A Holiday Message from the COPD Coach-Lovego Weekly report

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A Holiday Message from the COPD Coach

This week we’ll share a good article from COPD Foundation Blog, it is about the tips for celebrating the holidays. Believe it will be useful to you.

Living with COPD can present some challenges, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t celebrate the holidays in a meaningful and memorable fashion with a little common sense and adequate preparation. Since the thought of celebrating holidays may seem daunting, as our gift to all of our readers, here are some tips to celebrate and ring in the new year in style.

What are your priorities?
We are often deluged with invitations to parties or events this time of year. It is not always possible to accept each and every invitation or attend each event. This is where we have to accept some limitations. There is no shame in explaining to our family and friends that too much activity in a short period of time can be extremely taxing for us. Decide before hand which events would hold the most meaning for you, and plan to attend only those events
Don’t overdo at the events you attend!
You can still be the life of the party, without expending too much energy. If you feel the need to contribute, make sure it can be done comfortably (preferably sitting down). If attending something like a concert or church service, make sure you can park close and have convenient seating. If hosting an event, rely on family members and friends to do the “heavy lifting.” Potluck dinners are never a bad idea and allow your friends the opportunity to feel like they are contributing to the party. Give yourself plenty of time to get ready, travel, and arrive at the venue early. Rushing will just cause you to get out of breath more quickly, and anxiety will hurt your breathing! Make sure you are not sitting near an area with fumes, strong scents or stale air – or especially near a fireplace!

Limit your shopping to what’s absolutely necessary.
As a person with COPD, it is never advisable to be out among large groups of people, especially during flu season. Thankfully, we are in the age of the internet where we can do much of our shopping from the comfort and safety of our home! Many of the largest retailers have excellent websites featuring many of the items they carry in their stores that can be easily purchased, usually with free shipping! The sites also offer an easy returns and also gift certificates.

Pull, don’t carry!
If you do decide to venture out to the mall or supercenter, use a cart! It gives you something to lean on and in some cases a place to put your portable oxygen (make sure you clean the handles of the cart with an antibacterial cleaner before using). Make a list before you go so you spend the least amount of time in the store and don’t have to walk more than necessary.

Watch what you eat!
Eating too much can worsen your breathing. Pace yourself! Eat small portions so you don’t feel bloated.

Dress appropriately!
Cold weather and COPD are not usually a good combination, so dress warmly for both the expected outdoor temperatures and the indoor ones. If you use supplemental oxygen make sure that you keep your oxygen hose under a layer of clothing so that the air you breathe will be warmer. Also, consider a scarf or facemask to make breathing colder air easier!

Have the tools you need.
If you use supplemental oxygen, make sure that you have an adequate supply and keep monitoring it throughout the evening. If you need to take certain medications, make sure that you have them with you and that you take them at your scheduled time. If you require carrying an emergency inhaler, make sure you keep it in a convenient location.

Know when you have had enough!
If you start to feel overwhelmed or fatigued don’t be afraid to make your excuses and leave. If you allow yourself to overdo, you will weaken your body making it susceptible to illness and might cause you to have to take down time to recover. Don’t feel guilty about calling it a night. The people who know you will be appreciative that you made the effort to attend in the first place!

To many, these suggestions may seem like common sense, but often times our holiday spirit will cause us to toss caution to the wind! Because we have breathing problems does not mean that we can’t experience the joy that comes with sharing the holidays with those we love. We GBA stuff wishes you all a joyous and safe holiday season and a healthy and happy New Year!

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Dealing with emotions-Lovego Weekly Report

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Dealing with emotions

If you’re like most people, you feel as though COPD has dumped you into a bizarre alternate universe, where nothing is what you thought it was or expected it to be and where you’re buffeted by waves of confusing and conflicting emotions. You may feel overwhelmed by the lifestyle changes you have to make to manage your COPD. On days when your symptoms aren’t bad, you may feel like it’s all just a weird dream. On days when your symptoms keep you from doing what you normally do or what you want to do, you may feel the weight of discouragement. If you have a sudden flare-up, where your symptoms get rapidly worse, you may be just plain scared.

All these feelings are normal, and it’s normal to have good and bad days both physically and emotionally. As you get accustomed to your new routine and begin doing the things you can do to manage your symptoms, these feelings may lose a lot of their initial force. That’s not to say that you’ll never experience their full impact again, but they may recede to the background for the most part.

There are some things you can do to keep bad feelings from taking over your life:

Get dressed every day, even if you don’t plan to go out. Motivating yourself to do something, even small household chores, is easier if you’re already dressed and ready to face the day.

Whenever you can, take a walk outside for some exercise and fresh air. Being cooped up isn’t good for anybody’s mental health. Even a few minutes outside can do wonders for your mood.

Keep up with favorite hobbies or activities, or, if that’s not possible, find new ones Occupying your mind and hands with something you enjoy helps keep you from brooding about the not-so-positive things.

Maintain your friendships. People are social creatures, and social interaction goes a long way in helping to keep your spirits up.

Talk to others — family members, friends, clergy, or a counselor — about how you feel. Often, just expressing your feelings out loud can strip them of a lot of their force.
Take your meds as directed and follow the other elements of your treatment plan. Your meds, diet, and exercise all play a role in reducing your physical symptoms, and the better you feel physically, the better you feel mentally and emotionally.

