If you're like just about everybody else in the world, you probably have a variety of different goals and aspirations. You might not even think of them as “goals,” but everyone can think of certain things in their life that they want to change or achieve.

These include things you'd like to learn, activities you'd like to do, and career milestones you'd like to reach. Your goals can also include things you'd like to improve about yourself, such as your exercise habits, your sleeping schedule, or your ability to stick to a routine.

If you have a chronic lung disease like COPD, goal-setting can also be an effective tool for managing your disease. By helping you establish better habits related to your physical, social, and mental health, setting goals can help you live a happier, healthier life with COPD.

In fact, doctors of patients with COPD often recommend that their patients set goals for healthy lifestyle changes like losing weight, getting more exercise, or quitting smoking. If you can push yourself to achieve those goals, it can make a significant difference in your symptoms, your physical endurance, and your risk for serious health complications.

That's why, in this post, we're going to show you how to use goal-setting techniques to improve your health and overall wellness while living with a chronic lung condition like COPD. We'll teach you how to create goals that are smart, effective, and guide you toward success.

We'll show you how to define your goals clearly and flesh them out in a way that makes it easy to plan and track your progress. Then, we'll show you how to use those goals as a roadmap to achieving—and maintaining—a better quality of life with COPD.

Goal-Setting for COPD

As just about anyone living with severe COPD can tell you, COPD is a disease that can impact every part of your life. It can affect your energy, your mobility, your daily routine, and even your mental and emotional health.

That's why goal-setting is so important; it allows you to take back control of your life and adjust to the many changes that COPD brings. It can give you that extra edge you need attain the things you want in life in spite of all the ways that COPD can make things more difficult.

Most importantly, knowing how to set effective goals can help you make important habit changes that are vital for maintaining your health and managing your disease. That includes things like eating healthy, quitting smoking, and keeping up with your COPD treatments; a good goal-setting strategy can make all of these things much easier to achieve.

The Benefits of Goal-Setting

It's one thing to know what you want or what you need, but it's quite another thing to actually be able to get there. That's the point of goal-setting: to write down all the things you'd like to (or need to) do in a way that makes them easier to reference and work toward.

Essentially, goal-setting is a method for clarifying your long-term wants and needs and breaking them down into simple steps. It's a useful structure for turning the ideas in your head into practical goals that you can take action on.

The process of goal-setting forces you to think about your goals from a different perspective and come up with strategies you can use to make progress. It also steers you toward action, by acting as a roadmap to guide you through the steps to meet your goals.

Here are some of the main benefits of goal-setting (pdf link):

• Improved motivation
• Improved self-confidence and self-image
• Increased chance of reaching your goals
• Helps you set priorities and identify what's important to you
• Helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses
• Helps you track your progress and build on success
• Helps you focus on what's realistic and what you have power to change
• Serves as a guideline for how to achieve your goals

Goal-setting can be particularly helpful for people with COPD, who often have to manage a plethora of medications, treatments, and lifestyle changes in order to maintain their health. The goal-setting process can help you sort through all those responsibilities and set up a structure to keep you on track.

But you don't have to just take our word for it. Most experts agree that going through the goal-setting process (which we'll teach you in this post) is an effective way to achieve and make progress in many areas of life.

For example, the Oxford Research Encyclopedia for Psychology names goal-setting theory as “among the most valid and useful theories of motivation of organizational behavior.” This claim is backed up by a meta-analysis of research studies on goal-setting and behavior changes, which concludes that goal setting is “an effective behavior change technique that has the potential to be considered a fundamental component of successful [psychological] interventions.”

Another study looked specifically at patients with COPD, and whether or not the SMART goal-setting method (which we'll discuss in more detail below) could help them reach their physical activity goals. The results were encouraging; after twenty weeks of working toward those goals with the help of weekly counseling sessions, patients showed measurable improvements in their physical endurance and reduced shortness of breath.

You can use goal-setting to achieve all sorts of things, including:

• Creating better health and lifestyle habits
• Maintaining healthy habits you already have
• Adjusting to new treatments and routines
• Tracking and improving your COPD symptoms
• Keeping up with medications and treatments
• Getting rid of unhealthy habits like smoking
• Reducing your risk for exacerbations
• Budgeting and saving for things you desire (e.g. travel, entertainment, and possessions)
• Funding important needs (e.g. medical equipment, bills, and debt)
• Just about any other thing (that's realistic) you would like to do, have, or achieve.

Some of your goals will come from your own personal desires, and some may originate from other sources, like work, family, or your doctor. But by going through the process of goal-setting, you make those goals your own and define them in a way that's useful and personal to you.

Making Your Goals Effective

Coming up with goals in general might seem easy, but it takes a little more effort to create practical goals that work. If you want your goals to help you move forward, you need to take the time to define and develop them fully.

If your goals are too broad or vague, for example, it will be hard to find a starting point and make meaningful progress toward your goals. It's hard to move forward when you don't have a clear path to follow or an obvious objective to reach.

On the other hand, goals with a narrower scope are much easier to achieve. When you know exactly what you're working toward, it's much easier to take action and figure out what you need to do to achieve your goal.

Fortunately, there's an established method known as "SMART gaol-setting" that you can use to create more effective goals.

The SMART goal-setting method is recommended by experts in a variety of different fields, including business, psychology, academia, healthcare, and even COPD Treatment (PDF link). That's why we are going to use this technique as a baseline throughout this guide.

Essentially, the SMART method defines a certain set of criteria that all of your goals ought to meet. The purpose of these criteria is to guide you through the goal-setting process and ensure that your goals are useful, actionable, and easy to understand.

To make them simple to remember, each criterion for a SMART goal corresponds to one of the letters in the SMART acronym.

SMART goals must be...

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound

Using the SMART criteria can help you clarify your goals and define them in practical, concrete terms. Smart goals not only tell you what you want to achieve, but they give you direction for how to achieve them, too.

Let's take a closer look at each of the main criteria for a SMART goal.

Specific

First, it's important to be specific about what exactly it is that you want to achieve. Vague statements and general ideas just won't cut it; you need a clearly-defined goal that tells you precisely what you're working toward.

For example, “I want to improve my diet” is a vague goal that doesn't give you an obvious path forward. In order to make it better and easier to accomplish, you need to narrow it down and specify what it is about your diet that you'd like to change.

In many cases, you can break down a vague goal into several different, more specific goals. For example, you could turn “I want to improve my diet” into “I want to achieve a better balance nutritional balance of protein, carbs, and fat” or “I want to limit myself to one snack per day” instead.

Measurable

Second, your goal should be measurable, as in it needs to be bound by clear criteria that let you know when you've actually met the goal. This requires you to be clear and precise about what your end goal is.

For example, “Spend more time with family” isn't exactly measurable; it doesn't specify how much time you need to spend with your family in order to achieve your goal. On the other hand, “Spend one hour of quality time with family every day” is something you can actually measure and work toward on a day-to-day basis.

Attainable

Some goals just aren't realistic. If you set a goal you cannot reasonably achieve, then you'll just be setting yourself up for failure and disappointment.

That's why it's important to set goals that you think you can realistically attain. That doesn't mean you have to aim low, but it does mean you need to consider whether or not you have the skills, physical ability, and basic disposition that are required to meet your goals.

This is particularly important to consider for health and physical goals, especially if you have COPD. While you can still make improvements to your health, you may need to work with your doctor and carefully consider any physical limitations you have throughout the process of crafting your goals.

In some cases, you can make your goal more attainable simply by gathering more information or learning a new skill. In other cases, you may need to re-frame your goal or change it to something more modest or more suitable to your abilities.

For example, lets say you have severe COPD and you're trying to improve your physical strength. If you currently struggle to make it up a flight of stairs, then “Running a mile every day” might not be a realistic goal to start with.

It's better to start smaller, with goals you know you can achieve, such as taking a 20 minute walk every day. You can always change your goal or add more later, or set another, higher goal once you've achieved the one you already set.

Relevant

It's important to keep your goals focused and relevant to the things you want to achieve. In other words, you want to make sure that your goals make sense, and that they will actually be able to move you toward the things you want and need.

For example, lets say you're setting some goals to make your living space more accommodating to your mobility needs. “Re-arrange the living room furniture to create more open floor space” might be a relevant goal, while “Installing the new curtains,” even if it's needed, isn't exactly relevant to the problem you're currently trying to solve.

Time-Bound

Finally, effective goals should be time-bound, which simply means that you should specify a time frame for achieving your goals. It could be a deadline, like a due date for a project, or it could be a specific interval like “every day” or “once a week” that you are supposed to complete your goal.

This helps you stay focused on taking action and moving forward rather than procrastinating or putting your goals off to the future. It also helps you plan out your objectives and evaluate how well you are progressing over time.

