If you are like most people with COPD, you've probably experienced at least some degree of pain in your chest and ribs. This kind of pain can come in a variety of forms, including muscle aches, rib soreness, chest tightness, and general feelings of discomfort.

Unfortunately, these types of aches pains often don't get the attention they deserve, since discussions about COPD tend to focus on respiratory symptoms. However, research suggests that chest pain is exceedingly common, affecting more than half of people with COPD.

That's why we've created this guide all about chest pain, rib pain, and COPD. It contains all the basics you need to know about COPD-related chest pain, including why it happens, where it comes from, and what you can do to relieve it.

In the following sections, we'll explain the various types of chest pain that COPD can cause, and how to differentiate COPD-related chest pain from from other, more serious causes. Then, we'll show you how to manage and minimize that pain by walking you through nearly a dozen of helpful strategies that you can put to use right away.

What is COPD Chest Pain?

A large percentage of people with COPD experience some type of chest pain, whether it's frequent, chronic, or only just occasional. It can sometimes be difficult to pinpoint the exact source or reason for this chest pain because there are so many potential COPD-related causes.

Some of the most common types of COPD-related chest pain include:

• A general feeling of pressure, squeezing, or tightness in the chest
• Feeling of weight or pressure on the chest
• Chest muscle tightness and soreness
• Pain and soreness in and around the rib cage
• Aching and stiffness in the chest
• Soreness in the chest and/or ribs when breathing
• Feeling of fullness or discomfort in the chest when eating
• Tightness or heaviness in the chest when lying down

Some chest pains are triggered by COPD symptoms like shortness of breath or coughing, while others are related to physical changes (such as lung hyperinflation) caused by the disease. Some types of COPD chest pain tend to get worse in certain situations, such as when you eat, lie down, or experience a COPD exacerbation.

Most sources of COPD-related chest pain are harmless, but some types of chest pain are caused by health problems other than COPD. Certain types of chest pain can even signal a medical emergency like a heart attack.

In the next sections, we'll take a closer look at some of the major causes of COPD-related chest pain, and how to recognize other types of chest pain that might have a more serious cause. Then, in the following sections, we'll introduce you a to variety of practical strategies you can start using today to minimize your COPD chest pain.

What Causes COPD Chest Pain?

Muscle Fatigue

Normally when healthy people breathe, the diaphragm does most of the work required to move air in and out of the lungs. When your breathing is strained by COPD, however, you tend to rely more on the muscles in your chest to breathe.

Because of this, living with COPD tends to wear out your chest muscles, making them feel tired and sore. This soreness can be triggered by coughing fits, bouts of breathlessness, or even normal daily symptoms.

This type of chest soreness tends to get worse along with increasing shortness breath. This can happen during COPD symptom flare-ups and exacerbations, and during activities—like exercise—that are particularly demanding on your lungs.

This type of pain can range anywhere from mild to severe. For some people with COPD chest pain is simply a nuisance; for others, it is a significant source of pain that makes it even more difficult to breathe.

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Lung Hyperinflation

Lung hyperinflation describes lungs that are enlarged and take up more space in your chest than they should. It is a common COPD complication that tends to get worse as the disease progresses, and it's a major cause of chest and rib pain in people with the COPD.

Lung hyperinflation has a couple of major causes: The first cause is lung tissue damage, which happens gradually over time in lungs affected by COPD. This damage causes normally-stretchy lungs to lose the flexibility and elasticity that allows them to expand and collapse as you breathe.

Eventually, the lungs lose so much of this elasticity that they can't “bounce back” completely from their fully inflated state. This causes your lungs to remain slightly inflated even after you exhale, and it's known as static hyperinflation.

The second major cause of lung hyperinflation is trapped air in the lungs. This happens when airway constriction (often combined with weak and shallow breathing) makes it difficult to empty all the air out of your lungs, causing some of the air you breathe to stay trapped inside.

This leftover air takes up space and leaves less room for fresh, oxygenated air to come into your lungs; this makes your lungs less efficient and worsens shortness of breath. The trapped air also prevents your lungs from collapsing all the way, forcing them to stay partially inflated even after you exhale.

As a result, hyperinflated lungs are bigger, stiffer, and take up more space in your chest compared to healthy lungs. This causes them to press against your chest cavity, putting extra pressure on your ribs, the surrounding muscles, and the ligaments that support all the muscles and bones in your chest.

Because of this, hyperinflated lungs tend to cause a lot of pain and discomfort. This pain can range from sore ribs or aching muscles to a general uncomfortable feeling of pressure or fullness in the chest.

Unfortunately, hyperinflation tends to get worse over time, as the stiffened, expanded lung tissue becomes even more prone to trapping air. Fortunately, it is possible to reduce the symptoms of hyperinflation, even though the actual damage of lung enlargement often can't be reversed without surgery.

With proper treatment and management techniques, you can reduce chest pain caused by hyperinflation and potentially even slow down how quickly the condition gets worse. Treatments include brochodilators, breathing exercises, and other strategies which we will discuss more in the sections below.

Strain on Connective Tissues

The same COPD symptoms that wear out your chest muscles (e.g. coughing and shortness of breath) can also put stress on the ligaments and connective tissues in your chest. These tissues are responsible for connecting and holding everything in your chest in place, including your bones, muscles, lungs, and other organs.

In people with COPD, these connective tissues tend to get stretched and strained by frequent coughing and labored breathing. These tissues are also affected by hyperinflated lungs, which press on your ribs and chest wall, straining all the structures that connect and support them.

This stress on connective tissues can cause a great deal of soreness and pain in the chest and ribs, especially when paired with other symptoms like coughing. COPD can also cause permanent changes to the structure of your chest that could contribute to this pain.

Over time, inflammation caused by the disease can weaken and stiffen the connective tissues surrounding your lungs, making them less elastic and more prone to causing pain. While this phenomenon is not yet fully understood, researchers believe it could be a major contributor to chest pain in people with COPD.

Psychological Illnesses

If you suffer from a psychological illness like anxiety or depression, it can actually make any chest pain you experience significantly worse. However, that doesn't mean the pain isn't real or that it's “all in your head.”

The brain and body are intimately connected, and psychological illnesses can have biological effects that cause real, physical pain, or that amplify pains you already have. This phenomenon is widely recognized by researchers and mental health experts, which is why psychological therapy is a common treatment for chronic pain.

Unfortunately, a very large percentage of people with COPD suffer from depression or anxiety, especially among those with more severe disease. Research shows that these mental disorders can not only worsen COPD-related pains—such as chest pain—but also worsens quality of life and increases patients' risks for disability, hospitalization, and death.

GERD

GERD, which stands for gastroesophageal reflux disease, is condition that causes stomach acid to leak into your esophagus (a phenomenon known as acid reflux). For reasons that are not yet fully understood, GERD is extremely common in people with COPD.

Some researchers believe that the high risk of GERD may be caused by hyper-inflated lungs putting pressure on the abdomen and chest. Others believe that certain COPD medications may contribute to the risk by weakening the barrier that usually stops acid from leaking out of the stomach.

Unfortunately, GERD often causes symptoms that overlap with COPD symptoms, including coughing, shortness of breath, and chest pain. What's worse, GERD can cause stomach acid to leak into your lungs, which can exacerbate existing COPD symptoms and even trigger COPD flare-ups.

Because of this, GERD can be a significant contributing factor in COPD-related chest pain and discomfort. If you think you might have GERD, it's important to talk to your doctor so you can get treatment right away.

Some of the most common symptoms of GERD include heartburn, coughing, lung irritation, throat irritation, and disrupted sleep. Another sign of GERD is burning chest pain that tends to gets worse after eating and after you lie down.

When Chest Pain is an Emergency

Many types of chest pain are generally harmless, including most types of rib and chest muscle soreness caused by COPD. In some cases, however, chest pain can be a sign of a life-threatening emergency like a heart attack, heart failure, or another serious cardiac event.

Unfortunately, the symptoms of major cardiac events vary significantly from person to person and can sometimes be very mild, which makes them difficult to detect. They can also be disguised by other health conditions, like COPD, which has symptoms that mimic and overlap with the same symptoms caused by heart problems.

That's why it's important to be familiar with your COPD symptoms and what kinds of pains and sensations are typical for you. The better you know your disease, the better you will able to detect if something is abnormal or wrong.

You should also know how to recognize the symptoms of a heart attack so you can better differentiate it from other symptoms that are caused by COPD.

Here are the major signs and symptoms of a major cardiac event:

• Chest pain that doesn't go away with rest
• Chest pain that is different or more severe than chest pain you've had in the past
• Pain that spreads from the chest to the left arm, back, or jaw
• Sudden feeling of pressure, tightness, crushing, or squeezing in your chest
• Sudden shortness of breath, especially if it doesn't go away with rest
• Sudden drop in blood pressure
• Extremely slow or rapid heartbeat
• Extremely rapid breathing
• Dizziness or lightheadedness
• Nausea or vomiting
• Sweating
• Weakness or losing the ability to stand or walk
• A sense of impending doom
• Confusion or disorientation
• A family history of heart disease

If you experience these symptoms and have any doubt about whether they are caused by a heart problem or COPD, you should seek medical attention immediately.

There are also some signs you can look for that indicate your chest pain is not related to your heart. However, it's important to realize that having one or more of these signs does not rule out a heart attack completely.

Here are some signs that your chest pain might not be caused by a cardiac event:

• You can pinpoint the specific location of the pain.
• The pain gets worse when you take in a deep breath, and subsides when you hold your breath for a few seconds.
• The pain gets worse when you move in a specific way or press in a specific spot on your chest, neck, or shoulder.
• The pain gets better with medication, such as antacids.
• The pain doesn't last very long and goes away quickly.
• The pain feels identical to pain you've felt before, at a time when you knew for a fact that it was not caused by a heart problem (e.g. chest pain that you had diagnosed as being caused by COPD).

How to Reduce Chest & Rib Pain Caused by COPD

Now that you have a better understanding of how COPD causes chest pain, let's look at what you can do about it. In the following sections, we'll introduce you to a plethora of effective tips and techniques you can use to reduce various types of chest and rib pain related to COPD.

Adjust Your Posture

There's a reason that good posture is considered to be so important in activities that rely on your breath, such as singing, public speaking, and playing wind instruments. The reason is that your posture can have a significant effect on your lung capacity and your overall ability to breathe.

When you sit or stand in a slouched posture, it scrunches up your chest and restricts how much your lungs can expand. This increases the effort it takes to breathe and puts extra pressure on your chest and ribs, which can cause them to become sore.

Good, straight posture, on the other hand, opens up your chest cavity and gives your lungs, diaphragm, and chest muscles much more room to move when you breathe. This relieves some of the strain on your ribs and breathing muscles, reducing chest soreness and other posture-related pain (e.g. back pain, neck pain, and shoulder pain).

