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The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/copd on January 4, 2016 COPD Resolutions You Should Keep A New Year's Resolution can be a powerful aide to helping you live well with COPD. Here are some we think would be perfect for you to choose from.   1.   Learn about your disease .  Both COPD and Asthma are complex diseases that researchers are learning more and more about every day. It's a good idea purchase a book so you can become a pseudo expert on your disease. Or, at the very least, continue to hang out at sites like this, as we do our best to keep you updated with the latest wisdom. This is also important because there are a lot of new  respiratory medicines  in the pipeline, and you'll want to be aware of them when they come out. Who knows, the next discovery might lead to a cure for our disease.   2.   Walk more frequently .  I recently wrote a post about titled, " 9 Ways Exercise Improves Asthma Control ."...

The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/copd on December 18, 2015. 8 Christmas COPD Triggers In order to get the most out of the Christmas season, those of us with lung disorders have to be wary of Christmas asthma triggers. Here are those seven triggers along with some tips to help you get around them.    1. Real Christmas Trees .  Christmas trees are a common decoration in homes during the Christmas season.  But they may also be filled with unseen substances that can get into the air, such as dust mites, pollen and mold spores.  When you carry them into your home, and shake them, these allergens end up in the air of your home for you to inhale, possibly causing flare-ups. While some experts recommend avoiding them altogether, others suggest that rinsing them off with water, and letting them air dry, prior to bringing them into your home should remove most of these allergens. It may be best, however, to delegate this job to someone el...

The following post was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/copd on November 4, 2015 Have COPD? Here's 6 Things To Keep Handy Having a chronic disease like COPD means being prepared for that inevitable flare-up. This requires having easy access to all the tools needed to help you breathe better. Here are six things to keep handy at all times. 1.   Controller Medicines .  These are all the medications meant to keep you breathing well.  They usually include a combination of inhalers and nebulizer medications. They should be kept in a location that is easy for you to access, such as your medicine cabinet, or even your bedside or kitchen table. You must make sure you take these every day exactly as prescribed.  Not only are these meant to prevent flare-ups, they may also make inevitable flare-ups less severe and easier to control.   2.   Oxygen equipment .  If you have oxygen at home, and you wear it all the time, you probably don’t have to wor...

The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/copd on January 25, 2016 Lungs 101: Learning Basic Lung Sounds I have been listening to lung sounds for 20 years now, and every so often someone wants to know what I heard and what it means. That said, here is a pithy lesson on the five basic lung sounds and what they mean.  First, however, a few definitions.  Auscultation : The process of listening to lung sounds.  It can be done ear to chest, although most health professionals prefer to use a stethoscope.  Stethoscope : It's a medical device used to auscultate (hear) lung and heart sounds. Listening to lung sounds is an important part of assessing a patient. Based on what is heard can help a caregiver both diagnose and treat patients, and determine the progression of lung diseases over time.  There are basically only five lung sounds.  You'd think that would make listening to them easy, but that's not always the case considering every pati...

The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/copd on January 11, 2016 Would Pulmonary Rehabilitation Benefit You  Pulmonary rehabilitation is a top-line recommendation for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and this seems to be true whether you have mild, moderate, or severe COPD. So what is pulmonary rehabilitation, and how might it help you? It generally involves three elements: 1.   Exercise training .  Health experts show you what exercises are best for people with COPD, and the safest ways of doing them. Most programs meet once or twice a week for about 8 weeks. You may also be able to make arrangements to continue participating even after programs end.  2.   Education . You will learn about your disease and the  medicines  used to treat it. You will learn how to properly use inhalers and nebulizers.  You will learn coughing techniques to help you remove secretions. You will learn how to conserve...

The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com on October 6, 2015. 9 Ways to Live Longer with End Stage COPD End Stage COPD , also known as Severe COPD or Stage IV COPD, severely limits your airflow, making it hard to perform any basic activities. At this stage you may have also developed Cor Pulmonale or Congestive Heart Failure. While your quality of life may be limited, this is not a death sentence—there are still ways to live in the "end stage." You may, however, have to alter your life to adjust, starting with... Quit Smoking . Studies show that quitting smoking,  even in the late stages of the disease , is the most effective way of prolonging life. This is why your doctor will encourage smoking cessation  even in the later stages of disease  -- if you haven’t quit already.   COPD Action Plans . These are agreements you create with your doctor to help you decide what actions to take when you feel symptoms.  Read my post “ What Is A COPD ...

The following post was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/copd on September 29, 2015. What is End Stage COPD? So you, or a loved one, have been diagnosed with End Stage COPD.  What is this, and what does it mean for you or your loved one? First off, it must be understood that there is no generally accepted clinical definition to End Stage COPD. What it means for one physician may not mean the same thing for another.  In fact, The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease ( GOLD ) defines "severe COPD," but it does not even mention the phrase “End Stage COPD.” That said, here is what End Stage COPD  might  entail, if this term is used by your doctor. Stage IV COPD or Severe COPD . What is it? Severe airflow limitation, meaning it’s very hard to blow out a candle FEV1 during pulmonary function testing ( PFT ) will be 30 percent or less. Unlike asthma, this does not improve with medicine. However, medicine can help you take a deeper breath and...

The following was originally published by me at healthcentral.com/copd on on September 2, 2015 What is Bullous Emphysema? Essentially, emphysema starts in the lung parenchyma, which consists of the small bronchi, alveoli, and capillaries. For a quick review of pulmonary anatomy, see  take my journey down the respiratory tract . Alveoli . These are small balloon-like structures that inflate like balloons when you inhale. After full inhalation, elastic recoil allows them to resume their natural shape, allowing exhalation to occur. They join with capillaries, so it’s here  gas exchange occurs . Emphysema . Certain conditions -- like smoking -- cause alveolar walls to become inflamed and breakdown.  They lose their elasticity, or their ability to regain their normal shape after a full inhalation. They eventually rupture, creating small air spaces. This also destroys surrounding capillaries, creating alveoli that no longer participate in gas exchange.  So emphysema i...

The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/asthma on December 21, 2015 Looking to improve your repiratory health in the new year? As one of HealthCentral's health guides,  I was asked to write an article with a list of my best articles going forward into 2016, with an explanation of why I chose each one and why it’s important to respiratory health readers. Here are my picks for the best respiratory health articles from 2015:  1.   The Natural Progression of COPD . This is probably the most important article I’ve ever written, and I refer to it every time I’m encouraging my patients to quit smoking. I discuss the Fletcher-Peto Curve.  It’s a telling visual for anyone with COPD because it shows that smoking speeds up the progression of the disease, and that quitting smoking at any age slows the progression of the disease, thus prolonging life.   2.   Smart Inhaler the Future of Asthma Control . This article is neat becau...