Goals Versus Objectives

Understanding the distinction between goals and objectives is important for effective goal-setting. The main difference is this: Goals are the big things you want to achieve, while objectives are smaller steps along the way to reaching goals.

Goals represent an endpoint, they tell you where you're trying to go. Objectives tell you how to get there; they define specific actions you need to take in order to reach your goals.

Part of the process of goal-setting is coming up with some smaller objectives to go along with each of your goals. You can do this by breaking your goal down into smaller, simpler chunks and writing down the specific actions that will help you achieve it.

Your list of objectives should give you a solid foundation to start from; it is essentially your action plan for how to reach your goal. With all the steps you need to take already laid out in front of you, you'll find that it's much easier to make forward progress.

How to Set Objectives

Coming up with specific objectives to match your goals requires thoughtfulness and precision. In many ways, it's an exercise in planning ahead and paying attention to detail.

Just like your goals, your objectives are personal and should be tailored to your unique environment and needs. Think of them as the building blocks of your own unique strategy for pushing yourself toward your goals.

Because of this, your objectives need to take into account the resources available to you as well as any personal characteristics that could affect how you approach your goals. That includes things like your current knowledge, skills, strengths, weaknesses, preferences, and limitations.

For example, if one of your goals is to start a new hobby, you'll need to consider a wide range of factors in order to come up with realistic objectives. You'll need to consider your weekly schedule, your current knowledge (and gaps in knowledge) about the hobby, what kinds of resources (e.g. hobby stores and social clubs) are available where you live, and more.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help you narrow down your objectives:

• What tasks do I have to complete before I can reach my goal?
• Do I have all the knowledge and information I need to complete my goal?
• Do I need to learn any new skills to complete my goal?
• Do I need any specific supplies or equipment to reach my goal?
• What kinds of tools or resources (including people) might be able to assist me in reaching my goal?

Here's an example to illustrate what the process of coming up with objectives might look like.

Let's say that your general goal is to get more physical activity. More specifically, your SMART goal is to exercise for 30 minutes at least three times per week.

Once you've defined that goal, try to picture what working toward that goal would actually look like. What kinds of exercises could you do? How will it fit into your schedule? Is there any specific knowledge or supplies will you need?

For instance, if you're not experienced with exercise, your first objective might be to figure out how to get started. More specifically, your objective could be to do research on how to exercise safely and effectively or to ask your doctor for advice on beginning a new physical activity regimen.

If you have COPD, then symptoms like shortness of breath might be factors that influence your exercise objectives. If physical activity makes it difficult to breathe, then learning some new skills to help you manage your breathing while you exercise might be a good first step toward your goal.

You could, for example, make it one of your objectives to join a pulmonary rehabilitation class, practice breathing exercises, or to use mucus clearance techniques before you work out. Another objective could be exercising on days when your energy levels are highest, or working with your doctor to figure out how to manage your breathing symptoms better.

Choosing Goals that Matter to You

Everyone has desires and aspirations, but no two people's goals are exactly the same. Your career, lifestyle, physical health, and your own unique desires all help shape the things you want to achieve.

When you are living with a chronic health condition like COPD, some of those goals are probably influenced by your disease. These can include personal aspirations for your health and the things your doctor recommends that you do to manage your disease.

In order to choose a set of goals that is right for you, you will need to put some real thought into what you want and need in your life. Think about what you'd like to improve about your body, your mind, your social life, your living space, and your overall well-being.

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

Though COPD is usually thought of as a disease that affects the physical body first and foremost, it's known to come with a long list of psychological side-effects and risks. These include clinically-recognized disorders like anxiety and depression as well as other forms of mental and emotional distress that are a bit more difficult to quantify and define.

Many people with COPD find themselves consumed with worry, for instance, or over-focusing on the difficulties and losses in their lives. While this is a common, natural reaction shared by many people with chronic diseases, it's not a healthy, happy, or sustainable way to go through life long term.

Luckily, there are many healthy, effective tools for coping with COPD and the sometimes overwhelming emotional challenges of living with the disease. In this post, we're going to focus on one method in particular: gratitude exercises, which are proven to help improve happiness and emotional well-being.

Though little-known and under-appreciated, gratitude exercises are backed by a great deal of research that supports the idea that gratitude—when practiced correctly and consistently—can improve a variety of different aspects of mental health. In particular, gratitude exercises can make it easier to cope with misfortune and help you find more contentment and appreciation in life in spite of your COPD.

Why Gratitude?

At first glance, gratitude practice might sound like a strange solution for people who struggle to cope with the mental and physical strain of COPD. We understand how it might sound ironic—or even condescending—to suggest that people should feel grateful while dealing with a debilitating, chronic disease.

Certainly, we're not saying the people with COPD should be grateful for their disease, nor that people with COPD should feel any obligation to be grateful at all. However, gratitude is a recognized psychological intervention, and it's something that anyone can practice by doing simple exercises at home.

Practicing gratitude also doesn't mean you're supposed to feel grateful all the time. It's not meant to invalidate your feelings, replace negative emotions, or even drown out unpleasant thoughts. Instead, gratitude practice is meant to help you access more positive emotions in addition to the negative ones, and to help you see the good things even when the bad things are hard to see past.

According to one blogger who writes about their experiences with chronic illness, "It is not easy to feel thankful when we are chronically ill; in fact, sometimes we feel cheated out of life." However, she explains, that's all the more reason to practice gratitude, which, like any skill, can be honed and improved over time.

Practicing gratitude helps you look at the world through a different lens—one that helps you see beyond your struggles and recognize the good things in your life. In this way, gratitude practice helps you build a more positive outlook on life in general, which can help you keep hope and happiness alive no matter how bad things might seem.

What Does Gratitude Have to Do With Mental Health?

Research on gratitude shows that it has a variety of mental health benefits, and many people with COPD report finding comfort and relief in gratitude. Of course, that doesn't mean gratitude practice works for everyone, but it does suggest it's a worthwhile option for people who struggle with mental and emotional health because of their COPD.

Gratitude is an important concept in the field of positive psychology, a sub-set of psychological research that focuses on identifying traits and behaviors that support positive mental well-being. This area of psychology is all about strengthening positive traits (reinforcing the things that make people happy) rather than fixing negative traits (correcting the things that make people unhappy).

In the scope of positive psychology, the purpose of gratitude is not to treat any specific mental problem or disorder, but to help people cultivate habits and perspectives that promote better general mental health. Of course, we're not suggesting that gratitude practice is a substitute for mental health treatment, or that gratitude alone is enough to overcome the (often) enormous burden of COPD-related emotional distress.

While gratitude can be a helpful tool for those struggling with mental problems, it's not enough to treat serious emotional problems or mental illnesses on its own. If you suffer from a mental illness like anxiety or depression, or you are unable to cope with the mental burden of COPD on your own, you should first seek proper treatment from a trained mental health professional.

If you'd like to learn more about mental health treatment for COPD or other coping methods to try, check out the following guides from our respiratory resource center:

• Coping with COPD
• Mental health treatment options for people with COPD
• Mind-body exercises for COPD

What Does it Mean to Practice Gratitude?

We often think of gratitude as something we show to others, but gratitude is also something you can practice all by—and for—yourself. That's what this guide is all about: how gratitude as a personal practice can help you feel better and cope better with the mental difficulties that often come with COPD.

In the simplest sense, gratitude practice is simply the act recognizing positive things in your life. It's about seeing the good things through the bad and taking time to actively look for—and spend some time thinking about—things in your life that you can be thankful for.

Personal gratitude practice is not about expressing thanks to others; it's about using gratitude as a personal tool to improve your mental well-being.

More specifically, however, “gratitude practice” can mean doing structured gratitude exercises that help you “practice” gratitude in a more deliberate, goal-oriented way. These gratitude exercises (also known as “gratitude interventions”) are designed to help you harness the benefits of gratitude to improve your psychological health.

Gratitude exercises come in many shapes and forms, including written activities (such as gratitude journaling) and more abstract thought-based techniques (such as gratitude meditation) We'll show you how to practice these and other effective gratitude exercises a bit later in this guide.

Of course, it's possible to practice gratitude on your own without a strategy; however, studies suggest that you're likely to get more from your gratitude practice if you do it in a structured way. Gratitude exercises provide a framework to help you practice gratitude consistently and put the practice to work in your life.

As the authors of one study put it (PDF link), “relatively simple intentional changes in one’s thoughts and behaviors can precipitate meaningful increases in happiness.” That's what gratitude practice is all about: improving your mental well-being by taking deliberate actions to recognize and reflect on the things you have to feel thankful for.