The most important aspect of good posture is holding your back up straight, which means avoiding bent positions like hunching and slouching. You should also keep your chin up and your shoulders back while keeping your shoulder muscles relaxed.

You should also practice proper sleeping posture, which can reduce chest pressure and make it easier to breathe when you sleep. Avoid sleeping sitting up, as some people with COPD do, and try to find a comfortable position on your side or back instead.

You should also make sure your back is properly supported both when you sit and when you lie down. Any chairs you sit in often should have lower back support and your mattress should be firm enough to keep your back straight while you sleep.

For more information and advice about posture and COPD, visit our guide on the topic here. You can also check out this guide to learn more about good sleep posture and how to get the best quality of sleep possible with COPD.

Practice Breathing Techniques

As we mentioned earlier, shortness of breath on its own can cause certain types of chest pain, especially muscle soreness. This is partially caused by the natural instinct to take much quicker and shallower breaths when you are struggling to breathe.

This essentially forces your breathing muscles to work overtime, wearing them out more quickly and causing muscle pain. Your muscles also have to work harder to push air through constricted airways, which tend to get even narrower during bouts of shortness of breath.

Fortunately, there is a special breathing exercise you can use when you feel breathless that reduces strain on your chest muscles. This technique, known as pursed lips breathing, works by physically opening up your airways to make it easier to breathe.

The basics of pursed lips breathing are simple: you breathe in through your nose for about two seconds, and then you purse your lips before breathing out. If you're pursing your lips correctly, they should make a small “o” when you exhale, as if you were whistling or blowing a kiss.

Finally, exhale for another four seconds or so, until there's no more air to push out. Make sure you empty your lungs as completely as possible before you take your next breath.

Breathing out in this way creates extra pressure in your airways, which holds your airways open and prevents them from collapsing. This reduces shortness of breath and can also reduce lung hyperinflation by helping you empty all the air out of your lungs.

Pursed lips breathing also helps you learn how to control your breaths, which allows you to slow and steady your breathing rate. This technique is particularly useful for bringing rapid and shallow breathing patterns back under your control whenever you start to feel short of breath.

To learn more about pursed lips breathing and get step-by-step instructions for how to do it, check out our guide on breathing exercises for COPD.

Practice Controlled Coughing

Many people with COPD have lots of extra mucus clogging up their airways, which can cause a chronic cough and painful coughing fits. This kind of uncontrolled coughing can be extremely hard on your chest, causing violent spasms that strain your rib cage and wrack the walls of your chest.

This can lead to muscle soreness, aching, and sharp pain in the ribs that gets worse when you move your chest. It can also make it extremely painful to cough, take breaths in, or make certain motions, and may even interfere with your sleep.

However, you can reduce the pain of uncontrolled coughing by practicing controlled coughing, which is gentler and puts less strain on your chest. It also does a better job than uncontrolled coughing at loosening up mucus and moving it out of your lungs.

Here are the basics of how to do it:

• First, sit down in a comfortable chair, placing your feet flat on the ground.
• Relax your body, fold your arms across your lower abdomen, and lean forward slightly in your seat.
• Inhale slowly through your nose.
• Then, cough by following these steps in order:
• Press your arms against your abdomen
• Lean forward
• Open your mouth and make 2-3 short, sharp coughs
• Make sure you use your diaphragm, not your chest muscles, to force the cough out (your belly should move when you inhale and exhale, while your chest muscles should stay still)
• Immediately take another slow breath in through your nose.
• Take a moment to rest, then repeat.

If you practicing controlled coughing regularly, it can help you breathe easier by clearing out excess mucus that's blocking up your airways. Less mucus also means you'll have less need to cough and likely have fewer coughing fits.

For more information about controlled coughing and how to do it correctly, check out this guide from the Cleveland Clinic. You can also find more ways to reduce coughing and get rid of excess mucus in our guide on mucus clearance techniques.

Improve Your Fitness

Getting regular exercise is absolutely essential for staying healthy with COPD. It helps you stay mobile, independent, and can even improve your COPD symptoms and make it easier to breathe.

Exercise can also improve how efficiently your respiratory system works. It does this primarily by strengthening your heart, strengthening your breathing muscles, and reducing how much oxygen your body needs to do physical activities.

This improves your exercise endurance, allowing you to stay active for longer without feeling too short of breath. It also helps your breathing muscles work better, improving how long and hard they can work before they get tired out.

In this way, exercise can improve COPD-related chest pain by reducing how sore and fatigued your chest muscles get from breathing. It can also reduce strain on those muscles by reducing how often you become breathless and reducing the overall effort required to breathe.

But in order to get these benefits, you need to make a commitment to living an active life. That means exercisin

It's easy to want to quit smoking, but taking action on that desire is much more difficult to do. Luckily, experts have come up with a wealth of tips, guidelines, and step-by-step instructions you can follow when you're ready to take those first steps.

In this final installment of our three-part quit-smoking guide, we're going to show you how to put all the different pieces—quit-smoking tools, medications, coping strategies, etc.—together into a successful quit-smoking strategy.

Then, we'll show you how to turn that plan into action and finally quit smoking for good. Well also introduce you to a variety of helpful techniques you can use in your day-to-day life to keep yourself focused and committed to staying smoke free.

We'll cover everything from how to plan your quit day and how to make it through quit day without smoking, to how simple strategies like knowing your triggers and practicing self-care can help you stay on track.

By the end, you should have all the information and resources you need to take your goal to stop smoking—and stay quit—from theory to reality.

Strategies for Staying Smoke Free

We talked a lot in parts 1 and 2 of this guide about resources and tools to help you quit, but we haven't talked much about strategies you can use when you're on your own. After all, even if you have outside assistance, it still takes a lot of personal effort and willpower to stop smoking.

In order to succeed, you'll need some solid strategies for managing temptations and keeping yourself on track. Luckily, there are are many proven methods and simple techniques you can use to resist cravings and adjust to living smoke free.

These strategies are recommended by experts and ex-smokers who have used them before to successfully stop smoking. If you learn those same techniques and how to apply them to your life, you'll be more resilient to relapse and better equipped to handle life in general after you quit.

Get Rid Of Smoking Reminders

If you're a regular smoker, there's a good chance you have smoking-related paraphernalia in various places around your home, car, workplace, and other places you frequent. These simple items, which include things like cigarettes, cigarette boxes, matches, lighters, ashtrays, and any other items that remind you of smoking, can trigger strong temptations if you see them after you quit.

That's why you should take the time to get rid of all these things before the day you decide to stop smoking. It will not only help you with cravings, but it will be more difficult to slip up or relapse if you don't have easy access to cigarettes, lighters, and other smoking tools.

You should throw away your cigarettes, get rid of all your ashtrays and lighters, and re-arrange any indoor and outdoor spaces that are arranged to facilitate smoking. You'll be more likely to succeed in quitting if you can go about your day without seeing constant reminders of when you used to smoke.

Take it One Day at a Time

If you think about whether or not you can quit smoking forever, it may feel like an impossible task. But if you think about whether or not you can abstain from smoking today, then that probably feels more achievable.

That's why it's best to focus on one day at a time when you make a major lifestyle change like quitting smoking. Otherwise, you can get overwhelmed and discouraged by the enormity of the task.

It's no secret that quitting smoking is a long, hard journey, but it's made up of small, simple steps, and you only have to take one step at a time. Just like any other big, long-term project, it's much more manageable if you break it down into smaller chunks.

In this case, instead of thinking about the entirety of what “quitting smoking” entails, it's better to think about the individual steps you can take each day to abstain from smoking. Instead of trying to take in the whole picture, focus your efforts on individual tools and techniques you can use to make it through this moment or this day.

Doing that allows you to focus on the small things you can do, instead of worrying about the larger things you think you can't do. If you ground yourself in the here and now, you can put all your energy into building the skills you need to handle the challenges that come in the future.

That's why it's so important to have a quit-smoking plan in place before the day that you quit, one that includes plenty of simple, practical strategies you can use to manage cravings and keep yourself on track. Then, when your quit day comes, following through can be as simple as following the steps already laid out in your plan.

Let the present “you” deal with present day problems and cravings, and leave future worries and cravings for future “you” to deal with. You can't predict or control what will happen in a week or a month or a year from now, but you can take actions each and every day that put you on a path to success.

Whenever you get the desire to smoke a cigarette, remind yourself that all you have to do is make it through one craving at a time. If you feel discouraged or overwhelmed, just focus on not smoking today; you can deal with tomorrow when it comes.

Celebrate the Small Victories

In the same vein as taking it one day at a time, it's important to take the time to acknowledge each bit of progress you make. Every day you don't smoke is a success worth celebrating, and recognizing this can help you stay motivated to abstain another day.

Quitting smoking isn't just a one-and-done thing; it's a journey that requires you to wake up every morning and re-commit to not smoking. There will never be a definite endpoint to celebrate once and for all, which is why you should celebrate each and every day that you manage to stay smoke free.

Whenever you successfully use a strategy to defeat a cigarette craving, take a moment to acknowledge the victory. When you make it through a whole day without smoking, pause to reflect on how far you've come before moving on to face the challenges of another day.

When you acknowledge and track your achievements, even the little ones, it helps you build confidence and fight off discouraging feelings. It will help you trust that the skills and confidence you build through small, incremental steps will carry you on to the next success and your next smoke-free day.

You should even plan out some rewards you can give yourself once you reach certain milestones and goals, such as one day, one week, or two weeks smoke-free. Those rewards can be as simple as watching a favorite movie or getting a favorite meal, or treating yourself to a luxury like a fun purchase or massage.

For example, you could put all or some of the money that you save from not buying tobacco products in a special reward fund for yourself. At the end of the week (or after you reach one of your milestones) you can then use that money to splurge on something for yourself, such as going out to do something fun or buying something new.

Here are some ideas for fun things you can do to reward yourself for staying smoke free:

• Buy some new supplies for a hobby you enjoy (e.g. a new video game, sporting equipment, cookware, or crafting supplies)
• Pamper yourself by getting a massage, going to a nail parlor, or going to the salon
• Plan a fun night out with your family or friends
• Plan a cookout, movie night, or other celebration with family or friends
• Go shopping for a new outfit or something else you look forward to buying
• Go on a day trip to a place you enjoy

Practice Self-Care

When you rely on cigarettes to feel good every day, quitting can make you feel like you've lost something important. It can be difficult to cope with everyday stressors when you don't have your usual smoking habits to fall back on as a coping mechanism.

After all, many people smoke as a source of comfort and as a way to relieve stress. Because of this, when you quit, you will need to find new, healthier ways to find comfort in your daily life.

One way to do this is by practicing self-care, which essentially just means taking the time to look after your personal needs. However, it's more than an abstract concept; self-care is all about taking specific and deliberate actions for your mental, emotional, and physical well-being.

