It's safe to say that most people don't look forward to doing chores, but this is especially true for people with COPD. Household tasks are unpleasant enough on their own, but they are much worse when you have to do them while struggling to breathe.

We've long known that the harsh chemicals found in many cleaning products can be dangerous if not handled correctly. However, recent research shows that common household cleaners may be much more dangerous than most people realize.

As soon as the cold weather creeps in, it's inevitable that wood-burning stoves start firing up all across the country. For many people, burning wood is a long and cherished tradition, both for warmth and for recreation.

Exercise is absolutely vital for healthy living, especially if you have COPD or another respiratory disease. But when you're hooked up to your oxygen tank or concentrator, it can make working out and doing other physical activities a little bit more tricky.

Fortunately, exercising with oxygen isn't too difficult if you know how to do it right. In fact, the extra oxygen you get should make it easier to exercise by improving your endurance and making it easier to breathe. 

In this article, we're going to give you a variety of tips and techniques to help you better manage exercise while you're using supplemental oxygen. That way, you can continue living an active, healthy life without letting your disease or your oxygen therapy get in the way.

One of the things that makes COPD so dangerous is the fact that it makes your body more vulnerable to disease. It not only makes you more likely to get sick, but it makes it harder to recover from illnesses, too.

If you are like most people with COPD, then you probably use an inhaler every day. Inhaled medications like bronchodilators and steroids are some of the most important and effective medications for COPD—that is, as long as you use them correctly.

Unfortunately, studies show that many, if not most, people do not actually use their inhaler correctly. This is a huge problem for all patients who use inhalers, but especially for people with COPD.

Inhaler medications for COPD not only help you feel better, but they help stave off infections, flare-ups, and dangerous exacerbations that can make your disease worse. If you are not using your inhaler correctly, then you don't get the full dose of the medication you need to keep your symptoms under control.

COPD is a disease usually associated with smokers, which makes sense when smoking is the cause of approximately eighty to ninety percent of COPD cases. However, smoking is certainly not the only way you can get COPD, and there are many other lesser-known causes.

Being exposed to just about any kind of respiratory irritant over long periods of time can cause you to develop COPD. Things like dust, smog, mold, fine airborne particles, and toxic gases can result in serious lung and airway inflammation that, over the years, can cause COPD.

Despite affecting more than 11 million people in the United States, many people do not understand COPD. Even people who have been diagnosed with COPD often have a poor understanding of how the disease actually works.

When you suffer from a breathing disorder like COPD, it's vital to breathe air that is clean and healthy as often as possible. Respiratory diseases leave your lungs and airways extra sensitive to irritation and inflammation, which means that even small amounts of airborne contaminates can worsen COPD symptoms and even cause exacerbations.

For people who have COPD, living in a clean environment should be a top priority. Because the disease makes the lungs hyper-sensitive to irritants, even small amounts of dust and allergens can set off coughing fits and make daily COPD symptoms worse.