How to Find Gratitude Under the Shadow of Chronic Disease

So far we've discussed the meaning of personal gratitude and what gratitude exercises are, but we haven't yet discussed what it really means to feel grateful, or what kinds of things you should feel thankful for when yo have COPD. These are personal questions that form the core of gratitude practice, and the answers depend on your depend on your experiences, your circumstances, and what you value in life.

Unfortunately, many people with COPD and other chronic diseases have faced so much misfortune that that they lose touch with what it's like to grateful. When your life is full of health problems and hardship, it can even feel impossible to find anything that you could feel thankful for.

However, times like these are often when you need the gratitude the most. Even if it seems like you don't have much to appreciate, doing gratitude exercises can help you fine-tune your gratitude senses and teach yourself how to recognize the good things, both big and small.

You'll likely be surprised at all the positive things you can find when you're actively looking for them instead of focusing on the problems and hardships in your life. With practice, you can learn to find joy and contentment in even the most mundane and unexpected places, like the pleasure of taking your first sip of morning coffee or the satisfaction of practicing self-care.

This is especially important for people with COPD, many of whom live with constant reminders of their disease and what their body can't do. Gratitude practice can teach you to love and appreciate your body more by helping you acknowledge all of the amazing, helpful things that your body can do.

That's what gratitude practice is all about—getting in the habit of looking out for the good things no matter how grim and hopeless your circumstances might seem. Sometimes it just takes some time to build up your gratitude muscle before you can break outside the box of negative thinking and explore the full positive potential in your life.

Just know that there is no right or wrong way to feel personal gratitude, and there's no right or wrong thing to feel grateful for. What matters most is what you think is worthy of gratitude, and how you can put those feelings of gratitude to work in your life.

The Benefits of Gratitude for People with COPD

The psychological sciences have long recognized the potential of gratitude to improve mental well-being, and it's been the topic of a great deal of studies over the years. In fact, there's a wide body of academic research on gratitude that spans the fields of positive psychology, mental health treatment, and quality-of-life improvements for people with chronic diseases.

Before we go on, however, it's important to clarify that there's an important distinction between looking at the benefits of gratitude (as an existing feeling or trait) versus the benefits of gratitude interventions (exercises that focus on gratitude and appreciation). Both are important for understanding how gratitude effects well-being, but they tell very different stories about what the benefits of gratitude mean.

Studies on the benefits of gratitude itself essentially describe the differences between people with different gratitude tendencies; they compare the well-being of people who have more gratitude to the well-being of people who have less. However, studies on the benefits of gratitude interventions actually measure how people's well-being changes in response to gratitude exercises, and how gratitude can be used to increase people's well-being.

In other words, the benefits of gratitude alone may only apply to those who are already grateful people; they don't tell us much—if anything—about what gratitude exercises can do. The benefits of gratitude exercises, however, can apply to anyone who completes a gratitude intervention, regardless of natural gratitude tendencies or baseline gratitude levels.

It's also important to note that, in general, the size of gratitude benefits tends to be modest; however, that doesn't mean that gratitude can't still have a significant positive effect on people's lives. Gratitude isn't exactly a game-changer, but it is an effective tool for building healthier mental habits and introducing more positive feelings and perspectives into your life.

Improved Emotional and General Well-being

Two things that research consistently finds about gratitude is that it tends to foster positive emotions and that people who feel more gratitude tend to have better mental health. Research also shows that gratitude exercises are associated with a variety of other benefits related to personal well-being.

Numerous studies, for example, have found that people who participate in simple, structured gratitude exercises—such as writing down what they're thankful for every day—tend to experience more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions than people who don't. Studies also show that gratitude interventions can increase people's general happiness and satisfaction with their lives.

One large meta-review that analyzed 38 high-quality gratitude studies offers a great summary of the effects of gratitude interventions, including how well they work and what their benefits are. The study identifies nearly a dozen specific benefits of gratitude practices, including:

• Increased gratitude
• Increased happiness
• More positive feelings
• Fewer negative feelings
• Reduced depression
• Increased well-being
• Increased life satisfaction
• Increased optimism
• Increased relationship quality

The meta-review also confirms that these positive effects aren't just temporary; in fact, they seem to be just as strong when measured at 6 months after the gratitude intervention as when they're measured just two weeks after the exercise is done. One study on older adults, for example, found that a two-week gratitude intervention resulted in improved well-being that persisted for at least 30 days.

This emotional boost is is something that many people with COPD could benefit from, particularly those who tend to feel hopeless or pessimistic about their condition. By helping you learn how to think and feel more positively, gratitude practice can help you break free from the cycle of negativity and despair that so often plagues people living with chronic diseases.

Increased Resilience

Research shows that gratitude is an effective tool for coping with hardship, including the hardship of living with chronic illness. One study, for example, found that feelings of gratitude are associated with a reduced risk of depression in people with chronic disease.

This is likely due to the the fact that gratitude fosters positive feelings, and positive feelings make it easier to cope when things get tough. This is part of the “broaden and build” model in psychology, which suggests that experiencing positive emotions creates a kind of “reserve” of positive feelings that you can use to help yourself feel better in times of need (PDF link).

In other words, doing activities (like gratitude exercises) that generate positive emotions now can make you more resilient to hardships in the future. This is particularly helpful for people with COPD and other chronic diseases whose lives are often filled with struggles big and small, both in the context of daily living (e.g. chronic discomfort and gradual physical decline) and in the context of managing their disease (e.g. hospitalizations and unpleasant treatments like oxygen therapy).

Gratitude exercises can help you build up the mental fortitude you need to cope with these struggles and get the most out of life. The stronger your mental health and skills in positive thinking, the better you'll be able to deal with whatever troubles that life (and COPD) throws your way.

Improved Relationships

Another benefit of gratitude that's worth mentioning is improved relationships. Several studies have shown that gratitude interventions can improve relationship quality and satisfaction, in part helping you appreciate your bonds with other people more.

This is an important benefit for people with COPD, who often feel isolated at a time when they need other people the most. Who knows? Practicing gratitude could help bring you closer to your loved ones or help you discover new sources of love and support that you didn't even know you had before.

Improved Sleep

A number of studies have investigated the impact of gratitude on physical health measures like blood pressure or sleep quality, but results so far are inconclusive at best. Unfortunately, there is very little research in this area, since most studies (understandably) focus on the mental health benefits of gratitude rather than physical health.

However, several studies suggest that gratitude interventions can improve sleep quality. This makes sense, since we know that gratitude can have a variety of psychological benefits, and research shows that sleep quality is closely connected to psychological health.

Other studies suggest that gratitude interventions might be able to improve other physical factors such as blood pressure, asthma control, or eating behaviors. However, based on the evidence found so far, many researchers doubt that these benefits are substantial, if they exist at all.

Improved Quality of Life for People with COPD

Unfortunately, very few studies have looked at the implications of gratitude and gratitude interventions for COPD patients specifically. Those that have, however, have come up with similar results to those found in other gratitude studies.

One study, for example, found that people with COPD who are predisposed to feel gratitude tend to have a better quality of life than those who don't share that trait. Researchers from one study specifically recommended gratitude exercises as a means for COPD patients to "work toward more flexible, positive thinking through the use of concrete tools."

This suggests that gratitude is not only beneficial for people with chronic diseases, but that gratitude exercises can be an effective tool for coping with COPD specifically. This is echoed in the personal testimonies of COPD patients (on sites like copd.net) who have found and hope and healing through gratitude.

To sum it all up, gratitude helps you appreciate what you have and feel more satisfied with your life and relationships, even when things are difficult because of your COPD. Doing activities that foster gratitude and other positive emotions can also also make you more resilient to adversity, making it easier to cope with health-related misfortunes such as hospitalization or COPD-related physical decline.

Potential Drawbacks of Gratitude Practice

While gratitude can be a helpful tool for good, it can sometimes backfire if used in the wrong way. For example, focusing on too much on gratitude—or letting it become a rigid way of thinking—can undermine other valid thoughts and emotions you have.

You might start to think “I shouldn't think these negative thoughts, I should feel grateful!” which can just make you feel guilty for feeling bad. That's why gratitude isn't supposed to be used to replace negative feelings, but rather to add more positive feelings and thoughts into your life.

You shouldn't ever feel pressured to feel grateful; it's okay to feel how you feel, even if you feel bad, and even if you have lots of things to be grateful for. In fact, it's important to let yourself experience unpleasant emotions without judgment or shame, and to make peace with your negative feelings rather than wishing them away.

According to the psychotherapist Katie Willard Virant, "to be thankful for what one possesses does not mean that one cannot simultaneously feel grief for what one has lost.” She explains how her experiences have taught her that gratitude does not necessarily put a stop to mourning, but rather “[places] it into a context that [makes] it more bearable.”