For example, one way you can practice self-care is by scheduling more “you time” every week. It could also mean taking action in an area of life you want to improve, such as learning to cook, joining a gym, or spending more time with family and friends.

Practicing self-care actions is a wonderful habit to start as soon as you quit, especially since you can use it to fill up the extra time that you used to spend smoking. It's also a great way to reduce anxiety, boost your mood, and distract yourself from the desire to smoke.

In some cases, self-care means saying no, or not doing certain things that affect your mental or physical health in a negative way. For example, you could take steps to eliminate unnecessary stressors from your life, or make the decision to cut specific items from your busy schedule in order to make room for other needs.

As you can see, self-care is a personal thing that requires concentrated effort, careful planning, and honest introspection. However, the reward for all that work is feeling better and living healthier every day.

Your self-care activities should be tailored to you, your lifestyle, and your unique personal needs. In order for them to be effective, you'll need to spend some time thinking about yourself and your routine before you choose for what kinds of self-care activities are right for you.

Think about the things that cause you stress and hinder you the most in everyday life. Then, think of some thinks in your life that you'd like to improve, and come up with some ideas for how to make some positive changes.

Then, take the time to write down some concrete physical, mental, and emotional self-care goals; for example, you could strive to de-clutter your living space, spend more time on hobbies, or think more positive and uplifting thoughts throughout the day. Along with each goal, include a list of at least a couple specific actions you can take toward achieving it.

Here are some general self-care ideas to help you get started.

Self-care for Physical Needs:

• Take a quick walk around the block to stretch your legs and breathe some fresh air.
• Make time in your schedule to prepare healthy, nutritious meals and snacks.
• Stand up and stretch your body throughout the day.
• Spend a few minutes in the sun to relax and soak up some Vitamin D.
• Reduce stress by changing into some soft, comfy clothes that make you feel good.
• Give yourself some extra time to sleep by taking a nap, going to bed early, or scheduling some time to sleep in.
• Take a relaxing shower or bath and lounge around after.
• Free up some time by choosing one task or commitment on your schedule that you can remove, delay, or delegate to someone else.
• Take just one small step toward completing a project, goal, or errand you've been putting off (e.g. cleaning out your fridge or making a healthy lifestyle choice)

Self-care for Mental and Emotional Needs:

• Take some time to journal about your thoughts, worries, or things you are grateful for.
• Spend time outdoors in a green space like a park or hiking trail.
• Make a playlist of some of your favorite songs to relax and enjoy when you need a mood lift.
• Have a “date night” with yourself to do anything you'd like to do, e.g. watch TV, rent a movie, order takeout, read a book, play video games, work on a hobby, etc.
• Allow yourself to feel whatever it is you feel (happy, sad, anxious, angry) without any judgment or reservations.
• Schedule some quiet down time during the day to read, meditate, or just sit around and do nothing.
• Take care of one thing in your home or your life that is bugging you (e.g. a cluttered closet, a disorganized cabinet, or a lightbulb that needs to be replaced).
• Spend some time with friends or family that care about you.
• Place several notes of affirmation and encouragement around your house, car, and workspace.
• Ask someone you trust for some help or support, whether you need some advice, encouragement, or just need someone to listen.
• Make a list of all your worries, fears, and other things that are bothering you to get them out of your head.
• Make a list of some of your good qualities and things that you like about yourself to remind yourself whenever you feel insecure or discouraged.

Try a New Hobby

When you're trying to get rid of a bad habit like smoking, it often helps to replace it with something new. That's why you should consider starting a new hobby or activity on or before your quit day.

Working on a new hobby can help you cope in a variety of ways; it serves as a distraction from nicotine cravings, can act as a form of self-care, and it gives you something to do with your extra time. If you can find a hobby you really enjoy, it can also give you something (in place of smoking) to think about and look forward to every day.

Learning a new skill or activity can also help you feel good about yourself and build confidence in your own abilities. This self-esteem boost can transfer to other areas in your life, making it easier to tackle challenges and cope with discouragement.

Here are some hobby ideas to get you thinking:

• Learn how to knit, crochet, or sew
• Learn how to play a new instrument
• Start a photo scrapbook
• Start writing a journal
• Try an outdoor hobby like gardening or bird-watching
• Start a new exercise hobby like biking or hiking
• Take a class at your local gym or community center (e.g. dancing, cooking scrapbooking, etc.)
• Start reading books or listening to podcasts
• Join a local club (e.g. a sports club or a choir)
• Start cultivating an indoor jungle made up of houseplants
• Find a fun puzzle game you enjoy like picross or sudoku
• There are a million other more obscure hobbies to chose from: e.g. candle-making, origami, terrarium-building, bonsai tree growing, miniature figure painting, and just about anything else you can think of!

Know Your Habits and Triggers

When you smoke every day, the habit tends to get woven into many different areas of your life. You might smoke as part of your morning routine, take smoke breaks during the work day, smoke in your car and during your free time, etc.

Because of this, your brain starts to associate all sorts of actions and habits with smoking. Then, when you stop smoking, those same actions and habits are likely to trigger cigarette cravings.

This is one of the things that makes quitting so difficult to do; no matter what you do or where you go, little things can remind you of past smoking habits and give you the urge to repeat them again. The association can become so strong after smoking for months or years that you can't imagine doing certain things without a smoke.

Certain moods and psychological states can also trigger tobacco cravings and the habitual impulse to smoke. For example, many smokers experience extra strong cigarette cravings when they're angry, anxious, or stressed.

There are three main types of smoking triggers to watch out for:

• Emotional triggers: e.g. anxiety, stress, anger, boredom, loneliness, frustrating situations, etc.
• Habitual triggers: e.g. driving, drinking alcohol, after eating, during breaks at work, etc.
• Social triggers: e.g. social events with friends, being around others who smoke, vacations, going out to a bar, etc.

For your quit smoking plan to be successful, you'll need a way to handle and ride out these triggers without giving in to the cravings. There are two main ways to do this: by replacing habitual smoking sessions with an entirely new habit, and by changing your routine to avoid the triggers altogether.

Replacement Habits

Before you quit, take note of all your smoking habits and all the situations and circumstances you know of that make you want to smoke. Then, think of a simple, easy action you can take whenever you find yourself in one of these triggering situations.

The idea is to replace the habit of smoking with a healthier habit in order to weaken the association you have between the trigger and the desire to smoke. Over time, situations that used to trigger you to smoke should instead trigger the impulse to do the new, healthier action instead.

This is where your list of distracting activities, self-care ideas, and new hobbies can come in handy. In each situation where you used to take the time to smoke, pick out an appropriate activity from one of these these lists that you can do instead.

For example, you could replace the smoke breaks you used to take at work with short breaks to take a walk around the block. Or you could take a few minutes to enjoy watching a short video or enjoy a hot cup of coffee instead.

If you find a good alternative and stick to it long enough, chances are that you'll start to really enjoy the new habit even more than you enjoyed smoking. Instead of simply being a replacement for smoking, it can become a pleasant part of your routine that you look forward to every day.

Changing Your Routine

Sometimes the association between smoking and a certain situation or circumstance is so strong that it's impossible or impractical to try to replace it with something new. In these cases, it's often easier to simply avoid the trigger if you can.

For example, if spending time with other smokers makes you want to smoke, sometimes the easiest solution is just to avoid being around smokers. If a certain activity triggers craving, such as going to the bar with friends, try avoiding that activity and replacing it with a different one that you don't associate with smoking—like going out to a different restaurant or to the movies instead.

Taking yourself out of triggering situations can make it much easier to abstain from smoking, especially in those difficult first weeks and months after you quit. However, that doesn't mean you have to avoid those things forever; after you've had the chance to form some new habits and your cravings have reduced, you might find that you can cope with those triggers much better than you could before.

Stay Focused on the Benefits

If you focus too much on the difficulties of quitting smoking, it might seem like too much effort with too little payoff. However, if you take a closer look at all the good things that can happen when you stop smoking, you'll see that the benefits far outweigh the short-term discomfort of quitting.

That's why it's important to learn about the many different ways that quitting smoking can improve your health. Doing so can help you keep your eye on the prize and remember why you're quitting in the first place.

Any time the going gets tough or you start to feel discouraged, it can help you stay on track to focus on what you have to gain if you persevere. You might even want to keep this list, or another list of quit-smoking benefits, on-hand in case you need a quick reminder of why it's worth it to quit.

Physical Health Benefits

Most people know that quitting smoking is good for your heart and your lungs. However, many smokers don't realize just how huge the health benefits of quitting can be.

When you stop smoking, it not only reduces your risk for lung diseases like cancer and COPD, but also protects you from heart disease, stroke, and other serious health conditions. It allows many parts of your body to heal and improve in a variety of different ways.

Here's a more extensive list of the many health benefits you can get once you quit smoking:

• Reduced cholesterol levels
• Lower blood pressure
• Better blood circulation
• Reduced risk of heart disease
• Reduced risk of stroke
• Reduced risk for COPD
• Reduced risk of lung cancer
• Reduced risk for a variety of other cancers (e.g. cancers of the mouth, esophagus, kidneys, and pancreas)
• Reduced risk of lung infections
• Increased energy levels
• Increased fertility
• Reduced risk of problems during pregnancy
• Reduced risk of blood clots
• Improved ability to control symptoms of lung conditions like asthma and COPD

Mental Health Benefits

Studies show that quitting smoking can improve your mood and mental health in a variety of different ways. Most of these benefits are a direct result of no longer having the drug in your system and no longer experiencing the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal.

First of all, it just feels good to no longer be dependent on smoking to get you through the day. Once the nicotine withdrawal wears off, you will also no longer have to deal with the physical and psychological symptoms that smokers must constantly fend off between smokes.

In fact, many studies have found that quitting smoking can impact just about every measure of psychological health in a positive way. This might seem too good to be true, but it's a pattern found over and over, even though the reasons are not completely clear.

This might be surprising, since many smokers mistakenly believe that smoking helps them cope with negative emotions like anxiety and stress. However, the truth is that smoking actually does the opposite, and it only seems to help because it relieves the psychological symptoms of nicotine withdrawal.

Here are some of the mental health benefits you might receive after you stop smoking:

• Improved overall mood
• Reduced anxiety
• Reduced stress
• Reduced depression
• Increased positivity
• Increased psychological quality of life

Long-term Health Benefits

You can gain some of the positive effects of quitting almost immediately after you stop smoking; for example, it only takes 24 hours to significantly improve the health of your heart and circulatory system.

Other benefits, however, come later, within weeks, months, or years after you quit. These long-term benefits won't be apparent at first, but in time they can make a huge difference in your health and quality of life.

In the following lists, we've organized some of the immediate and long-term benefits according to when they tend to appear. This timeline will give you a better ide

Flexible spending accounts (or FSA's) are a great tool to save money on healthcare, especially if you or someone in your family suffers from a chronic medical condition. If you use oxygen therapy, a flexible spending account can be a smart way to cover special equipment and out-of-pocket costs.