Give yourself permission to get enough rest. COPD is a fatiguing disease, and if you don’t get enough rest, you won’t be able to do a lot of things you want to do.

Thanks to MD Kevin Felner for these info.

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Using e-cigarettes to help with Quitting Smoke-Lovego Weekly Report

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Using e-cigarettes to help with Quitting Smoke

As a Nurse,I find at times, there are some people that are not willing to quit smoking. This is obviously a disastrous outcome for someone with copd and will not help the situation to move forward. Smoking is highly addictive and quitting the habit is not easy. In addition to becoming addicted to nicotine, a drug found naturally in tobacco, people also become dependent on the physical and social habit of smoking.

Copd Nurses can play a role in helping people quit smoking and choosing the most appropriate method out of a range of products and various strategies. These include prescription medicines, nicotine replacement products, such as patches or lozenges and counselling. Electronic cigarettes are devices that enable a person to inhale nicotine. As the products are relatively new, there have been limited long-term studies assessing the benefits and risks. Let’s have a brief introduction.

Although e-cigarettes have the potential to reduce the harm caused by smoking tobacco, they have not been scientifically evaluated and therefore, their

safety and usefulness as a smoking cessation aid is still unknown.

E-cigarettes are designed to look and feel like cigarettes. They consist of three parts; a battery, a vaporiser and a cartridge. The device works by vaporising the liquid in the cartridge. This creates a mist that can be inhaled by the user and they appear to breathe out smoke. The good news is unlike normal cigarettes these devices do not contain tobacco, but they contain nicotine in the liquid found in

the cartridge. The liquid can have different flavours and different amounts of nicotine and the user can select.

It is believed that e-cigarettes cause less harm than a normal cigarette and some people choose to use them in order to maintain their habit more safely. Some research into the views of e-cigarette users suggest that a key benefit of the products is that they satisfy a need to smoke.

I asked a patient recently about using the e-cigarette and he said:

“I started using e-cigarettes even though I had no intention of actually stopping smoking. One day I realised that I was exclusively using the e-cigarette, and haven’t smoked a normal cigarette since. It may be difficult to get used to the experience at first but once your taste and smell senses return after smoking tobacco for a number of years, you begin to prefer the flavours available in an e-cigarette to the ‘bonfire’ flavour of a tobacco cigarette. I believe that I am using a safer alternative, although I still class myself as a smoker; if e-cigarettes were suddenly to become unavailable, I would go back to smoking tobacco cigarettes.”

As a Nurse, I find some concerns are they are not regulated across all countries.

This means that there are no restrictions on the chemicals that can be added to the cartridges. This also means that they are not subject to strict quality control, and products may be labelled the same but have different amounts of chemicals and nicotine in them. As e-cigarettes look and feel like a cigarette, users are not encouraged to change their behaviour. Their addiction to the physical and emotional elements of smoking continues.

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How to Exercise when suffer from the COPD-Lovego weekly report

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How to Exercise when suffer from the COPD

If you've got chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), it's more important than ever to get some exercise—it can save your lung function and slow down the progression of COPD. As you know, the shortness of breath that comes with exertion can make it tempting to move less than you did before. This sets up a vicious cycle: shortness of breath leads to inactivity, which leads to a decline in fitness, which leads to further shortness of breath and inactivity.

To get out of the rut, many experts or doctors will recommend walking, stationary biking, and elliptical training. They work well for people with COPD, but strength and resistance training are playing an increasing role in patients regimens.

As we age, people—particularly those over the age of 60—lose muscle fibers, also healthy people lose fast-twitch muscles, which are used for short bursts of energy. But individuals with COPD tend to lose slow-twitch muscles, which are used for endurance activities as well.

Weight training helps to improve skeletal muscle function so patients can remain active longer. Exercise of the lower legs—frequently walking or cycling—is the main focus of any organized exercise program for COPD, but exercising the upper arms through resistance training is also helpful. (Like anyone starting an exercise program, a person with COPD should be cleared for exercise by a health care provider)

If you have COPD, another advantage of exercising the respiratory system is to learn how to cope with the panic that can occur with shortness of breath.

In the normal life, there will be someone is hit in the stomach and can’t get their breath, but exercise teaches you how to deal with that sensation, to work through it. You know they are going to get up the steps, and they will get short of breath, but now you know, ‘Im not going to keel over and die.”

To fight panicky feelings, Respiratory therapists mainly offer two common breathing techniques: pursed lip and diaphragm breathing. Pursed lip breathing is performed by inhaling through the nose and then exhaling through pursed lips (as if one is going to whistle). The exhale should be longer than the inhale, but air should not be forced out. This breathing helps people relax and reduces the amount of air trapped in the lungs. Diaphragm breathing helps to strengthen this important muscle and is accomplished by lying on ones back with knees bent and making the stomach, rather than the chest, move out while inhaling and in while exhaling.

You can use these two techniques often while you at home or go out, especially the pursed lip. It will help you relax and calm down much.

                                                          —————— The article reference from health.com,

                                                                                 hope it will be useful to our readers.

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