Another thing you should avoid during gratitude practice is comparing yourself to other people, which often leads to unnecessary judgment and guilt. For example, you might end up thinking, “Some people have illnesses that are worse than mine, so I shouldn't feel so depressed about having COPD!”

It's important to remember that your feelings—whatever they are—are valid, no matter whether or not other people have it better or worse than you. In fact, there's no need to pass any judgment at all about what you “should” or “shouldn't” feel grateful for. Whatever you can find to appreciate within yourself and your own circumstances is worthwhile, no matter what other people's circumstances might be.

As you practice gratitude, it's important to check in every once in awhile to make sure it's helping and working for you. Gratitude practice isn't for everyone, and it's only worth doing if it actually helps you feel better, not worse.

How to Practice Gratitude

Now that we've discussed the merits and reasoning behind using gratitude as a coping method for COPD, let's take a closer look at some different techniques for practicing gratitude. In the following sections, we'll introduce you to several simple gratitude exercises along with some helpful tips for how to get started on your own.

Like most types of mental health and coping techniques, everyone's experience is different, and different methods tend to work for different people. So, if you're new to gratitude practice (and even if you're not), you might need to try out more than one method before it sticks.

Gratitude works best when you practice it frequently; ideally, you should try to do a gratitude exercise every day or at least a few times per week. You might find it easier to make it a habit if you integrate the exercises into an existing daily routine, such as your usual self-care regimen or bedtime preparations.

Also keep in mind that none of these practices are set in stone; feel free to tweak, adjust, and combine these exercises—and any others you come up with—however you see fit. What's important is to find a technique that feels meaningful and resonates with you.

Daily Gratitude Reflections

Doing daily gratitude reflections is probably the easiest way to practice gratitude: all you have to do is spend a few minutes at the end of every day to think back on good experiences and the things you have to appreciate. It's a great place to start if you're new to gratitude practice since it's quick, simple, and doesn't take any special skills or supplies.

The goal of these reflections is to put yourself in a mindset of positivity and gratitude long enough to come up with at least a few specific things that you feel thankful for. Those things can be just about anything: something good that happened to you, something that's made you happy recently, or just about anything positive you've might have noticed or experienced throughout the day.

You might find these gratitude reflections more difficult some days than others, such as when you feel sick or things just aren't going your way. However, it gets easier to access feelings of gratitude—even on the bad days—over time as you practice putting yourself in the mindset of actively seeking out the good things in your life.

Gratitude Journaling

Gratitude journaling is one of the most common and well-studied methods for practicing gratitude. It's basically just like gratitude reflection but with one extra step: you have to write down the things you are thankful for, or at least write down your thoughts about good things you've noticed or experienced throughout the day.

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Life is filled with unpredictability. Whether it’s a change to our daily routine or a life-changing event like a COPD diagnosis, staying on our toes is often the best way to maintain stability in our lives. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to deal with these changes. Sometimes, it can feel like you’re trying to play keep up rather than dealing with problems quickly and effectively as soon as they arise.

What this all boils down to is a matter of motivation. Either you have the motivation to take charge of your life and thrive with the hand you’ve been dealt, or you lack the motivation you need and end up feeling stressed, lost, and unable to deal with life’s challenges effectively. Oftentimes, when someone is diagnosed with a chronic illness, they find themselves in a rut where they are unable to find the motivation to manage their disease effectively. 

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If you want to get to the point where you’re controlling your disease rather than your disease controlling you, it’s imperative that you start with square one. Instead of viewing your disease as a whole with all its complexities, you should break it down into more manageable parts that are easier to work with. In this post, we’ll take a look at the steps you need to take to go from struggling with COPD to thriving with COPD.

Understand That COPD is Not the End

According to mindful.org, positive thoughts not only affect how we feel, but they also affect our behaviors. When someone faces a life-changing scenario like a COPD diagnosis, they often feel shame, fear, or disappointment; all of which will shape the way we cope with this newfound information. Someone who is able to conquer these thoughts quickly and return to a normal, stable mindset will be successful in managing their disease. However, someone who is not able to overcome these negative thoughts will find it increasingly difficult to cope with the challenges of managing a chronic lung disease.

What ends up happening is that many people who have just been diagnosed with COPD automatically place themselves in the same group as someone with heart disease, lung cancer, or some other serious life-threatening illness. This is a mistake because COPD progresses much more slowly than the vast majority of chronic illnesses. In fact, many people around the world have been able to nearly bring the progression of COPD down to a halt by adhering to a strict treatment regime.  

The key to turning these negative thoughts around is understanding that COPD is a very treatable illness and any commitment you make to a new lifestyle will not be in vain. In comparison to lung cancer and other chronic respiratory diseases, COPD is much more predictable in its pathogenesis meaning that following the treatment plan created by your doctor will yield tangible results that you can use to further motivate you.

According to MedicineNet, the five-year life expectancy for someone with COPD is 40% to 70%. In other words, 40 to 70 out of every 100 COPD patients live beyond five years. Keep in mind that about 40 percent of all COPD patients continue smoking after their diagnosis. What this means is that immediate smoking cessation will significantly improve your odds of living beyond five years, and implementing other healthy routines will extend it far beyond that. Many COPD patients have been able to live happy and healthy lives for 20 to 30 years after their diagnosis.

Make Smoking Cessation a Priority

Not only is smoking the leading cause of COPD and COPD progression, but it’s also the cause of many of the emotional difficulties of coping with COPD. According to Bridgestone Recovery, the mental health effects of smoking may be among the most dangerous. 48% of women and 40% of men with severe depression are found to be smokers as opposed to 17% and 25% of women and men who are non-depressed. While smoking leads to temporary feelings of satisfaction and pleasure, the symptoms of withdrawal that you experience far outweigh the benefits.

Simply put, not only is smoking the main factor contributing to the progression of your disease, but it’s also the main factor preventing you from feeling better and living longer. By ending your dependency on cigarettes, you will not only feel better, but you will be more mentally and emotionally available to take on other challenging aspects of COPD management such as exercise, diet, and medication.

Smoking cessation is by no means “easy.” Whether you’ve been smoking for several years or your whole life, the effects of smoking are the same. Nicotine, a chemical found in cigarettes, leads to the release of dopamine in the brain. This is a neurotransmitter that plays a major role in our feelings of pleasure and reward. When you’re smoking a cigarette, dopamine levels are high. However, when you quit, your dopamine levels are low, causing you to experience a withdrawal. Studies show that nicotine addiction can occur within a few days of starting to smoke.   

Another reason to start with smoking cessation is the financial burden of cigarettes. Due to market changes and tax increases, cigarettes are not the cheap product that they used to be. According to Very Well, the average cost of a pack of cigarettes is $6.28. If you smoke a pack a day, that’s $2,292  Alternatively, you could save that money and instead use it to buy a portable oxygen concentrator which will provide you with portable, easily accessible oxygen for the rest of your life.

Consider Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

The world is currently undergoing a mental health paradox. Mental health issues like stress, anxiety, and depression are more prevalent than several decades ago, yet people are less likely to seek help for their problems. In our modern age, people are constantly bombarded with information through the internet, social media, or in-person with little time to focus on their own mental health. Due to the negative stigma of seeking help for these problems, many people are left with no outlet to express their frustrations. This can make it night impossible for someone to quit smoking.

The objective of cognitive behavioral therapy is to take a behavior that is perceived as “wrong” and correct it to help you better achieve your goals. For COPD patients, this could mean correcting thoughts or behaviors that reinforce your dependence on cigarettes or other bad behaviors that contribute to the progression of COPD. At the end of the day, correcting your thoughts and behaviors will lead to more motivation because it will make you realize that you are capable of managing your disease on your own.

According to Medical News Today, CBT is a form of short-term therapy that often lasts around 20 sessions. They can be one-on-one courses or group therapy situations, but the latter is more common since this type of therapy is very goal-oriented and focused on the individual. After completing CBT, patients walk away with a greater understanding of their problems, what’s causing them, and how to fix them. Most importantly, however, people learn how to be more self-sufficient and avoid giving into thoughts or behaviors that could lead to smoking relapse.