Unfortunately, many people who use oxygen don't take full advantage of their FSA. You can use your FSA to buy all kinds of oxygen therapy supplies, but many people don't realize this or don't think beyond the basics.

The truth is, you can use your FSA to cover just about any oxygen supplies and equipment that your insurance won't cover. That includes small things—like softer tubing or your preferred brand of nasal cannula—and large things—like a brand new portable oxygen concentrator.

But if you have an FSA, you've probably experienced the end-of-year anxiety that comes before your plan expires. This time of year often signals a mad rush to use up FSA money before the funds are lost forever.

When this time comes, too many people spend their extra funds on the first, most convenient things that come to mind. While this isn't always a bad thing, many people are simply not aware of all their options and how they can put that money to best use.

Fortunately, there is a huge number of things you can purchase with your FSA, and it's easy to use up extra funds if you know what your options are. In fact, extra FSA money at the end of the year provides the perfect opportunity to invest in a portable oxygen concentrator or other oxygen supplies you've been wanting to buy.

In this post, we're going to explain how your FSA works and how you can make the most out of your funds before they expire. We'll explain what kinds of purchases are eligible, help you understand FSA restrictions, and give you some practical ideas of what to spend your extra FSA funds on.

Using oxygen isn't always easy, and it's important to utilize all of the options you have to improve the comfort and convenience of oxygen therapy. To learn more, continue reading this article to find out how you can use your FSA to fund a new oxygen concentrator for yourself or a loved one this year.

Here's a quick overview of the information we'll cover in this guide:

• What an FSA is and how it works
• How to understand FSA plan years and when funds expire
• Limitations on how you can spend your FSA
• How to use up your FSA funds before they expire
• What kinds of oxygen supplies are eligible for FSA funds
• How to buy a portable oxygen concentrator with FSA funds
• What kinds of mobility aids qualify for FSA funds
• How and when you can use your FSA funds on someone in your family

How Does an FSA Work?

If you're already very familiar with what an FSA is and what it does, then feel free to skip ahead to the next section. This section is for those of you who aren't quite sure how an FSA works.

This section may also be helpful if you're a bit fuzzy on the details or need a quick refresher on what kinds of expenses you can pay for with your FSA.

What is an FSA?

An FSA, or Flexible Spending Account, is a type of spending account specifically for health and medical expenses. You can only get an FSA through an employer, and you put money in the account by taking it directly out of your earnings.

However, there are limits on what you can use your FSA funds for; in general, you can only use them to pay for out-of-pocket healthcare costs for yourself, your spouse, and your dependents. You also have to use up the money in your FSA by the end of every year, otherwise you lose the unspent amount.

The only way to put money into your FSA account is to get it deducted automatically from your paychecks. In general, you have to decide on an amount to contribute for the whole year and you can't change it until the new plan year starts.

The greatest benefit of having an FSA is that whatever money you put into it is income tax exempt. That means that you get to keep the full amount, before taxes, of any earnings you put in your FSA account.

For example, let's assume your income tax rate is about 30%, and you decide to contribute $300 from your paycheck to your FSA. Normally, you would have to pay $90 in taxes on that $300; however, since you decided to contribute that money to your FSA, you don't pay any income taxes and get to keep the full $300.

Because of this, there is always a limit to how much money you can contribute to your FSA account every year. The law limits each person to a maximum of 2,650 yearly, but your employer might limit your contribution to a different amount.

Many people try to max out their FSA every year to take full advantage of its tax saving benefits. Since you can use your FSA to cover such a wide range of healthcare expenses, it's generally not very difficult to find a way to use up extra funds.

An FSA is a great way to set money aside for future medical expenses like medications, operations, and medical equipment that your insurance doesn't cover. This can be especially useful for seniors, families with children, people with chronic diseases, and anyone who faces large or unpredictable healthcare costs.

When you need to spend the money in your FSA account on a medical expense, there are two main ways you can do that. First, you can pay the amount yourself and then submit a claim to get reimbursed from your FSA, or you can use a FlexCard to pay expenses directly from your account.

Here is a quick overview of some of the key features and benefits of using an FSA:

• You can contribute whatever amount you'd like every month, up to a maximum of $2,650 per year.
• The amount you contribute to your FSA gets taken directly from your paycheck.
• Any income you contribute to your FSA is income tax exempt.
• Your employer may choose to match the amount you contribute to your FSA up to a certain amount.

Now that we've covered what an FSA is, let's take a closer look at how it works. In order to use your FSA legally and get the most out of your account, it's vital to understand how FSA funds expire and what kinds of expenses you are allowed to pay for with your FSA.

The Funds in Your FSA Expire Every Year

FSA accounts work on a year-long cycle. At the beginning of every plan year, your accounts starts at $0, and any money you put in the account throughout the year has to be spent before the plan year ends.

At the beginning of the next year, your account gets reset to zero again, and any funds leftover from the previous year get forfeited. That's why it's very important to use all of the money in your account before it expires.

While the start and end of most FSA plan years usually align with the calendar year, this is not always the case. To avoid losing your hard-earned funds, make sure you know the exact date that your FSA plan ends and don't lose track of it throughout the year.

If You Don't Use It, You Will Probably Lose It

Even if you have money left over in your FSA account, you will lose it forever after the start of the new plan year. Because of this, many people spend December looking for useful ways to spend away the rest of the money in their accounts.

There are some exceptions, however; some FSA plans give you a month or two grace period to use unspent funds after the end of your plan year. Alternatively, the Affordable Care Act allows employers who don't offer a grace period to allow employees to roll over up to $500 in unspent funds from the previous year.

How your FSA works depends on the particular plan offered by your employer. Regardless, under most plans you stand to lose a significant amount of your balance if you don't use it up by the end of your plan year.

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to use up all your hard-earned FSA funds before they expire. Even if the deadline is close, there's nothing to stop you from going on a last-minute healthcare shopping spree.

There are Strict Limitations on How You Can Spend Your FSA

FSA funds can only be used to pay for qualified medical expenses, which the IRS defines as “costs of the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, and the costs for treatments affecting any part or function of the body.” However, when it comes to the specifics of what you can and cannot pay for using FSA funds, the rules can be somewhat vague.

The IRS also specifies that the healthcare expense must also be used “primarily to alleviate or prevent a physical disability or illness.” However, expenses related to general health, such as vitamins and health foods, are not considered qualified medical expenses.

We'll go into greater detail on what kinds of supplies and equipment do and don't count as qualified FSA expenses in this next section. In the following sections, we'll lay out exactly what kinds of oxygen supplies, oxygen equipment, and other helpful supplies you can purchase with your FSA.

What You CAN Purchase with FSA Funds

Here is a list of some general healthcare expenses that are qualified for FSA funds:

• Medical care that you receive from any legal medical practitioner, including physicians, surgeons, dentists, and other specialists.
• Medical equipment, medical supplies, and diagnostic devices needed for medical purposes (e.g. first aid supplies, oxygen therapy supplies, and blood sugar test kits)
• Prescription medications
• The cost of your health insurance premium (but not dental insurance)
• Transportation costs you incur traveling to and from medical care
• Long-term care services (and, in some cases, some of the costs of long-term care insurance)
• Over-the-counter medications, but only if you have a doctor's prescription (excluding insulin)

Here is a list of some common products that qualify as medical equipment and supplies:

• Thermometers
• Antiseptic
• Bandages
• First aid kits
• Blood pressure monitors
• Defibrillators
• Sunscreen
• Condoms
• Prenatal vitamins
• Adaptive mobility aids (e.g. shower chairs)
• Oxygen equipment and maintenance products

What You May NOT Purchase with FSA Funds

Here is a list of some general healthcare expenses that are NOT qualified for FSA funds:

• Any “general health” items that are not needed to treat or prevent a specific illness, disease, or medical condition
• Toothbrushes and over-the-counter dental products
• Over-the-counter medications without a prescription
• Fitness trackers and pedometers
• Gym memberships and exercise equipment
• CBD products and medical marijuana
• Cosmetic procedures
• Dental insurance premiums
• Feminine hygiene products
• Diapers
• Hair loss products
• Medicare alternative insurance premiums
• Medicare part B insurance

Here are a couple more great resources for figuring out what specific things you can and cannot buy with FSA funds:

• The FSA Store
• General list of eligible and non-eligible items from Wageworks

You CAN Buy Oxygen Equipment and Supplies with FSA Funds

Fortunately for people who use oxygen, you can use FSA funds to pay for medical equipment and supplies that are necessary for oxygen therapy. That includes the cost of oxygen and oxygen equipment used to “relieve breathing problems caused by a medical condition.”

In the following sections, we'll go into more detail about exactly what kinds of oxygen supplies and equipment count as qualified health expenses. We'll also show you how you can use your FSA to pay for pricier equipment that may be difficult to fund otherwise, such as a portable oxygen concentrator.

How to Use Up Your FSA Funds Before They Expire

You can get the most out of your FSA by thinking outside the box and considering all your different spending options. That's why it's important to understand your FSA's full potential, and that it can be used to cover much more than basic costs like co-pays and prescriptions.

If you use supplemental oxygen, you can use your FSA pay for all kinds of practical supplies to make your daily life easier. For example, you can use FSA funds to purchase a shower chair for your home or get that high-flow nasal cannula you've always wanted to try.

There is a wide variety of FSA-qualified oxygen therapy equipment, adaptive mobility aids, and other supplies you can choose from. You can use your FSA to pay for small equipment expenses and for more expensive devices like portable oxygen concentrators.

In the following sections, we're going to give you some ideas for how to use FSA funds on oxygen and mobility supplies that will actually make a difference in your life. From portable oxygen concentrators to mobility aids to luxury oxygen equipment, we'll show you a variety of practical items that can improve your quality of life.

Since the money in your FSA account disappears at the end of the year, you should think about how to use up the entire balance before that date comes. Luckily, there is a plethora of worthwhile things you can purchase with your FSA, many of which you might not have thought about before on your own.

You Can Buy a Portable Oxygen Concentrator

If you've ever considered buying a new or used portable oxygen concentrator but worried about the price, you can always fund the purchase through your FSA. It's a great way to use up extra FSA funds, and it's one of the most worthwhile investments that someone who uses supplemental oxygen can make.

A portable oxygen concentrator allows you to take oxygen with you anywhere you go, without having to handle any bulky equipment. They are some of the lightest, safest, and most hassle-free oxygen sources available, and having one can be life-changing in the best possible way.

A portable oxygen concentrator allows you to move freely without being tethered to a stationary oxygen concentrator or heavy oxygen tank. This allows you to take back some of the freedom you lose when you have to use supplemental oxygen.

Buying a portable oxygen concentrator is a long-term investment that is also immediately practical; it is something you can utilize both inside and outside your home every day. Portable concentrators are also durable, high-quality pieces of equipment that you can benefit from for many years to come.

