1. Community
  2. Chest and lungs
  3. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Breathing Better With COPD

Posted , 5 users are following.

Doug1253
Doug1253

This is a summary of an item on a US-based web site focusing on health tips for women.

This one suggests, with a doctor’s endorsement, how to develop breathing methods that

will – we hope! – make you more comfortable, and less stressed.

If you breath in through your nose and out through your month, you take in more oxygen and release more carbon dioxide;

Use stomach muscles to help you breath – expanding your diaphragm then letting it relax. Doing so is said to reduce the demand for oxygen. To teach this method, a quoted doctor has the patient lie on their back and work to lift a five-pound weight – or just a hand – to force stomach muscles to work harder. The patient is asked to inhale, trying to move the weight, then exhale through pursed lips. Be prepared to start with a lower-level weight, or less-pressing hand, if necessary.

Exhaling through pursed lips after a heavy inhale, with or without a weight, is said to offer some benefits – probably because muscle-strengthening is a combination process, involving the added pressure from the hard intake of breath and the controlled exhaling.

1 like, 17 replies

17 Replies

Next
  • christine08733
    christine08733

    Posted

    Not sure why this is specifically for women, but thanks for sharing.
  • Doug1253
    Doug1253

    Posted

    No, Christine, that advice is NOT specifically for women. But that shouldn't be a reason to not post here. I'm a man, and I learn from posts on this site.
  • oddbiddy
    oddbiddy

    Posted

    regarding pursed lip breathing, and it is a life saver by the way............As you breathe out (like blowing up a balloon) draw in your abdomin to expel more air and balloon if out as you breath in through your nose. Whenever I get into trouble, and who doesn't several time a day, I do this exercise until it is smooth and even and then I can move safely again.
  • christine08733
    christine08733

    Posted

    Thanks for that oddbiddy, very precise instructions. I'll give it a go!
  • oddbiddy
    oddbiddy

    Posted

    yes do Christine. I swear it has saved my life lots of times when I got into panic mode. June
  • christine08733
    christine08733

    Posted

    It's the little things that count. I have always been frightened of running out of breath when coughing, even before I was given the gift of COPD. Spending my youth watching my grandad going from pink to red to blue can do that to you (he still had his Woodbine hanging our of his mouth though). I only just realised that throwing my head back opens the airways like the recovery position. I wished I had figured this out earlier.
  • oddbiddy
    oddbiddy

    Posted

    yes that's another little help when I get to the top of the stairs I often hold my head back so i can breath deeper. June
  • Outhwaite
    Outhwaite

    Posted

    I was taught this in the 50's at a very progressive boarding school for sick children with asthma in Broadstairs, Kent, where I was sent to get away from the London Smog., when the accepted treatment of asthma was to keep a child wrapped up in bed with a coal fire and no medication, Thank goodness things have changed for the better...!!
  • oddbiddy
    oddbiddy

    Posted

    Couldn't have been more wrong could it?
  • christine08733
    christine08733

    Posted

    I had childhood asthma and was usually sent to stay with my nan and grandad who lived in a converted train carriage. The condensation used to run down the windows, the bed was so damp it would steam, and paraffin heaters were only used to heat the front room. I was always told that it was not possible to die of asthma, which is probably the only reason I survived. How ever bad it got, I didn't have to factor in the panic effect as well!
  • oddbiddy
    oddbiddy

    Posted

    Oh ,just what the doctor ordered hot and cold running water. Well at least you were spared the fumes from the paraffin heater in your bedroom. It's a wonder most of us survived the good old days.
  • Outhwaite
    Outhwaite

    Posted

    I remember being about 14 years old when I got my first "inhaler" which was called a Rybarvin inhalant. You poured some liquid into the top, screwed on the nozzle and repeatedly squeezed a rubber bulb and inhaled the spray that came out. The first "inhaler" to be made in the UK. Sometimes I would fall asleep with it in my mouth (too much exertion) and it would stain my lips brown, It sort of worked, but took ages and if you had a chest infection as well, then it didn't work at all and out would come the doctor, give you an injection which promptly made you vomit and vomit! I dreaded it,,,!! Although it did clear the lungs somewhat, but was so violent. Non-happy memories..!!!! Does anyone remember them?
  • oddbiddy
    oddbiddy

    Posted

    I seem to remember my auntie having that thing but it was 1964 when I got my first inhaler which was more or less what I have now for one of them. Glad i didn't have that horrible thing to contend with.
  • christine08733
    christine08733

    Posted

    I seem to remember I was taking ephedrine. Googling it, gives it as an appetite suppressant or recreational drug simillar to amphetamines. I thought I was just naturally skinny and high on life!
  • oddbiddy
    oddbiddy

    Posted

    glad they never gave me an appetite suppressant, eating is one of my greatest pleasures though I have had to cut back on it because overeating leaves me short of breath
Back to top
Next

Report or request deletion

Thanks for your help!

We want the community to be a useful resource for our users but it is important to remember that the community are not moderated or reviewed by doctors and so you should not rely on opinions or advice given by other users in respect of any healthcare matters. Always speak to your doctor before acting and in cases of emergency seek appropriate medical assistance immediately. Use of the community is subject to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and steps will be taken to remove posts identified as being in breach of those terms.