It is almost time to ring in the New Year, and that means new goals, healthier living, and hopefully the beginning to a successful year. Oxygen patients should be especially diligent to celebrate the new year with new ambition and resolutions towards a healthier future! If you are an oxygen patient either due to a chronic lung condition or other pulmonary disease, there are a few New Year’s Resolutions you might add to your list if you haven’t already.

Here at LPT Medical we aim to improve the quality of life for oxygen patients by ensuring that more people around the country have access to the most state-of-the-art oxygen therapy equipment in the world, and this year we expect to continue doing so!

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Therefore, we designed these11 New Years Resolutions for our readers around the world, who are mostly oxygen patients or folks with a chronic lung disease. While 11 resolutions is too many for one person, we hope that you can gather one or two of these ideas and implement them into your daily life to help improve the quality of your breathing and subsequently the quality of your life

Take Longer Trips Away From Home

2020 was a strange year, and for oxygen patients who already find themselves inside for most of the day, they had little opportunity to venture away from home. This year, make it a point to go outside more often, even if it's just to sit and enjoy the fresh air.

If you are more adventurous, you can make it a point to stay outdoors longer. If your oxygen equipment restricts you from adventuring outdoors for too long, it might be a good year to take advantage of your youthfulness and upgrade to an oxygen device like a portable oxygen concentrator that will allow you to be away from home for long periods of time.

Dial in your Oxygen Equipment

You are probably very familiar with your supplemental oxygen therapy equipment, but are you getting the most out of the life saving therapy as you could be?

There are limitations to what you can experience with an oxygen tank and portable oxygen canisters. For example, you cannot travel in an airplane with your oxygen, you have to bring extra heavy tanks with you when you do travel, or you have to limit your time away from home to get your oxygen delivery. On top of all of that, tanks are heavy and bulky and the canisters don’t last very long.

If you already have a portable oxygen concentrator (POC), do you have all of the accessories to take advantage of your battery powered device?

If you have a pulse flow POC, make sure your battery lasts long enough for you to get all of the things you want to do. If your battery tends to die earlier than you would like, you can buy an extra battery to replace the dead one, or purchase a large portable oxygen concentrator battery that can last twice as long as the smaller battery your device came with.

It is also important that you have both charging cables, the AC charging cord and the DC charging cord so you can charge your device in the comforts of your home, or on the go in your car, boat, or RV.

You can find all of you oxygen equipment accessories for a plethora of different brands and devices on our website. Or simply call one of LPT’s respiratory specialists located in Denver, Colorado at 1-800-946-1201 or reach our oxygen supply office in Boca Raton, Florida by emailing info@lptmedical.com.

Find Independence

A sense of independence is something a lot of respiratory patients struggle with. There is a lot of dependency on caregivers and loved ones especially when the disease starts to progresses into a severe state. The oxygen patient is often left doing minimal chores and housework simply due to their condition, and inability to lift heavier objects or clean with harsh cleaning products.

That being said, finding a sense of independence does not mean you have to put yourself in danger! As an oxygen patient you should not be exposing yourself to harsh chemicals of any kind, nor should you lift heavy objects that make you uncomfortable.

Instead, you can find independence in running more of your own errands or taking yourself to the doctors office for a casual checkup. You can start to cook more on your own by looking up easy recipes for oxygen patients! These are just a few ideas, but the possibilities are endless.

A small found sense of independence can do a lot for a person's wellbeing. It can bring you motivation to get healthier and you can start to do more and more activities on your own.

Enjoy Virtual Time With Family

Just because it is a New Year, doesn’t mean the pandemic is over! Even with the promising new vaccine, COVID-19 is still a valid concern especially for oxygen patients who cannot afford to catch the common cold let alone the Coronavirus causing COVID-19.

More time spent online connecting with family members is still a part of the future, so learning as much as you can about Facetime, Zoom, Google Hangouts can bring a lot of happiness and social connection into your life!

Plan a Trip For When You Can Travel Again

Nothing lasts forever, not even a global pandemic! So, there is no harm in wishful thinking.

When travel bans are lifted and it is safe to travel again, you will want to take advantage of your time, so having a flexible plan in place to experience a new place or visit family can help you stay positive for the days to come.

As an oxygen patient, you still have the opportunity to experience new things, with the help of a lightweight oxygen device, you won’t feel weighed down.