There are many different types of oxygen concentrators available in a variety of sizes and with a range of useful features. To learn more about the best portable oxygen concentrators on the market, check out the following links:

• The best portable oxygen concentrators of 2018
• Top 4 continuous flow portable oxygen concentrators
• Top 4 pulse flow portable oxygen concentrators

How to Pay for a Portable Oxygen Concentrator with FSA Funds

Even if you don't have enough money in your FSA to pay the entire price of a portable oxygen concentrator, you can still use it to cover part of the cost. Whether you have $200 or $2,000 in your account, you can put as much of it as you like toward the balance and use another payment method for the rest.

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Here at Life Point Medical, we offer great financing options that can make it even easier to pay for a new or used portable oxygen concentrator with your FSA. You can cover the initial cost with the money in your account right now, and then pay for the rest over time with low monthly payments.

You Can Buy a Variety of Oxygen Equipment and Supplies

If you use oxygen for any reason, you can get the most out of your extra FSA funds by spending them on new oxygen supplies. There is a wide variety of FSA-qualified oxygen equipment and maintenance items that can make oxygen therapy more comfortable.

In general, you can use your FSA to pay for the following oxygen supplies:

• Oxygen concentrators and accessories, including:
• Battery packs and power cords
• Compressors
• Filters
• Oxygen equipment maintenance items, including:
• Cleansing wipes
• Disinfecting and deodorant sprays
• Oxygen delivery supplies, including:
• Nasal cannulae & oxygen masks
• Extension tubing
• Humidifier bottles
• Nebulizer equipment
• Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
• CPAP/BiPAP machines and accessories, including:
• CPAP machines
• CPAP headgear
• CPAP equipment cleaning supplies

Your FSA is also a great way to fund specialty oxygen equipment, which is often pricier than the standard equipment most oxygen suppliers offer. For example, you could use your FSA funds to buy more comfortable nasal cannulae or higher quality tubing supplies.

In general, you can use your FDA to pay for any oxygen therapy supplies that your insurance won't cover. To learn more about the many different types of nasal cannulae, oxygen masks, tubing, and more that you have to choose from, take a look at our guide on making oxygen therapy more comfortable.

There are many different kinds of specialty oxygen supplies you can buy that are designed to make oxygen therapy more comfortable and convenient. For now, here are a few ideas to get you started.

Examples of oxygen supplies that are eligible for FSA funds:

• High-flow nasal cannulae
• Nasal cannulae with soft tubing and comfort features
• A finger pulse oximeter to monitor your blood oxygen saturation
• Comfortable oxygen masks
• Replacement extension tubing
• Humidifier bottles that attach to your oxygen delivery equipment
• Sanitizing sprays and solutions for cleaning your oxygen equipment
• An extra battery for your portable oxygen concentrator
• Replacement filters for your portable or stationary oxygen concentrator
• CPAP/BiPAP masks

You can also purchase a variety of FSA-eligible oxygen and CPAP supplies from our online store. We offer a variety of different CPAP machines and accessories, portable oxygen concentrators, and other oxygen supplies.

You Can Buy a Variety of Qualified Mobility Aids

Living with a chronic condition that requires supplemental oxygen can be difficult. Many people who use oxygen suffer from breathlessness and other physical ailments that limit their mobility and interfere with daily activities.

The good news is that you can use your FSA to pay for many different types of adaptive equipment to make daily living easier. In general, adaptive mobility aids for bathing, dressing, and feeding all qualify for FSA funds.

In some cases, you might need to provide proof that your adaptive equipment is necessary. If proof is required, you will need to have your doctor write a letter of medical necessity (LMN) explaining why you need the equipment for your health and how it will improve your standard of living.

Here is a list of some common mobility aids and equipment you can purchase through your FSA:

• Shower chairs
• Shower grab bars
• Tub seats
• Bath transfers
• Dressing sticks and sock dressing aids
• Long-handled dressing tools (e.g. shoe horn, zipper pull, button hook)
• Grabbers
• Toilet modifications
• Adapted dishware and utensils for eating
• Mobility scooters (with a LMN)

COPD is a complicated disease that comes with a variety of extraneous health concerns, including an increased risk for several other serious diseases. One of those diseases is lung cancer, a condition that is quite different from COPD, but still linked to the chronic lung disease in numerous ways.

Research shows people who have COPD are about twice as likely to develop lung cancer than people who don't have COPD. Unfortunately, research suggests that the vast majority of people with COPD have no idea about this increased lung cancer risk.

This lack of awareness is dangerous, because unaware COPD patients may be less likely to take important cancer-prevention measures or watch for lung cancer symptoms. This can result in fewer lung cancer screenings, later lung cancer diagnoses, and fewer efforts among COPD patients to make healthy lifestyle changes that could lower their lung cancer risk.

In this post, we're going to take a closer look at why there's such a strong connection between these two deadly lung diseases, including what factors tie them together and what sets them apart. We'll also discuss what this elevated risk for lung cancer means for people with COPD, explaining what types of lung cancers you might be at risk for and what you can do, specifically, to reduce your future lung cancer risk.

Lung Cancer and COPD: Fundamentally Different Yet Fundamentally Linked

At first, it might seem strange that lung cancer and COPD are linked at all, especially when they are such vastly different types of diseases. After all, COPD is a chronic, lifelong illnesses and cancer is, well... cancer! And we often tend to think about cancer as a unique type of disease in a category all on its own.

But, while it's true that lung cancer and COPD are fundamentally different diseases, they actually have many characteristics in common—aside from the fact that they both affect the lungs. For example, both diseases can cause very similar breathing symptoms and they even share many of the same risk factors and causes.

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But to understand why having COPD increases your risk for lung cancer, you'll first need some basic knowledge about both of these diseases and how they work. Then, we can take a closer look at some key similarities and differences between lung cancer and COPD that can shed some light on how they're connected.

In the next few sections, we'll explain everything you need to know about lung cancer and COPD to get the most out of this guide, including what causes both diseases, how they develop, and how their progression compares.

Then, we'll jump right into discussing how the diseases are linked before giving you some helpful, science-based tips for how to reduce your risk for lung cancer if you have COPD.

The Basics of Lung Cancer vs COPD

Lung cancer is a deadly disease caused by cancerous cells and tumors growing inside the lungs. It is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the US, killing more people than breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colorectal cancer combined; however, lung cancer can be cured with proper treatment in some cases, especially if you catch it early on.

By contrast, COPD is a chronic, lifelong disease that can be treated, but not cured. It is largely caused by damage and inflammation in the lung tissues and airways that makes it more and more difficult to breathe as the disease progresses.

Lung cancer begins as soon as cancerous cells appear in the lungs, though it can take some time before the cancer is detectable or the first symptoms start to appear. COPD, on the other hand, often doesn't have a clear beginning, as it is the result of chronic lung inflammation that occurs over the course of many years.

Most of the time, COPD is caused by smoking and long-term exposure to respiratory irritants like secondhand smoke and air pollution. Smoking is also the number one cause of lung cancer, though other respiratory irritants and carcinogenic substances (e.g. asbestos and radon gas) can also cause lung cancer, especially if you are exposed to them repeatedly over time.

How Cancerous Mutations Take Over Your Lungs

Cancerous lung cells start as normal lung cells that become cancerous after acquiring certain types of DNA mutations. However, not all cell mutations are cancerous; some mutations are harmless, while others get corrected (or the whole cell gets destroyed) before they cause any problems.

So what is it exactly that makes a cancer cell different—and more dangerous—than a cell with a non-cancerous mutation or a healthy, normal cell? The answer is that cells only become cancerous when they develop several specific types of mutations that cause the cell to stop following certain “rules.”

In particular, cancer cells have mutations that allow them to multiply freely and ignore the usual controls that constrain how and when cells divide. They also have mutations that allow them to escape the body's natural defenses that would otherwise repair or destroy these mutated cells.

These cancerous cells are dangerous because the body can't detect and destroy them on its own; this allows the cancer cells to multiply out of control and spread to places they're never supposed to be. Eventually, these rogue cells begin to interfere with normal biological functions, though their exact effects depend on where the cancer is located and what types of mutations the cancer cells have.

Carcinogens and Lung Cancer

One thing that's important to know about cell mutations is that they can happen essentially by chance. They can happen any time a cell multiplies, or any time a cell's DNA gets copied, duplicated, or repaired.

However, some things—known as carcinogens—can cause a significant increase in DNA mutations. More mutations means a higher risk for cancer, since it creates more opportunities for a cancerous mutation to occur.

Some carcinogens, like UV radiation from sunlight, can mutate DNA directly by striking the DNA molecules or triggering a chemical reaction that damages DNA inside a cell. Other carcinogens, like tobacco smoke, indirectly mutate DNA by causing repeated inflammation and injury that damages DNA both in the cells it touches and in the surrounding tissues that get inflamed.

In general, your risk for cancer gets higher the more frequently you're exposed to cancer hazards. It's kind of like rolling a dice; your chances of developing a cancerous mutation on any given roll is very low, but the more times you roll the dice, the more likely you are to “roll” a cancerous mutation eventually.

Different Diseases, Similar Symptoms

As we explained in the section above, lung cancer happens via a completely different biological mechanism than COPD. However, both diseases directly affect the lungs' ability to function, which means both diseases can cause some of the same respiratory symptoms.

COPD causes breathing symptoms because the damage it does to your lungs and airways restricts airflow to the lungs and reduces how much oxygen they can absorb. Lung cancer causes cancer cells to spread across healthy lung tissue and/or form tumors on the lungs, which interferes with normal functions and makes it more difficult to breathe.

Symptoms of COPD:

• Shortness of breath
• Difficulty breathing
• Chronic cough (especially a wet cough that produces phlegm)
• Wheezing
• Chest tightness
• Fatigue
• Frequent respiratory infections
• Swelling in legs, ankles, or feet
• Unexplained weight loss (in the advanced stages of COPD)
  
  

Symptoms of Lung Cancer:

• Shortness of breath
• Difficulty breathing
• Persistent cough (dry or wet)
• Coughing up blood (or blood-streaked mucus)
• Chest pain
• Wheezing
• Hoarse voice
• Recurring lung infections
• Chronic weakness or fatigue
• Loss of appetite
• Unexplained weight loss

Now, while some of these symptoms seem very similar, they can present themselves very differently in people with lung cancer versus people with COPD. Also, it's important to remember that every case of lung cancer and COPD is different, and symptoms can vary widely between people with the same disease.

One major difference between lung cancer and COPD symptoms is that COPD symptoms are life-long and don't get much better with treatment or time. They often start out very mild in the early stages of COPD and slowly get worse over the course of months and years.

Lung cancer symptoms, on the other hand, can get better with successful treatment and even fully disappear if the cancer is cured. However, symptoms often don't show up until the later stages of cancer, when the cancer is much less treatable and has likely already spread.

