Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a debilitating lung condition that affects around 16 million people in the United States. While there are many symptoms of COPD, shortness of breath, chest pain, and chronic fatigue are among the most crippling. In the early stages of COPD, these symptoms are mild and sometimes even go unnoticed by the patient. However, as time goes by, these symptoms become progressively worse and become even more of a burden for the victim.

From managing short- and long-term goals to exercising, eating right, and making it to doctor’s appointments, living with COPD is not easy by any means. Whether you are still working or you’ve already retired, being diagnosed with COPD means taking on a whole new set of responsibilities — some of which can be overwhelming at times.

Supplemental oxygen therapy or long term oxygen therapy (LTOT), is an at home therapy process 1.5 million Americans utilize everyday in order to improve their quantity and quality of living with chronic lung diseases.

There are three main types of respiratory disease: airway diseases, lung tissue diseases, and circulatory diseases. The first type, airway diseases, affect the tubes called bronchioles, usually causing them to narrow, swell, or become filled with a slimy substance called mucus. Airway diseases include asthma, a specific type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) called chronic bronchitis, and bronchiectasis, a condition that results from recurrent lung infections.

In this article we are talking about what it means to build new habits, break old ones, and create healthy routines. We will talk about how you can do this successfully, and why it is important for everyone that wants to live a healthy and long life, that cultivating healthy habits is the best way to do it! 

Nowadays, life is all about choices. We get to choose where we shop, eat, work, and much more. For the most part, this is a positive thing because it allows us the freedom to create a life that’s suited to our wants and needs. Oxygen patients, for example, can benefit from many decades of improvement in oxygen device technology and they have a wider array of options available to them than ever before including oxygen tanks, liquid oxygen tanks, stationary oxygen concentrators, and portable oxygen concentrators.

Whether you have a friend or a loved one with COPD or you have COPD yourself, you can likely attest to the fact that this disease can cause significant problems with mobility. The top causes of mobility issues in COPD patients include poor pulmonary function, leg swelling (peripheral edema), and loss of muscle mass (muscle atrophy). Combined with the effects of aging and other chronic conditions like osteoarthritis, COPD patients can experience a lot of difficulties getting around in their day-to-day life.

When we’re younger, we often take for granted our ability to get around with ease. Whether it’s a trip to the grocery store once a week or a month-long trip across the country, there are very few physical limitations setting us back. But as we get older, tasks that used to be second nature to us now become strenuous exercise. This is further complicated by the fact that older adults are more likely to suffer from chronic conditions like osteoarthritis, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), all of which are debilitating.

We all know that life can be exhausting, but when your exhaustion starts to become chronic, and it feeling tired or fatigued starts to affect other aspects of your life, it is time to take action. There are things you can do to fight off the exhaustion, so you can get back to a more energize state of being.

For many people fighting chronic lung diseases like COPD, the hardest battles are not the physical ones, but the ones that happen inside the mind. Coping with a disease that disrupts your breathing—a basic life function—is far from easy, and it takes a major mental toll on many people with the disease.