just been diagnosed as having copd and only 40

Not as simple as "long slow deep breaths" if she has COPD, with this condition some coaching from a specialist physio about breathing techniques is essential to avoid exhausting yourself.   

You are right Jude, long slow deep breaths are not simple or easy, but they are attainable. I am living proof of this.

I'm exactly the same Kimberly my youngest son is 10 years old. I can't be a proper mum to him. I've had to sit all 3 of my children down I got 3 kids 18,15.10. It was really telling them that I would need a transplant. We cried a lot of tears but as I told them this is my only hope to be a proper mum to them. The other problem I have the nearest transplant centre is 150 miles a way. So I would be able to see my kids much. There is another forum call health unlocked lung. I'm part of that forum as well there are some really kind people on there as well x

I'm assuming most people on this forum are in the UK?  I"m in Australia and community health centres here run Lung Rehab Groups - not that we can rehabilitate from COPD, but we can learn heaps about how to manage the condition.

Try and find one in your area, I can assure you it's well worth it

One of the things I learned in a Lung Rehab group (see my post above) was that the type of breathing I'd been doing for years in yoga and meditation is NOT appropriate for people with COPD because all that deep stuff just creates more exhaustion.   

Go to the experts on this, it's too hard to describe in writing, but basically it's about NOT trying to fill your lungs to full capacity, breathing from the WAIST not the upper chest and focussing on breathing OUT fully rather than how much you breathe in

Hi jude65855,

One group teaches one way and another teaches another way. For every expert scientific study there are dozens more experts that say the opposite.

After living for 56 years with diseased lungs from birth and having never known what it is like to breathe normally due to no fault of my own, I have seen trends come and go.

The reason why I suggest breathing exercises to others is so they can learn about their lungs and become able to train themselves to keep a regulated breathing pattern during tough times so that they can avoid complete panic. It is one way to take control over the disease instead of it doing all of the controlling. Breath control is so powerful that it can make childbirth go easier without drugs or spirals.

In those breathing exercises one must do what they can do just like any exercise program. I have not asked anyone to breathe deeper than they can and exhaust themselves. Everyone has a depth of breath that feels comfortable to them and there is nothing wrong with maintaining what good lung function is left. By doing breathing exercises the diaphragm is also being strengthened which must be so in order to breathe out, as completely out as possible which as you know is crucial.

When I was young I wrote songs and sang at the piano and recorded them at a studio and now they are like a gift because I designed them to exercise my lungs so completely with long notes for exhale, that if I sing along with myself today, I literally breathe better! There are many forms of breathing exercises and keeping the lungs moving.

For instance, when I take a walk I count my breath in with each step I take, usually to the count of 6, then I hold it for 6 counts and then I count to 12 on my exhale because I naturally have longer exhaling. Everyone else's numbers would of course be different. But it works! The more I train myself within my limitations the easier it becomes to exercise and stay calm and bring myself to calm during bad scary exacerbations.

Exercise will never undo the lung disease, but it helps the body become accustomed to movement using less oxygen which also creates a sense of calm.

Breathing exercises are totally beneficial.

Jude, this is a forum of sharing, caring and supporting each other through one of the scariest sensations on earth; not being able to breathe normally. It is not a place to insult another as you have me.

Look at my picture. Medically I should be blue and have had more than one specialist marvel that I am not blue or dead. I am not blue because I have fought, researched, had the very best pulmonary specialists the United States has to offer, I have experimented, I have been on every single medication science has to offer for my condition from 1958 till now. As a baby/toddler I was used as a guinea pig for clinical experiments that have developed the excellent lung function study machines that the world still uses to determine if disease is present and to what degree and I have lived about 65% of my life in hospitals as a patient, even recently, and I decided early that this disease would not get the best of me so help me God! And by God my efforts have paid off!

Jude, I AM an expert in my own right. I would advise you to never ever take the advice of just one expert or group, and to remember the world is full of teachers who teach about something they have never experienced themselves and also, when it comes down to it, there are always exceptions to the rules.

Sincerely,

Dawn

Oh for goodness sake, how is putting an different point of view disagreeing with yours insulting you?   I do hope this forum doesn't have a rule not to disagree with anyone else:  I assumed it was to pass on information, support and our own experiences.   

 I was merely passing on the information I was given by physiotherapists who specialise in COPD, which was that trying to fill the tops of the lungs is tiring and pointless and that emphysema patients would be better to breathe with the diaphragm because there are actually muscles there which can be strengthened, unlike the top of the chest.