People who are diagnosed with early-stage COPD can live with the disease for many years before the symptoms get severe enough to significantly burden their lives. People with moderate to severe lung cancer symptoms are not likely to live long with the disease unless their cancer can be successfully treated or cured.

Certain Types of Lung Cancer are More Strongly Associated with COPD

There are at least a dozen different kinds of lung cancer, but the most common ones fall into one of two main types: small cell lung cancer (SCLC) or non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Non-small cell lung cancers are by far the most common, and they make up about 80-85 percent of all lung cancers.

Compared to non-small cell lung cancers, small-cell lung cancers tend to be more aggressive and progress more quickly. However, every case of lung cancer is different, and how the disease presents and progresses can vary significantly from person to person.

All types of lung cancer are strongly associated with both smoking and COPD. About 85 percent of all lung cancers are caused by smoking, and about 40-70 percent of people with lung cancer also have COPD.

However, some types of lung cancer are more closely tied to smoking and COPD than others. People with COPD seem to be more prone to non-small cell lung cancers and have a particularly high risk for squamous cell carcinoma (a sub-type of NSCLC).

In fact, about half of all people who get non-small cell lung cancer also have COPD, and about 80 percent are current or former smokers. Small-cell lung cancers, by comparison, are almost always associated with smoking; up to 98 percent of of SCLC patients have a history of smoking.

Here is a table describing some of the most common types of lung cancers.

It's important to note that lung cancer doesn't always stay just in the lungs. Over time, lung cancer can become metastatic, which means that the cancer cells can break off and travel to other parts of the body.

This allows the cancer to take root in other organs, most commonly the bones, brain, liver, adrenal gland, and the other lung. When this happens, the resulting cancer is known as a secondary cancer, and it retains the same characteristics as the cancer it originally came from.

Why Do People With COPD Have a Higher Risk for Lung Cancer?

Now that you know the basics of how both lung cancer and COPD work, let's take a closer look at why one disease affects the other and how both of these diseases are so closely intertwined. We'll look at 3 main factors in particular that help explain the link: shared disease risk factors, accumulated lung damage, and individual susceptibility to lung disease.

Shared Risk Factors

One of the main links between COPD and lung cancer is that both diseases have many of the same risk factors and causes. A risk factor is essentially any kind of health problem, physical characteristic, behavior, or lifestyle factor that is known to increase your risk for developing a certain disease.

This means that some of the things that increase your chances of developing COPD—like tobacco smoke and certain respiratory toxins—can also increase your risk of developing lung cancer. In fact, up to 90% of both COPD cases and lung cancer cases are caused by smoking.

This makes sense if you consider the fact that COPD, just like lung cancer, is associated with repeated damage and inflammation in the lungs. Even if you're not a smoker, being diagnosed with COPD means that you are more likely than people who don't have COPD to have other risk factors that increase your chances of getting lung cancer in the future.

Let's take a closer look at the risk factors for both lung cancer and COPD. Though some of the risk factors differ, you should notice that there are a lot that overlap.

Risk Factors for Lung Cancer:

• Older age
• Smoking tobacco (responsible for about 80% of lung cancer deaths)
• Exposure to secondhand smoke (responsible for up to 7 thousand deaths per year)
• Exposure to radon gas (the second most common cause of lung cancer)
• Exposure to asbestos (especially in an occupational environment)
• Exposure to other carcinogens at work (e.g. diesel exhaust fumes, coal compounds, silica dust, arsenic, etc.)
• Exposure to air pollution
• Previous radiation therapy
• Family history of lung cancer

Risk Factors for COPD:

• Older age
• Smoking tobacco (the number one cause of COPD)
• Exposure to secondhand smoke
• Exposure to radon gas
• Exposure to asbestos
• Exposure to other respiratory irritants, including hazardous fumes, chemicals, and airborne particles, especially in an occupational environment (e.g. dust, car exhaust, and fumes from products like cleaning solutions, adhesives, treated lumber, etc.)
• Exposure to air pollution
• A history of frequent or severe respiratory infections (especially during childhood)
• Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (a rare genetic disease)

Lung Damage Caused by COPD

While common risk factors (like genetics) and common causes (like smoking) explain some of the relationship between lung cancer and COPD, there are other factors at play. Research shows that simply having COPD is an independent risk factor for lung cancer on its own.

Researchers also believe that certain types of lung cancer—squamous cell carcinoma, in particular—are the result of COPD-related inflammation in the lungs. After all, chronic inflammation is a well-known cause of cancer as well as an inherent characteristic of COPD

This chronic inflammation causes certain physiological changes to lung tissues, including a decrease in DNA repair proteins and an increase in oxidative stress. These changes—along with the repeated cycles of inflammation, damage, and repair—can lead to cancerous mutations.

Those who work in the US military make great sacrifices in service of their country. Those sacrifices often include putting their lives at risk in a number of ways.

As a result, military service members and veterans have a higher risk of getting a variety of injuries, diseases, and other serious health problems. One disease that's particularly common among military veterans is a chronic lung condition known as COPD.

Veterans are more likely to develop COPD for a variety of different reasons, but a major cause is being exposed to chemicals, smoke, and other lung hazards during service. Fortunately, COPD is becoming more widely acknowledged by the US Department of Veterans Affairs as a major health issue facing US military veterans.

Unfortunately, COPD doesn't receive nearly as much public attention as some other health conditions that disproportionately affect military veterans, such as PTSD. As a result, many veterans are not aware of the COPD or the risk factors they possess that could make them vulnerable to the disease.

That's why, in this article, we're going to explain what every military service member, veteran, and their loved ones, should know about COPD. We'll discuss why veterans are more at risk, how you can get the disease during service, and how to reduce your risk of developing COPD.

We'll also explain what you can do to keep your lungs healthy both during and after military service, and how to recognize the early signs of COPD. That way, you can better protect your lungs from hazardous substances and get early treatment as soon as the first symptoms of the disease appear.

Why Do So Many Military Veterans Develop COPD?

If you are new to the term, you should know that COPD stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and that it is a chronic, life-long respiratory disease that makes it difficult to breathe. There is no known cure for the condition, but it can be managed and even slowed down with the right kind of treatment.

(Click here to learn more about what COPD is, including what each of the four COPD stages looks like and what kinds of treatment options are available.)

The most common cause of COPD is tobacco smoking, but even people who have never smoked a cigarette in their life can still develop the disease. In non-smokers, COPD is often caused by occupational exposure to substances that irritate and damage their lungs.

These harmful substances include things like diesel smoke, chemical fumes, and many types of airborne particles and dust. Unfortunately, military veterans are more likely than most people to have come into contact with these types of substances throughout their lives.

For instance, many people in the military have to work around smoke and chemical fumes during service. Many who are deployed (especially in the Middle East) also face additional respiratory hazards like heavy air pollution and burn pit smoke.

However, exposure to environmental respiratory hazards is not the only reason that veterans are more likely to develop COPD. Significantly more military servicemen and women smoke tobacco compared to the general US population, which no doubt contributes to veterans' high rates of lung diseases, including COPD.

However, it's important to realize that COPD is generally caused by cumulative damage to the lungs after long-term exposure to one or more respiratory irritants. Because of this, a single case of COPD can have more than one cause.

For example, repeated exposure to exhaust fumes during military service can cause lung damage that increases your risk for COPD later in life, even if it doesn't directly cause the disease. COPD also tends to have a delayed onset, which means that your lungs can be damaged badly enough to develop COPD but not show any symptoms for years—or even decades—after the original cause.

Because of this, it is often difficult to pin the blame for the disease on any single factor. In some cases COPD is simply the result of lung damage gradually accumulated over a lifetime of exposure to a variety of different respiratory irritants.

This is particularly important for military service members to understand, because a wide variety of military jobs have the potential to expose you to a higher-than-average amount of respiratory hazards. If you are a current or former service member, learning more about these hazards can help you take better care of your health and better understand your personal risk for COPD.

How Big is the Risk for Veterans?

According to a variety of research studies and observations, veterans face a disproportionately large risk for developing COPD. When compared to those who have never served in the military, studies consistently show higher rates of the disease among veterans.

General statistics show that about 16 million people in the US have been diagnosed COPD, which is about 6.5 percent of the entire population over the age of 18. However, experts believe the true number is much higher because a large number of people who have the disease have not yet been diagnosed.

Unfortunately, it's difficult to find exact statistics on the numbers and rates of COPD among US military veterans as a whole. However, doctors, researchers, and other experts agree that veterans have a notably higher risk of developing COPD and make up a disproportionately large percentage of those needing treatment for the disease.

According to COPD foundation president John W. Walsh, the risk for COPD is nearly three times as high for veterans compared to non-veterans. Research also shows this trend, with one study that reviewed medical data from VA patients finding that more than 8 percent of them had been diagnosed with COPD.

However, other studies estimate the actual prevalence of COPD among veterans to be as high as fifteen to twenty percent, and the disease may be even more common in certain populations of veterans. One study, for instance, recruited 326 veterans from a VA medical center in Cincinnati and found that 33 to 43 percent of them met the clinical criteria for COPD.

How Military Service Can Put You At Risk for COPD

In the next sections, we're going to explain each of the major COPD risks that military service members face in a bit more detail. This will give you a better picture of why veterans are more likely to develop COPD and what you can do to protect yourself from the disease.

Exposure to Dust, Fumes, and Fine Particulates

Many military troops are exposed to hazardous amounts of sand, dust, and other fine particulates when deployed in certain climates. Because of this, veterans who served in the Persian Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other dry, dusty environments have a higher risk for respiratory conditions like COPD.

Air pollution is another hazard that can irritate and damage your lungs, increasing your risk for COPD and other lung diseases. Unfortunately, air pollution is particularly bad in certain parts of the world where the US military is stationed, including Southwest Asia, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Burn pits are another dangerous source of smoke that could damage your lungs during service. These pits of burning waste were used often by troops deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq, and they frequently contained hazardous chemicals and materials that release dangerous fumes when burned.

However, exposure to dust and chemical fumes is not limited to military service members deployed in other countries. Many military occupations have the potential to expose you to high enough levels of fine particulates and fumes to increase your risk for COPD.

For example, the US Department of Veterans Affairs recognizes that many military service members may be exposed to toxic vapors when using industrial solvents. These include solutions used for cleaning, stripping paint, de-greasing, and other common tasks military service members perform on a regular basis.

Asbestos is another major respiratory hazard that veterans in certain occupations may encounter. Those working in jobs related to mining, milling, insulation work, demolition, carpentry, and constructions are the most likely to have extensive asbestos exposure, which is known to cause COPD.

Many service members, both deployed and non-deployed, are also at risk of breathing dangerous amounts of fuel and exhaust fumes while they work. These fumes are widely recognized as a major source of occupational exposure to dangerous particulates and gases that can cause a variety of respiratory diseases, including COPD.