If you have a high oxygen prescription, and require a continuous flow of oxygen, portable, devices like the Respironics SimplyGo and the SeQual Eclipse 5 Portable Oxygen Concentrator are not bulky because they are designed for the oxygen patient that enjoys moving around, traveling and doing activities.

Walk More and Walk Further

Walking is one of the very best exercises you can do if you suffer from a chronic lung disease. Walking is safe and effective because it is a low impact activity so it is not hard on your joints.

Walking is great for oxygen patients for a number of reasons

1. Improve your body's ability to use oxygen
2. Builds up your endurance
3. Strengthen your muscles and lungs
4. Enhances your mood

Some oxygen patines feel hesitant to walk, either due to their lung condition or the oxygen equipment gets in the way.

If you are someone that wants to add walking into your weekly routine to enhance your physical and mental fitness, start by walking a small distance at a slow pace.

Over the year, you will start to notice that you can progress to further distances and even begin a brisk walking pace.

Eat Healthier Foods That Help Your Lung Condition 

It may be surprising to some, but food has a large impact on your breathing. If you are eating food that helps with respiratory symptoms, you might notice some of your symptoms are less harsh. On the other hand, if you are eating food that promote bloating, your respiratory symptoms will get worse.

When you are bloated your diagram is putting added pressure on your lungs making it harder to breathe and your lungs have to work even harder than they already are.

We have a few blogs already about how you can eat healthier foods that will help easy respiratory symptoms:

Best Eating Habits for People with Respiratory Diseases

Elevate Your Nutrition with These 21 Healthy Meal Ideas and Diet Tips for People with COPD

Eat More Foods Rich in Antioxidants

One of the most important foods groups you can eat as an oxygen patient are foods rich in antioxidants. Antioxidants are known to help your lungs perform best, and foods rich with antioxidants are important for maintaining optimal health.

Here are some ideas of foods to eat that are high in antioxidants:

• Blueberries
• Cranberries
• Blackberries
• Prunes
• Strawberries
• Apples & pears (with peel)
• Grapes
• Peaches
• Bell peppers
• Asparagus
• Red cabbage
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Broccoli
• Artichokes
• Kale

Talk to your Doctor More Often

As an oxygen patient, it is so important for your health to maintain a healthy weight, keep your blood pressure low, reduce stress and anxiety, and relieve depression. Talking with your doctor and attending your check-ups is the best way to keep these aspects of your life in check.

You should also regularly see your doctor to check on your oxygen prescription to make sure you are getting the most out of this therapy by taking in the appropriate amount of oxygen during activity and at rest.

Quit Smoking

This is a hard one, but it is the most important if you do smoke. First and foremost, smoking while using oxygen is extremely dangerous because oxygen is flammable, but it is also dangerous internally, for your already damaged lungs.

You would be surprised by how quickly your body starts to recover after you’ve quit smoking.

Certain qualities of life will start to get stronger, like your senses of smell and taste. You coughing will be noticeably less intense in the morning and throughout the day because the tar in your airways will get cleaned out.

Purchasing an electronic cigarette may help you to gradually decrease your nicotine intake, but eventually you'll want to quit inhaling products altogether to get the best results for your lungs. If you are on the path to quit E-cigarettes, you could also try using nicotine patches or gum.

Part of kicking the habit is keeping your hand busy with other things, and chewing gum to help with the mouth fixation.

Set Personal Goals

Setting your own goals can be a resolution in itself! You can start by using a health diary, you can track things like your diet, exercise, and moods in order to adjust the aspects of your life that you want to change or make better.

Tracking your health can include monitoring your pulse and heart rate, your oxygen levels, and much more, so learning how to track your health stats can be a goal of your to start of this new year!

Here is a very helpful in depth resource you can use to get started tracking your health.

How to Use a Health Diary to Monitor Your COPD at Home: Simple Tracking Tools and Home Measuring Devices to Help You Track Your Health

Overview

There are plenty of attainable goals for oxygen patients that want to make the most out of their therapy and their life.

Simple changes in habits, like eating, exercise, and getting outdoors can lead to a healthier more independent life style.

And with the help of the right oxygen equipment, your oxygen therapy can help you reach heights you never thought possible.

We hope that you found one or two New Years resolutions in this article that you can implement into your life this year, and we will see you in 2021!