Make a List of Things That are Important to You

Lists are great for a lot of things, but they’re especially helpful if you want to keep track of things that are important to you. Far too many people take the time to implement goals in their life, but by the time they start pursuing them, they’ve forgotten why they’re doing it. Or they simply lose motivation because they lose sight of what’s actually important to them. If you’re trying to quit smoking, for example, take some time to write down 10 or more reasons why it will benefit you. Here are a few of the things you can write down:

• I will save over $2,000 each year without cigarettes
• I will improve my symptoms including anxiety, stress, and depression
• I will slow the progression of inflammation in my lungs
• I will reduce my risk of diabetes, heart disease, and many other life-threatening illnesses
• I will be more socially accepted by my friends and loved ones
• I will have taken the first step toward treating my COPD
• I will be able to help others dealing with cigarette addiction more effectively

These are just a few of the things you can list. Feel free to add to this list if you can think of more important reasons to quit. Once you have written these down, make copies and post them around your house to help motivate you. If you find success in this method, be sure to do the same for any other lifestyle change you want to make such as improving your diet, exercise routine, and more. 

Recruit Others to Hold You Accountable

Generally speaking, people are more successful at accomplishing their goals when they’re held accountable by friends and family. When you’re on your own, it becomes very difficult to pinpoint where you’re going wrong and how you can improve. However, if you have an outside observer looking in, your potential flaws will be more obvious. This is similar to how you have someone proofread your writing for structural and grammatical accuracy.

The bottom line when it comes to having others hold you accountable is that you need to make sure they are being honest and aren’t just telling you what you want to hear. Far too often, family, friends, or caretakers will reinforce negative habits; not because they don’t care about them, but because they want to avoid uncomfortable interactions that could compromise the relationship.  

If you want to do something like quit smoking, exercise more, or improve your diet, start by being open and honest with friends and loved ones about what you’re trying to accomplish. The more aware they are of your goals, the more easily they will be able to hold you accountable and remind you of your goals when you begin to fall back on them. In some cases, you may not even realize that you’re falling back on them.

Upgrade to a Portable Oxygen Concentrator

One thing that’s virtually guaranteed if you’re a COPD patient is that you will be on supplemental oxygen therapy. Since COPD patients have impaired lung function, oxygen therapy assists them by saturating the lungs with medical-grade oxygen, thus increasing blood oxygen levels. When your blood oxygen levels are normal, every organ in your body will receive more oxygen meaning you’ll be healthier and feel happier.

One of the biggest problems with oxygen therapy, however, is that it can be a major inconvenience. Oxygen tanks are very heavy, they take up a lot of room, and they can even be hazardous. If that’s not bad enough, they also need to be refilled after several hours of use either with a homefill oxygen station or with the help of a local oxygen provider. In other words, oxygen tanks keep you bound to your home with very little freedom. What’s more, oxygen tanks are banned on flights, so you won’t be able to travel long distances with the ease that you could previously.

It’s not all bad news, though! Luckily, modern technology is making it easier every day for oxygen patients to get the therapy they need without being stuck at home or put their safety at risk. Portable oxygen concentrators are currently the most advanced oxygen machines on the market. They are powered by electricity meaning they never need to be refilled and you’ll be able to charge them in any wall or car outlet anywhere in the world. Portable oxygen concentrators are also approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) meaning you’ll be able to take them on any commercial flight within the United States.

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Portable oxygen concentrators have been the industry standard for supplemental oxygen since the early 2000s, so there are a whole host of options to choose from. One thing to note, however, is that portable oxygen concentrators have a maximum oxygen output, so you’ll need to ensure that a POC meets your oxygen needs before purchasing it. You’ll also want to look into the weight, battery life, and other factors to determine whether the oxygen machine will meet your lifestyle needs or not. 

If you’ve never purchased a portable oxygen concentrator before, you should start by looking at the Caire FreeStyle Comfort and the Inogen One G5. The FreeStyle Comfort is one of the latest POCs to release and it’s widely considered to be one of the best. Its maximum oxygen output is 1,050 ml/min, so it offers enough oxygen for the vast majority of COPD patients. It offers up to 16 hours of battery life on one charge, meaning you’ll be able to stay out all day without having to worry. Lastly, it weighs in at only 5 pounds making it light enough to carry on your shoulder without it causing any pain or discomfort.

The Inogen One G5 came out last year, so it’s a little bit older than the FreeStyle Comfort, but that doesn’t make it any less valid. The differences between this device and the FreeStyle Comfort are minimal, so the one you choose to purchase will ultimately come down to your preferences. The Inogen One G5 offers a maximum oxygen output of 1,260 ml/min, so it provides a little more flexibility than its competitor. It’s also slightly lighter, weighing in at only 4.7 pounds. The Inogen One G5 provides oxygen users with 13 hours of battery life on one charge, 3 hours less than the FreeStyle Comfort.

Although these are two of the best portable oxygen concentrators on the market, it’s imperative that you understand what your needs are first. Get in touch with your pulmonologist and ask him/her how much oxygen you need and how many hours a day you need to be on oxygen. Once you do so, reach out to our respiratory specialists here at LPT Medical and we will align you with the oxygen concentrator that best meets your needs and lifestyle.

Conclusion

Motivation is paramount when it comes to managing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Whether you are in stage one COPD or end-stage COPD, staying motivated will ensure that you always have the energy to keep up with your treatment plan and make healthy choices. Also, generally speaking, you will be happier and more satisfied with your life when you feel motivated to pursue goals that are important to you.

While there is certainly no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to increasing motivation, there are several problems COPD patients (and people with other chronic conditions) face that can lead to a loss of motivation. In this post, we highlighted just a few of the things you can do to improve your state of mind and get back on track towards achieving your health goals. As always, if you have a question or concern, please feel free to leave them in the comment section below.

November is COPD awareness month, a time to come together and educate people of all backgrounds about the global impact of chronic bronchitis and emphysema. COPD awareness month is marked by an orange ribbon and can be observed in a number of different ways. Despite being the third leading cause of death in the United States, COPD suffers from a severe lack of awareness. According to a Health Union survey, only about 38 percent of patients were aware what COPD was or what its risk factors were before being diagnosed.

Believe it or not, November is also lung cancer awareness month. And while these two diseases share many symptoms, causes, and risk factors, they are not the same disease. To put this into perspective, about 16 million people have COPD in the United States, yet only about 541,000 people have lung cancer in the United States. Generally speaking, more people are aware of the impact of lung cancer and they’re more educated about the symptoms than those of COPD.

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No matter whether you’ve just been diagnosed with COPD, you’ve had COPD for years, or you’ve never been diagnosed with COPD, we’re going to take a look at seven of the best ways to celebrate COPD awareness month. If you have any questions about anything you’ve read here, please feel free to leave a comment or reach out to us.

Participate in Local Events

The novel coronavirus has made 2020 a difficult year for in-person events like concerts, fundraisers, and more. In order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, many of these events have been canceled in order to limit or outright prevent human-to-human contact. But that doesn’t mean that these events have stopped entirely, it just means that people have had to adapt to a new way of doing things. For most people, this has meant relying more on technology than ever before and embracing things like social media and video conferences.

Because COVID-19 specifically targets the respiratory system, it’s more important than ever for COPD patients to be aware of what’s going on in the world of COPD research. According to COPD News Today, although respiratory patients have a high survival rate when contracting COVID-19, they’re still at a much higher risk of experiencing severe symptoms from the virus than the general public. COPD patients are more likely to experience exacerbations such as increased dyspnea, phlegm production in the airways, and chest pain.   

Mentor Youth to Prevent Smoking and Vaping

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), smoking rates have declined from 20.9 percent in 2005 to 15.5 percent in 2016 among adults 18 years of age and older. While this is certainly great news, there are still many battles to be fought when it comes to smoking prevention, especially among people who are most vulnerable such as the youth. According to Heathline, about 8 percent of teens smoke cigarettes and about 21 percent use e-cigarettes or vape pens.

Vaping has often been touted as the “best option” for weaning people off of cigarettes and onto a substance that’s less harmful for your health. However, vaping has been linked to a number of illnesses commonly called E-cigarette or Vaping product use-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI). What’s more, many people argue that vaping can be used as a “gateway drug” leading to the use of cigarettes and marijuana, especially in younger generations.

If you have COPD, you likely agree that any amount of drug use among American youth is too much. This is why COPD awareness month is the perfect time to mentor kids and teens about the dangers of cigarette smoking. If you know what it’s like to live with COPD and you’ve spent time researching and understanding your disease, this puts you in a great position to mentor younger generations and teach them about a disease they may know little or nothing about.

There are many ways to get involved with youth mentoring. First and foremost, you can simply speak with friends or family members and tell them your story of coping with COPD. Another thing you can do is support tobacco-free schools and programs. While most schools do promote a smoke-free lifestyle, the more engagement there is from parents and previous smokers, the easier it will be to create a truly smoke-free generation. In short, smoking trends have decreased significantly over the decades, and it’s mostly due to people like you who want to make a difference in someone’s life. 