Exhaust fume exposure can happen at just about any military job that requires you to work with or near gas and diesel-fueled equipment, including vehicles and machinery. Equipment operators, technicians, engineers, and deployed service members, for instance, may be exposed to harmful fumes from the vehicles and machinery they use to do their jobs.

Increased Pressure to Smoke Tobacco

Without a doubt, smoking tobacco is the number one cause of COPD. Research shows that nearly 90% of people with COPD are current or former smokers, while only 10 percent have never smoked.

Unfortunately, cigarette smoking is an extremely common habit among people serving in the military. This is a problem that's been around since at least the early 1900's, when cigarettes were widely distributed to troops during WWI.

For many decades, cigarettes were an integral part of military culture; soldier care packages weren't considered complete if they didn't include a pack. Up until the mid-1970's, cigarettes were even a part of standard military rations, and in the 1980's, nearly 55 percent of military service members still smoked.

Smoking is such a deeply entrenched tradition in the military that it still persists to this day, despite the fact that aggressive public health efforts have succeeded in reducing smoking rates significantly among the general US population. The most recent research from 2011 shows that nearly 25% of active duty military personnel smoke (compared to 19 percent of civilians), and nearly forty percent of them didn't start smoking until after they enlisted.

The percentage of smokers is even higher among those serving in certain branches of the military. For instance, in 2011, 30.8 percent of service members in the marine corps and nearly 27 percent of those in the army smoked.

Even worse, a large number of people who begin smoking in the military will never actually quit, and many continue to smoke for decades after retiring from service. In fact, the most recent research from the CDC has found that a whopping 29.2 percent of veterans smoke.

That means that veterans have more than twice the smoking rate of the general US population, which has stayed relatively stable at 14 percent for many years. Since tobacco smoke is the number one cause of COPD, the prevalence of smoking among active military personnel and veterans is one of the major reasons for their higher rates of the disease.

Frequent exposure to secondhand smoke can also cause COPD, and it could be another contributing factor to veterans' higher-than-usual risk for the disease. After all, even service members who don't smoke have a high risk of regular second-hand smoke exposure simply from living and working around those who do.

Increased Risk From Deployment

A number of research studies have found that military veterans who have been deployed have higher rates of respiratory illnesses and diseases, including asthma and COPD. This is likely caused, at least partially, by the fact that service members are more likely to be exposed to environmental hazards like dust and smoke during employment.

For instance, one study showed military veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan were nearly three times as likely to have asthma and more than 75% more likely to have COPD. Experts believe that many of these respiratory conditions are the result of breathing in sand, dust, and burn pit fumes while deployed in the Middle East.

Research also suggests that your risk for respiratory problems may be higher the longer you are deployed. However, studies also show that deployed service members are more likely to smoke than those who have not been deployed.

Finally, some military veterans may be at risk for COPD and other respiratory problems due to their proximity to specific hazardous events. These include veterans of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm who may have been exposed to dangerous levels of pollution from oil well fires.

Here is a list of some specific events recognized as respiratory hazards by the US Department of Veterans Affairs:

• The 2003 sulfur plant fire in Al Mishraq, Iraq
• The Atsugi waste incinerator in Atsugi, Japan that released dangerous fumes from burning medical industrial waste
• Exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War
• Oil and gas well fires during the Gulf War (specifically operation desert shield and operation desert storm)
• Burn pits used at military sites
• Environmental exposure to sand, dust, and other particulate matter during deployment

What Can Military Service Members Do to Protect Their Lungs?

It is not uncommon for military service members to have to work in hazardous conditions. This includes working around dust, smoke, and exhaust fumes, as well as handling a variety of hazardous chemicals and materials.

All of these things can pose a risk to your lungs, but there are certain things you can do to significantly reduce that risk. Simply taking the right safety precautions and avoiding tobacco smoke, for example, can protect you from most of the major respiratory hazards you're likely to encounter during service.

Even veterans who are no longer in active service can protect their lungs by quitting smoking and continuing to avoid respiratory hazards throughout their lives. Early detection is also important, which is why it's vital for veterans with respiratory problems to get tested for COPD.

Follow Proper Safety Precautions and Procedures

When you're working in hazardous environments or with hazardous materials, you should do everything you can to protect yourself from both immediate and long-term health risks. In order to do that, you need to wear the proper safety equipment and follow every safety procedure carefully.

For example, you should always check chemical product labels for health warnings and instructions, and seek out other safety information before handling any chemical or material that could be hazardous. You should also know any applicable safety procedures and follow them to the letter every single time you do the task.

It's especially important to utilize all safety equipment that's available and appropriate, such as gloves, goggles, masks, and respirators, before you handle dangerous materials or work near a respiratory hazard. If your work site doesn't have the proper safety supplies, you should alert your supervisor to the problem and request the needed equipment.

However, you must make sure that you use the right kind of safety equipment for the specific hazard you face, otherwise you won't be protected. Many types of masks and respirators are only designed to protect you from a specific type of respiratory hazards, such as a certain size of ultra-fine particle or a type of chemical fume.

For more information on occupational respiratory hazards and what kind of safety equipment to use, refer to the OSHA technical manual on respiratory protection. You can view this on the US Department of Labor's website here.

It's particularly important to be safe with chemicals you use routinely, as repeated exposure is much more likely to damage your lungs than a one-time mistake. The temptation to cut corners and skip safety procedures also tends to be higher the more often you do a task; that's why maintaining your diligence is vital, especially the longer you work.

All of these safety rules also apply to veterans and civilians when working both at home and in the private sector. Always take the proper steps and wear the proper safety gear when you work around anything, including common household chemicals, that could harm your lungs.

Certain chemicals are more hazardous than others, and you should be familiar with all the dangerous materials and solutions you could be exposed to while you work. Be particularly cautious with chemicals and solvents like cleaning products, de-greasers, paint strippers, paint thinners, and other common chemical solutions.

Major respiratory hazards that require safety precautions:

• Asbestos
• Most chemical cleaning products
• Paint fumes
• Paint thinners and strippers
• Other chemical solvents
• Exhaust fumes
• Dust, chemical dusts, and other sources of fine, airborne particles

Specific chemicals deemed hazardous by the US Department of Veterans Affairs:

• Benzene and other aromatic hydrocarbons
• Vinyl chloride
• Perchlorate
• Perfluorooctane sulfonate
• Tetrachloroethylene
• Trichloroethylene

Quit Smoking, or Avoid Starting in the First Place!

Despite all of the respiratory hazards that military service members face, plain old tobacco smoke is still the primary cause of COPD among veterans. Because of this, avoiding or quitting smoking is the most important thing you can do to protect yourself from COPD.

Of course, this is easier said than done; smoking is pervasive among both service members and veterans, and it's extremely difficult to stop once you've started. Former smokers also have a higher risk of relapsing while serving in the military, and the risk is even higher for those that get deployed.

But even though serving in the military can make it especially challenging to avoid smoking and secondhand smoke, it's one of the most important things you can do to safeguard your health. If you are an active service member or veteran who already smokes, it's still never too late to quit!

Even though quitting is difficult, the good news is that you don't have to do it alone. There is a plethora of quit-smoking programs and services available to help you get the support you need to successfully quit.

These include phone hotlines, online support groups, educational guides, mobile support apps, and more. There are even a number of quit-smoking programs in place specifically for current military service members and veterans, some of which are only available through TRICARE and other Department of Defense programs.

Here is a list of some of the available services with links to help you get started:

• TRICARE beneficiaries can receive tobacco cessation medications and personal counseling from approved TRICARE providers.
• Call the CDC's quit smoking hotline to talk to a counselor trained to help smokers quit: 1-800-QUIT-NOW (800-784-8669)
• Veterans can utilize the Smoke Free Vet website to access a range of services, including: the “Stay Quit Coach” mobile application, online chat with quit smoking specialists, a mobile text message smoking cessation program, tools for creating your own quit-smoking plan, and online support groups for veterans who want to quit smoking.
• TRICARE-eligible beneficiaries can access the Department of Defense's “YouCanQuit2” program: Here you can access a variety of helpful quit-smoking resources online, including personalized advice from support coaches and a live chat system.
• Smoke Free Text Messaging Program: This program offers practical advice, encouragement, and motivation to quit smoking via text messages via a 6-8 week mobile smoking cessation program.
• Tips from Former Smokers Campaign: Learn, get advice, and be inspired by r

Lungs affected by COPD are very sensitive, particularly to things like respiratory irritants, physical strain, and less-than-ideal breathing conditions (such as hot or humid air). Because of this, if you have COPD, you've probably noticed that your COPD symptoms tend to flare up in certain environments or when you do certain things.

Many common habits and everyday activities can trigger COPD symptoms, and your lungs tend to get even more sensitive to these things as the disease progresses. Because of this, a vital part of learning how to manage your COPD symptoms effectively is learning how to protect your lungs from these triggers.

In some cases, that means going out of your way to avoid—or find a different approach—to activities and situations that can make your symptoms worse. Recognizing these situations can be a bit tricky, however, because many things can affect your lungs without causing obvious or immediate symptoms.

For every COPD trigger that you notice, there are likely others that you don't. Unfortunately, the hazards you don't know about can actually be the most dangerous; you can expose yourself to them over and over again without even realizing they pose a risk.

For example, most people with COPD know they're supposed to stay away from cigarette smoke, but many don't realize that using common household cleaning solutions can also harm their lungs. And that's just one of a plethora of lesser-known activities that can harm your lungs and/or exacerbate COPD symptoms.

In this guide, we've put together a list of more than a dozen different activities that can be dangerous or risky for people with COPD. We cover the little things—like sleeping in the wrong position at night—and the bigger, complex issues, like dangerous eating habits and ignoring serious symptoms that could signal a medical emergency.

Some of the things you see on this list might seem familiar, but you're bound to learn something new as you go through this guide. Our goal is to help you recognize at least a few activities that you didn't know were risky before, and to provide you with some practical tools and techniques you can use to protect yourself from those hazards in the future.

You'll find links to many expert online resources throughout this guide that you can use to learn even more about COPD hazards and what you can do to avoid them. We've also provided links to several other practical COPD health and wellness guides from our Respiratory Resource Center, where you can find even more detailed advice and information that expands on many of the topics covered in this post.

Activities & Habits You Should Avoid if You Have COPD

Cooking Without Ventilation

Many people don't realize that cooking releases smoke, oils, and other pollutants into the air that are harmful to your lungs. In fact, research shows that people who cook often—and are thus exposed to these fumes repeatedly over time—have reduced lung function, increased respiratory symptoms, and a higher risk for developing COPD.

Even short-term exposure to cooking fumes can affect your lungs and make your COPD symptoms worse. Prolonged or repeated exposure is even more risky and has the potential to cause additional long-term damage to your lungs.

