exercises that can help them to improve their ability to breathe more effectively. The first and probably the simplest is the pursed-lip breathing. When performed it can help those who have difficulty exhaling to be better able to expel air that may get trapped in the lungs.
The pursed-lip breathing method requires the patient to sit calmly and inhale deeply through the nose. Then purse the lips as if about to whistle and make a long exhalation; the exhalation should be around three times longer than the inhalation. So, if you breathed in for a count of four, you should exhale for a count of twelve. This exercise is one of those COPD breathing basics that can help when you have bouts of shortness of breath by improving and regulating your breathing patterns.
The second breathing exercise is a little more difficult to complete but it can help to support the diaphragm in order for you to expend less energy trying to get your breath. For this exercise, you need to lie flat in supine position keeping your knees bent, just like you would if you were going to do a sit-up. You then move your hand and place it on your chest before moving the other and putting it on your stomach. This is so that you can monitor how your body moves when you breathe. As you inhale or exhale, you want to keep the chest as motionless as possible using only your stomach to breathe. In order for this to be effective, this exercise should be practiced for five to ten minutes at least three times each day.
Pulmonary Rehabilitation
Patients can also benefit a lot from pulmonary rehabilitation. Through these types of COPD breathing basics you can learn some pretty specific techniques that can help you breathe normally. While it won’t change how your lungs perform, it does help them to get more oxygen in with every breath they take. Many doctors recommend lung rehabilitation as a means of strengthening the body to prepare it for a lung replacement surgery. Pulmonary rehabilitation can include anything from exercises to how to eat right or pick up objects.
Whatever your condition may be there are things that can be done to help improve lung capacity. While these exercises will not cure COPD, they have proven to be very effective in helping to get the lungs to perform better for a short term giving people more of a chance to enjoy the normal things in life.