Create an Online COPD Group

In this day and age, it’s easier than ever before to stay connected to the outside world. With social media sites like Facebook and online COPD communities like COPD360Social made by the COPD Foundation, you can be connected with thousands of other COPD patients around the world in a matter of minutes. As long as you use discretion when you read something, this can be an incredibly powerful tool for helping you understand your disease and learn about possible treatment options that you may not have heard of otherwise.

If you can’t find the right community for you, however, COPD awareness month may be the perfect time to start your own online COPD community. This is a great idea if you have a close group of friends with COPD who want to stay connected despite the pandemic we’re currently facing. You’ll also have the option of keeping the group closed or open, allowing people all over the world to join in on your conversations about COPD. Keep in mind that your social media group doesn’t have to focus on COPD. You could also discuss things that keep your mind off of your disease and the current state of the world.

Reevaluate Your Short- and Long-Term Goals

Goal planning is extremely important if you live with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or any other type of respiratory impairment. Long-term goals focus on broad accomplishments such as smoking cessation, exercise goals, and diet goals, whereas short-term goals are like baby steps that you will use to achieve your long-term goals. Being faced with a COPD diagnosis often means drastically altering your goals as well as changing your outlook on life. 

Since COPD awareness month comes around once a year, it’s the perfect time to reevaluate your goals and make sure that you’re on track to meet them. COPD plans are oftentimes confusing and multifaceted, so it’s best to assume that you can always make improvements to it. For example, if you’ve already drastically changed your diet think about other ways to benefit from your diet like eating smaller meals throughout the day, creating a meal plan so that you are more consistent with your diet, or contacting your doctor to see if there are any additional changes you can make. Ultimately, you don’t want to feel overwhelmed by your treatment plan, but you also want to always feel like you have something to work towards.

Participate in a Clinical Trial Program

A clinical trial is a research project aimed at determining the safety and efficacy of a particular medicine or medical procedure. Clinical trials are overseen by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and they’re divided into four different phases. Phase one clinical trials typically test the safety of a drug or medical procedure and phase two clinical trials are focused on their efficacy. Phase three tests the drug in diverse populations and in different dosages or in combination with other drugs. Last but not least, phase four trials are aimed at monitoring drugs after they’ve already been approved for the market.

There are many reasons to participate in clinical trials this COPD awareness month, but the main reason is that it helps researchers learn more about the lungs and how to treat chronic illnesses like COPD. In order to learn more about COPD and how to treat it, researchers need people of all backgrounds to test their medication. By doing this, they are able to understand who might benefit from it in the future and who should avoid it due to negative side-effects.

Another reason you may want to participate in a clinical trial is because it affords you the opportunity to use COPD medication that is not available to most people. You’ll also be happy to know that most clinical trials are free to participate in and you may even get paid for the time you put into it. Before offering you any type of medication, clinical trial organizations are required to perform a medical examination to ensure there isn’t a high risk of harm, so you can rest assured that clinical trials are safe. To learn more about clinical trials in your area, visit clinicaltrials.gov. 

Take Up a New Hobby

Hobbies are the meaningful tasks that we use to fill our day-to-day life. They’re separate from our life-long goals and aspirations, but they can also be a significant part of who we are and what our purpose is in life. A hobby can be something as simple as doing a crossword puzzle or something more complex and involved like scrapbooking or playing music. Unfortunately, many COPD patients define themselves by their disease rather than by the things that are important to them. This is why COPD awareness month is a great time to pick up a new hobby and discover something that’s important to you.

One of the biggest issues facing the COPD community is anxiety and depression, so it’s best to find a hobby that combats these issues. According to Healthline, one of the best ways to prevent depression is through exercise so if you can find a hobby that gets you up and moving, it’s likely to keep you happy and healthy. Since your COPD treatment plan already requires you to perform pulmonary rehabilitation it might be worth it to find a way to combine your hobbies and your exercise routine. Hobbies like reading or playing games are also great because they keep your mind engaged and prevent your thoughts from wondering.  

Raise Awareness for Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency

It’s so easy to get caught up in conversations about smoking and air pollution and forget about the primary genetic cause of COPD: Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (AAT deficiency). Alpha-1 antitrypsin is a type of protein that’s created by the liver. Its job is to protect the lungs from inflammation. When this protein is distributed in low quantities it can make the patient more susceptible to lung damage from smoking, air pollution, and lung infection. Alpha-1 deficiency is known to contribute the pathogenesis of lung disease in people who have never smoked and have lived otherwise healthy lives.

Alpha-1 deficiency is genetic, meaning it’s inherited from the parents and it does not appear in offspring unless both parents have this trait. As a result, alpha-1 deficiency is a fairly rare condition, affecting about 100,000 people in the United States. Alpha-1 deficiency is more common in people of European descent and less common in people of Asian descent. If Alpha-1 deficiency results in the liver retaining this protein, it can also lead to the development of scar tissue in the liver.

While alpha-1 deficiency only causes about 3 percent of COPD cases, it’s still an important risk factor to know about. Many people with alpha-1 deficiency are undiagnosed and resulting lung damage is often misdiagnosed as asthma. So, the more aware the general population is of this rare disease, the more likely it can be treated before doing severe damage to the respiratory system. Read our blog post about alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and share it with a friend if they would benefit from it.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, contrary to its prominence in the United States, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease suffers from severe underrepresentation and lack of awareness among the general population. This is due to several reasons. First and foremost, the majority of people who smoke never contract COPD. Rather, smokers are more likely to contract other illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, all of which can detract from the national conversation about chronic bronchitis and emphysema. 

Another reason there is a lack of awareness around COPD is that it shares the same awareness month as lung cancer. While it’s certainly important for COPD patients to understand their high risk of contracting lung cancer, it’s also important to remember that COPD is a silent disease in many ways since it is often underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Helping people to understand that COPD and lung cancer are two different diseases may help shed more light on the unique problems associated with each.

Ultimately, COPD awareness month is a month that should be observed by everyone, regardless of whether or not you have COPD or you know someone who has COPD. Take some of the aforementioned tips into consideration as you plan for the weeks ahead and be sure to leave a comment below if you have any questions or concerns.   

Headaches are a problem that we all deal with whether we’re young or old; healthy or not. A mild headache can detract from our daily life causing us to feel distracted, unmotivated, or restless. But at their worst, headaches can leave us completely unable to function in our daily lives. Many COPD patients may find themselves somewhere in between. You might get headaches periodically with varying degrees of severity, and experience periods of relief.

If you’ve noticed that you experience more headaches or more severe headaches since contracting COPD, the two conditions are most likely linked. In other words, focusing on treating your underlying COPD symptoms may help you to manage or completely eliminate your headaches as well.

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In the following article, we’ll take a look at some important steps you should take to treat headaches if you have COPD. As usual, if your headaches persist or you believe they may be caused by some other health issue, be sure to schedule an appointment with your doctor to discuss the potential cause.

How COPD Causes Headaches

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a group of lung diseases that cause difficulty breathing. It’s called an “obstructive” disease because it makes it more difficult for a patient to expel air from the lungs. Diseases that make it more difficult for patients to inspire air are called “restrictive” because they’re caused by lungs that are unable to expand completely.

Your lungs have two functions: to bring in oxygen-rich air and to remove carbon dioxide-rich air. If one of these functions is out of balance, it can lead to a lot of problems. For example, hypoxia can occur when your blood has low oxygen levels. Over time, this can lead to severe symptoms, because your tissues are being deprived of a basic component that they need to function.

Another problem that can result from a chronic lung disease like COPD is hypercapnia. This is a condition that happens when you retain too much carbon dioxide. Having too much carbon dioxide in the blood can lead to similar symptoms as hypoxia by damaging organs and slowing the rate at which oxygen gets to your body’s tissues.

The most common cause of headaches in COPD patients is a low blood oxygen level due to either hypoxia or hypercapnia. While the brain only makes up about 2 percent of your body’s weight, it receives 15 to 20 percent of the body’s blood supply. As such, you’re likely to experience a headache due to low blood oxygen levels before any other symptom. 

Many COPD patients experience headaches in the morning after waking up and this is likely due to sleeping problems such as sleep apnea which can be exacerbated by a chronic lung condition. When these two conditions occur together simultaneously, it’s called COPD-OSA overlap syndrome. If you have overlap syndrome, your doctor will likely prescribe both supplemental oxygen and CPAP or BiPAP therapy to help you sleep better at night.

Focus on Your COPD Treatment Plan

A COPD treatment plan is a set of steps you take to treat the underlying symptoms of COPD. Most doctors will recommend some combination of supplemental oxygen therapy, pulmonary rehabilitation, an improved diet, and a revised sleep schedule. However, depending on the severity of your COPD and whether or not you have comorbidities may affect how you should be treating your disease.