This is why it's important to use proper ventilation while you cook, especially if you or anyone in your household has COPD. This can not only substantially reduce your exposure to respiratory irritants while you're cooking, but it also prevents the pollution from building up inside your home.

If you have windows in your kitchen, opening them up before you start cooking is one simple way to ventilate the room. This isn't the most efficient form of ventilation, but it will allow the fumes to drift outdoors instead of staying trapped in the room.

You can ventilate your kitchen even more efficiently if you help the air current along using a fan (facing out the window) or a built-in kitchen vent. Some kitchens also have vent hoods installed directly over the stove to whisk away cooking fumes straight at the source.

However, kitchen vents and fume hoods only work this way if they are actually connected to a pipe that takes the air outside. Unfortunately, some “vents” that come in kitchens—especially those installed under cabinets and wall-mounted microwaves—are nothing more than recirculating fans that blow the fumes right back into the room.

To learn more about how to reduce indoor air pollution, check out our guide on How to Improve Your Air Quality at Home.

Drinking Alcohol Before Bed

While there's no blanket rule saying that people with COPD shouldn't drink, you should still be a little extra cautious with alcohol if you have COPD. One reason for this is that alcohol can cause a side effect known as respiratory depression, which causes you to breathe more slowly and take more shallow breaths than you normally would.

Mild respiratory depression also happens naturally during certain stages of sleep, which is another reason why many people with COPD have increased shortness of breath and difficulty sleeping through the night. If you drink alcohol too soon before bed, it can suppress your breathing even further, making it even harder to breathe effectively while you're asleep.

This is particularly dangerous if you have a health condition like sleep apnea or COPD that also affects your ability to breathe during the night. These conditions also cause nighttime breathing problems that significantly increase your risk for nighttime oxygen desaturation (PDF link), which happens when your blood oxygen levels fall too low while you sleep.

When you add a respiratory depressant like alcohol to the mix, you're even more likely to have trouble breathing and experience low blood oxygen levels at night. Unfortunately, because it happens while you're asleep, you might not even realize that you're not getting enough oxygen at night until it starts to take a toll on your health.

In the short term, nighttime oxygen deprivation can trigger uncomfortable morning symptoms (including headache, fatigue, and shortness of breath) that can linger throughout the day and make your COPD symptoms worse. Over the long term, nighttime oxygen desaturation can put you at risk for more serious health problems like cardiovascular damage and cognitive decline.

This is why, if you have COPD, you should be extra careful about not only how much alcohol you drink, but also when you drink it. That means drinking in moderation, avoiding alcohol too close to bedtime, and being careful not to mix alcohol with other medications that can cause respiratory depression (including opioids, sleeping pills, and other sedative medications).

Showering Without Ventilation

Showering is a difficult activity for many people with COPD. The physical exertion of showering makes many people feel breathless, and it tends to get worse as the heat and humidity from the shower fill up the room.

This can be difficult cope with every time you need to bathe, but ventilating your bathroom can make it much easier to bear. That's why, before you start your shower, you should always make sure there's a way for the heat and humidity to escape.

You can do this by opening a bathroom window or, ideally, using a proper ventilation fan. If your bathroom doesn't have either, it might be worth considering getting one installed; too much humidity doesn't only make it harder to breathe, but it also encourages mold growth.

Mold tends to grow in enclosed spaces where humidity lingers, and it's a serious respiratory hazard that makes COPD symptoms worse. In order to keep your home safe, you should always vent excess humidity and look out for signs of mold growth, especially in places like bathrooms, basements, walls, ceilings, and around water faucets and pipes.

Taking Over-the-Counter Medications (Without Your Doctor's Permission)

When you have a chronic disease like COPD, you have to be very cautious about what drugs and medications you take. Even things that might seem harmless, like supplements or over-the-counter medicines, have the potential to cause dangerous side effects or interact negatively with other medications.

For example, many cold medications, allergy medications, and decongestants that you can buy at the store can cause mild respiratory depression. This side-effect is usually not too much of a concern for healthy people, but it can worsen breathing problems in people with COPD.

It's also important to be aware that certain circumstances can amplify the side-effects of over-the-counter medications, which is why you should always read the directions and warnings for every medication you take. Fore example, medications that usually only cause mild respiratory depression can cause moderate to severe respiratory depression if you take them at night, in large does, or in combination with another medication that lists respiratory depression as a potential side effect.

This highlights the danger of drug interactions, which happens when you take two medications (or a medication and a supplement) that have different effects on your body when they're combined compared to when you take them alone. Depending on the type of interaction, this can make a medication less effective, make its effects stronger, or cause additional side effects to appear.

To be on the safe side, you should never take any new medications or supplements without getting input from your doctor first. Additionally, you should always tell your doctor about every medicine, herbal product, and supplement you take, no matter how small or insignificant you think it might be.

Smoking

Smoking is a huge lung hazard—one of the biggest—and it's important to bring up even though it might seem obvious to some. We want to emphasize that quitting smoking is always beneficial for your health, no matter how many years you've been smoking and no matter how advanced your COPD has become.

Unfortunately, many people with COPD don't think it's worth it to quit. It's a common misconception that it won't make much of a difference to stop smoking once you've already developed a smoking-related disease.

However, this way of thinking is not only false, but downright dangerous. Quitting smoking at any time has numerous short-term and long term benefits for your overall health and your COPD.

Research suggests that quitting smoking can actually improve your COPD symptoms, slow down lung function decline, and generally slow down the progression of the disease. On the other hand, continuing to smoke while you have COPD can worsen your COPD symptoms, make your lungs more prone to infection (PDF link), and cause you to have more frequent COPD exacerbations.

Smoking can also affect your baseline breathing ability, as COPD patients who smoke have quicker lung function decline (PDF link). What's more, COPD isn't the only smoking-related disease you can get; if you continue smoking, you increase your risk for lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, diabetes, stroke, and more.

There's a reason that quitting smoking is considered a vital, first-line treatment for COPD, and you shouldn't take it lightly. Even though quitting smoking is hard (really, really hard!), it's more than worth all the work it takes to make it happen.

And don't worry! You don't have to figure it out all on your own; there are tons of quit-smoking resources out there you can use for help.

If you'd like to learn how to get started or how to find all the quit-smoking resources you could ever need, check out our comprehensive, 3-part guide on how to quit smoking:

• Part 1: Overcoming Doubts & Finding Resources to Help You Quit
• Part 2: Coping with Nicotine Withdrawal & Choosing a Quit Smoking Medication
• Part 3: Taking the First Steps & Strategies for Staying Smoke Free

Doing Dusty, Dirty, & Hazardous Jobs

Pretty much all allergens and small particulates, including dust, pollen, and mold, can harm your lungs and trigger COPD symptoms if you breathe them in. Many chemicals emit lung-toxic fumes as well, and they can come from unexpected places, including household products and home construction materials like treated wood, varnishes, and paint.

Because of this, people with COPD should generally try to avoid going dirty jobs, particularly work that kicks up dust (and other airborne particles) or might expose you to chemical fumes. This includes many types of home maintenance projects, including home repair, renovations, and heavy cleaning projects around the house.

Whenever possible, you should ask someone else to help you with these jobs—or at least the most risky parts—so you don't have to put your already-compromised lungs at further risk. If you have the means, you should consider hiring professionals to do hazardous construction, renovation, and cleaning jobs (e.g. mold removal) for you.

You should also take care with materials that can release hazardous fumes into your house, including many types of paints, lumber, adhesives, and even new carpets and flooring. If you can't avoid them while they're being installed or used in your home, consider staying somewhere else for awhile until the fumes have time to dissipate.

If you have no other choice but to do a risky project on your own, make sure you wear respiratory protection and—most importantly—that use the appropriate type of respiratory protection for the job. Some things are fine to do with dust masks while others require full respirators for safety, and if you choose the wrong equipment it might not offer any protection at all.

To learn more about the correct type of respiratory protection equipment to use for various jobs, you can reference this guide from the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Going Outside When Air Pollution is High

Research shows that air pollution can have a significant impact on people with COPD; it can worsen breathing symptoms, increase your risk for exacerbation and hospitalization, and even increase your risk of death. Because of this, you should do your best to be mindful about when you go outside and try to stay indoors when your local pollution index is high.

You can find your current air pollution levels by checking your city's air quality index (AQI), which you can get from your local weather station or by looking up your zip code on airnow.gov. The air quality index is an simple, color-coded scale that tells you how healthy or unhealthy the outside air is to breathe.

In general, anytime air pollution rises above the yellow (moderate) zone, you should do two things: First, you should avoid spending time outside, and especially avoid doing any exercise or strenuous activity outdoors; that's because, when you exert yourself, you breathe in more air—and thus and more pollution—compared to when you're at rest.

Second, you should keep your doors and windows shut as much as possible on high-pollution days. You can still air out your home when air pollution is low, but if you don't check your local AQI first, you could accidentally invite all kinds of outdoor pollution to enter your home.

When you do exercise outside or do other activities outdoors, you should try to schedule them for times when air pollution is the lowest; often this is in the earlier and later hours of the day. You should also try to keep your plans flexible, that way you can easily reschedule them if the air quality ends up being too poor.

It helps if you familiarize yourself with the air quality patterns in your area, including how pollution levels tend to change throughout the day. If you look up your local air quality report on airnow.com, you can also get a breakdown of recent hour-by-hour trends.

(Image text: To see data on pollution trends in your area, you can look up your local air quality report on airnow.gov and click the button “local trends.”)

If you have seasonal allergies, you should also avoid spending too much time outside when pollen levels are high. You can look up your city or zip code on pollen.com to get all kinds of helpful allergen information, including your local pollen report, future allergen forecasts, and a breakdown of the types of pollen most prevalent in your area.

Cleaning with Common Products

Studies show that many household cleaning products release harmful fumes and aerosols that irritate your lungs and even cause permanent lung function decline. Ammonia and bleach, for example, are both lung irritants that are used in a wide range of different cleaning products.

If you have COPD, you should try to limit your exposure to these and other lung irritants as much as you can to avoid triggering COPD symptoms and doing further, unnecessary damage to your lungs. Instead, choose products that don't contain strong chemicals like ammonia and bleach, and try to find products labeled as having reduced irritants, including fewer fragrances and VOC's.

You can use the EPA's safer chemical ingredient list for reference of what types of chemicals you should seek out and which ones you should avoid. You can also look for cleaning products with the EPA's “Safer Choice” label, or browse through the EPA's catalog of these products online.

Another alternative is to make your own cleaning solutions at home using common—and safer—household products like vinegar, water, baking soda, and soap. You'll find that most cleaning jobs don't require anything fancy and can be done with simple mixtures you can make yourself at home.

To learn more about how to make your own DIY cleaning products, check out this guide on how to reduce chemical irritants in your home. There, you'll step-by-step instructions for making alternatives to several different types of commercial cleaning products, including a scrubbing solution, all-purpose cleaner, and grease-cutting solution.

If y