The reason that you should start with your treatment plan is that it will rule out COPD as the cause of your headaches. If you’re doing everything that you should be doing to manage your respiratory health and you’re still experiencing headaches regularly, it’s safe to say that there is something else causing the issue. On the other hand, if you’re experiencing headaches in the morning, they could be due to a drop in blood oxygen levels at night. In this case, you may need to talk to your doctor about having a sleep test done.

Supplemental Oxygen Therapy

The vast majority of people with COPD are prescribed supplemental oxygen. Some people are only required to use it several hours a day or as needed when blood oxygen levels are low. However, a large number of COPD patients need to use oxygen for 16 hours or more each day. Unfortunately, some people find themselves either falling back on the supplemental oxygen plan their doctor set for them or they are unknowingly using their oxygen device incorrectly.

Oxygen tanks have been the industry standard for oxygen therapy for a long time. But they don’t meet the needs of every oxygen patient because they’re heavy and bulky. As a result, oxygen tank users frequently feel like they aren’t able to get where they need to go without help from a friend or loved one. Carrying around a heavy oxygen tank can also lead to breathlessness, low blood oxygen levels, and thus headaches, so it may be worth it to look for a different oxygen therapy device.

Portable oxygen concentrators offer a much more convenient way to use oxygen. Since they’re both small and lightweight, they help you ensure that your oxygen needs are met wherever you go. POCs are battery-powered, so you’ll never find yourself where you run out of oxygen. Simply plug it into any car or wall outlet and you can continue using it and charging your batteries.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation

Pulmonary rehabilitation is a fancy way of saying exercise that’s focused on your lung health. Pulmonary rehab is a supervised program meaning you will work with a medical expert who will show you the proper way to exercise if you have impaired lung function. However, once you know how to exercise correctly, you can perform pulmonary rehabilitation in the comfort of your own home.

The reason pulmonary rehab is so important in preventing headaches is that a sedentary lifestyle and poor posture can make you more susceptible to headaches. Consistent moderate exercise is one of the best remedies for headaches because it keeps blood flowing to the brain and the rest of the body. Exercise also helps you improve your posture which is another thing that can affect your body’s circulation.

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Healthy Diet

Your diet plays an immense role in your body’s ability to ward off headaches. According to migrainetrust.org, skipping meals, dieting, eating high-sugar foods, and fasting can all contribute to or cause headaches. What’s more, according to COPD News Today, studies suggest that inflammation caused by COPD can contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes. This condition is known for causing low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) and as a result, headaches.

As a COPD patient, your diet should be strictly regulated. First and foremost, you should be eating smaller meals throughout the day rather than one or two big meals. Your body may struggle to digest larger meals, so the more you can spread out your meals, the better. Secondly, you need to be eating the right types of foods. COPD patients need food that is high in fiber, protein, and healthy fats, but low in added sugar and salt, as well as highly processed or fried foods. This will ensure that your lungs remain healthy and strong and you don’t have any bouts of hunger or energy loss that could lead to headaches.

Smoking Cessation

Smoking is likely one of the most common causes of headaches in COPD patients. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 38% of COPD patients are current smokers. While smoking temporarily alleviates stress, anxiety, and headaches, the withdrawals you experience after the fact can be particularly painful. According to WebMD, insomnia, cravings, and headaches due to nicotine withdrawal typically begin 3 to 5 days after you last smoked. If you’re trying to quit smoking but keep falling back on your plans, this could be why you’re experiencing headaches.

Avoid COPD Triggers

A COPD trigger is anything that can cause a flareup in your COPD symptoms. Some common COPD triggers include cigarette smoke, car exhaust, indoor cleaners, dust, pollen, and more. COPD triggers can cause your airways to constrict, increase inflammation in the lungs, and increase the production of mucus, all of which make it more difficult to breathe. Additionally, COPD exacerbations can lead to a high degree of stress and anxiety, all of which can contribute to headaches.

Ideally, you should be conscious of the quality of air that you are breathing throughout the day. When you’re indoors, make sure you are not exposed to dust, mold, or toxic cleaning supplies. And before going outside, be sure to check the air quality index to make sure the air is clean enough for someone with a chronic respiratory illness. Also, be sure to have a plan for dealing with flare-ups and exacerbations.  

Drink Lots of Water

According to the H.H. Mitchell, Journal of Biological Chemistry, the heart and brain are composed of 73% water and the lungs are composed of 83 percent water. What this means is that depriving your body of water doesn’t just prevent your brain from getting the water it needs, but it also makes it more difficult for your heart and lungs to bring oxygen-rich blood to your brain. While every tissue in your body needs water, your brain needs it most of all. 

COPD Medications

The medications that you take for COPD can be both the cause of, and the cure for your headaches. Generally speaking, taking medication as it’s prescribed by your doctor will help stabilize your blood oxygen level and mitigate the chance that you will experience an exacerbation or other COPD-related complication. However, some COPD medications have “headaches” listed as a side-effect, so this isn’t something you should rule out.

Fast-acting bronchodilators (also known as rescue inhalers) are an important part of any COPD treatment plan. They include drugs like albuterol, albuterol sulfate, and levalbuterol, and they’re responsible for quickly alleviating COPD symptoms like chest tightness and excess mucus production. However, fast-acting bronchodilators are also known for having a lot of side-effects like headaches, dizziness, and nausea.

Be Careful With Pain-Relief Medications

Unfortunately, most discussions around COPD are focused on alleviating the symptoms of the disease and less on alleviating pain that’s associated with those symptoms. While pain medication can be used safely and effectively in COPD patients, it should not be seen as a cure-all or something that’s used on a daily basis. What’s more, you have to be careful about what pain relievers you’re using and how they will interact with your COPD medications.

Consult Your Doctor

While you can continue to research the potential cause of your headaches, the best way to deal with this problem as quickly as possible is to consult your doctor. While it may seem like a hassle to go to the doctor just to ask about your headaches, there could be a very simple solution to your problem or there may be a more serious underlying problem that your doctor needs to know about. Be sure to write down the following information before you schedule an appointment:

• The frequency and severity of your headaches
• What time of day or night your headaches occur
• The location on your head that you feel the most pain
• What foods you’re eating each day
• How much water you’re consuming daily
• What your sleep schedule is like
• Any additional medication you’re taking (that wasn’t prescribed by your doctor)

Conclusion

Headaches are not an uncommon side-effect of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Likely one of the first symptoms you will experience if your blood oxygen levels are low is a headache. But there’s also a chance that the pain you’re experiencing is completely unrelated to your respiratory condition. 

Start by trying a few of the tips listed above and if they don’t work, be sure to consult your doctor. While there may be a simple solution to your headache problem, they could be a sign of a more serious underlying condition, so it’s best to speak with your doctor sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for a new mobile oxygen machine to manage your respiratory condition, feel free to browse our portable oxygen concentrators here at LPT Medical. We offer all of the most popular and reliable units including but not limited to the Caire FreeStyle Comfort and the Inogen One G5. Both of which weigh under 5 pounds and offer outstanding battery life to keep you out and about for longer. Speak with one of our respiratory specialists to learn more.

Most people don’t put a lot of thought into the way that they get around. As humans, we learn to walk from a very young age and we use our basic motor skills all the time. So, for most people, it’s difficult to imagine being in a situation where these basic functions are impaired. However, for someone with COPD, problems with mobility, balance, and coordination can be a daily struggle. Healthy, functioning lungs are essential for physical exertion, no matter how little it may be.

A study on pubmed.gov followed COPD patients over the course of six months and found that about one-third of them experienced a fall at some point. The same study also states that COPD is one of the chronic conditions with the highest fall rates, right behind osteoarthritis, a very common degenerative joint disease that’s caused by the wearing down of cartilage on the bones.  

Unfortunately, the high risk of falls in COPD patients is very much an under-discussed topic. That’s why, in this article, we’ll take a look at the main causes of falls and how you can avoid them. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comment section below and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

What Causes Balance Issues in COPD Patients?

COPD balance and coordination issues aren’t limited to one cause. There are many different factors that need to be considered in order to pinpoint and mitigate your risk of experiencing a fall. Comorbidities, age, COPD stage, and environmental factors can all play a role, so it’s important to be open-minded about possible prevention methods.

Low Blood Oxygen Levels

Oxygen is a vital resource for your body. It’s used to break down stored energy that you get from food and convert it into usable energy for every cell in your body. Since COPD patients have impaired lung function due to excessive inflammation, medical oxygen can be used to lessen the load on the lungs and ensure that your blood oxygen levels stay within a normal range. Contrary to what many people believe, there are no “side-effects” of medical oxygen. As long as you’re using it as prescribed, medical oxygen will only benefit you.

When it comes time to buy an oxygen device, you’ll have several options. Oxygen tanks, liquid oxygen tanks, and oxygen concentrators are all popular options. However, portable oxygen concentrators will be the best option for most oxygen patients because they’re lightweight, small, and easy to carry as you go about your day. The Inogen One G5 and Caire FreeStyle Comfort, for example, are two of the most popular options because they have a high oxygen output, and they both weigh under 5 pounds.

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Another great option if you have higher oxygen demands is the Respironics SimplyGo. This is the lightest continuous flow portable oxygen concentrator and it offers up to 2 liters per minute (LPM) of oxygen. The Respironics SimplyGo can either be carried on your shoulder with the adjustable strap, or it can be wheeled behind you using the rolling cart. Be sure to speak with one of our respiratory specialists here at LPT Medical to learn which portable oxygen concentrator is right for you.

Peripheral Edema

"Edema” is a term that refers to swelling, usually due to the buildup of fluid. Peripheral edema occurs when fluid begins to accumulate in an extremity away from the heart such as the hands, feet, or legs. While this condition can happen to anyone, it’s more common among COPD patients and it can be a warning sign of several serious medical conditions including pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the lungs) and cor pulmonale (right-sided heart failure).

Another problem that can be caused by edema is problems with balance and coordination. This condition often develops slowly and without the patient knowing, so you might start losing control of your balance without knowing it as well. Oftentimes, people first notice that there’s a problem when their shoes or clothing don’t fit anymore. In order to avoid this situation, check your legs and feet daily for swelling, redness, or pitting. This is when you press your skin and it leaves an indentation. 

Malnutrition

COPD patients are more likely to experience malnutrition than the general public. There are many possible reasons for this, but a loss of appetite, changing food preferences, and problems with digestion are among the most common causes. COPD patients often find themselves in a difficult situation where they’re hungry but aren’t in the mood to eat because it can leave them feeling bloated and exhausted.

One significant concern is something called muscle atrophy (muscle wasting). Many people are under the impression that they’re losing fat, but it’s actually muscle weight that they’re losing. Inevitably, this can lead to problems with balance, coordination, and exercise tolerance. This is why it’s so important for COPD patients to consume enough protein. Today’s Dietician recommends you get at least 20 percent of your calories from protein.

Medication Side-Effects

Every medication has side-effects, including those used to treat COPD. One of the most common inhaled COPD medications, bronchodilators, are used to open up the airways helping you to breathe easier. However, bronchodilators have a number of adverse side-effects including but not limited to trembling, muscle cramps, and nausea, all of which can contribute to balance problems and even result in serious falls.

Just like with oxygen, it’s important to use medication only as it’s prescribed by your doctor. What’s more, you should be cautious about the way you use it. For example, if you’re using a bronchodilator, try sitting down beforehand. This way, if you start feeling dizzy or lightheaded, you won’t run the risk of falling down. Bronchodilators are fast-acting, so if you feel okay after a couple of minutes, you can stand up and go about your business.

Corticosteroids are another popular medication used to treat COPD. These are a type of steroid that is used for the long-term treatment of COPD and asthma, and they help to reduce inflammation and tightening in the airways and lungs. However, corticosteroids used in large doses can contribute to bone deterioration and the development of osteoporosis. This condition not only increases your risk of falls, but it also increases your risk of experiencing bone fractures after falling.  

Sedentary Lifestyle

Living a “sedentary lifestyle” means not getting up and moving around very often. Many people become more sedentary the older they get and developing a chronic condition like COPD can cause someone to become sedentary as well. The problem with this is that it can lead to a lot of health issues, one of which is an increased likelihood of experiencing a fall. This study found that physical activity is associated with better balance and slowing the rate of physical deterioration in older adults.

Environmental Factors

All of the issues above are caused by the symptoms of COPD and COPD treatment. But you also need to consider how your environment is contributing to your risk of falls. Living in a home that is cluttered or not designed to accommodate someone with a chronic respiratory disease can put you at a higher risk of falling.

Since it’s winter, there are also environmental factors related to the weather. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 56 percent of all falls occur outside the home such as in the yard, on the sidewalk, or in a public area. So before you go anywhere, you should consider what obstacles will be presented and how you can navigate them safely without experiencing a fall. 

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What Can Be Done to Prevent Falls With COPD?

Although falls are very common in COPD patients, the good news is that they’re highly preventable. Just a few small adjustments to your lifestyle could make a huge difference but you need to know what’s causing them in the first place. 

Carry a Pulse Oximeter

A pulse oximeter is a small electronic device that slips over your finger and tells you your blood oxygen levels. It is a non-invasive device, meaning you won’t need to draw blood in order to use it. It works by passing light through your finger and calculating your blood oxygen levels based on the amount of light that’s absorbed by oxygenated or deoxygenated blood. Pulse oximeters are lightweight and portable medical devices.

The reason it’s so important to have a pulse oximeter is to be able to check your blood oxygen levels and heart rate, especially when you’re away from home. Just a quick pulse oximeter reading and you’ll know exactly what adjustments you need to make to your oxygen therapy device. Pulse oximeters are usually recommended over arterial blood gas analysis (ABG) because they’re less intrusive and you receive your results almost instantaneously. The quality of the device matters too, so be sure to spend some time looking for a pulse oximeter with good reviews. 

ABG analysis and pulse oximetry also differ in terms of the information they provide. While a pulse oximeter just reads the percentage of hemoglobin in the blood that is saturated with oxygen (SpO2), ABG tests will provide you with a whole host of information including blood alkalinity, the partial pressure of CO2 and oxygen (PaCO2 and PaO2), and much more. This information is useful for other reasons, but it’s not necessary if you’re just trying to maintain your blood oxygen levels.

Carry a Medical Alert System

A medical alert system or personal emergency response system (PERS) is a small device that’s worn around your neck or on your wrist. If you ever experience an emergency like a fall or a COPD exacerbation, simply press the button on the device and a notification will be sent to a 24/7 call center. Once the notification is received they will call 911 and emergency medical personnel will be sent to your home immediately.

Adjust Your Eating Habits

As aforementioned, many COPD patients are underweight. As respiratory symptoms get worse, many people find it difficult to eat a full meal without feeling bloated and tired. One of the best ways to deal with this is to spread your meals throughout the day rather than having one or two bigger meals. This will give your body lots of time to digest rather than having to do it all at once.

Another reason to spread your meals out is that it helps you avoid the temptation to eat unhealthy foods. When you’re feeling hungry and lacking energy, you’re more likely to give in to foods that will provide you with a quick energy boost. These foods are usually high in sugar and other unhealthy ingredients which can exacerbate COPD symptoms and leave you feeling drained.

Get Active

Many people are under the impression that the sole purpose of pulmonary rehabilitation is to improve lung function. And while that may be the most important reason, it’s not the only reason. Even a moderate form of exercise can provide some major benefits as long as it’s done consistently. According to the Mayo Clinic, regular exercise helps prevent a whole host of health problems, including but not limited to high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, depression, and heart disease. 

Another reason for COPD patients to exercise is that it increases their muscle tone, thus increasing their oxygen efficiency. As a COPD patient, you want every muscle in your body to be strong not only to improve balance and posture but to reduce the amount of oxygen required for getting around. Exercise also improves blood circulation which is very important for maintaining your mobility.

Create a Safe Living Space

No matter whether you live alone or with friends or family, making adjustments to your living space can go a long way towards preventing falls. Keeping your home organized and free of debris will give you fewer obstacles to trip over or navigate around as you go about your daily life. Many falls occur in the bathroom, so that might be the best place to start with. Another way to create a safe living space is to install mobility aids such as hand railings, stairlifts, or ramps.  

Address Your Concerns With Your Doctor

Anxiety is associated with an increased risk of falls, so if you have concerns about balance or coordination issues caused by COPD or your COPD treatment plan, you should address them with your doctor immediately. Chances are, the feelings you’re experiencing are perfectly normal and your doctor might be able to make changes to your medication, exercise, or diet plan in order to improve your balance. As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as a “stupid question” especially when your health is concerned. 

Conclusion

Although COPD is a leading morbidity in the United States, many people are not fully aware of what it’s like to live with this disease. Balance and coordination issues are pervasive among COPD patients and they become more prevalent with age and as the disease progresses. The tips outlined above will help you mitigate the risks of falls.

Here at LPT medical, we want you to be educated about your disease so that you can make the best decisions for your long-term health. We carry a wide range of portable oxygen concentrators from popular brands like Caire Inc., Inogen, and Respironics. And we take pride in providing oxygen patients all over the country with reliable lightweight devices that help them get around more easily while limiting the risk of a fall.

If you’re interested in our portable oxygen concentrators for sale, please reach out to us either by phone or by email.