Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

What is COPD? COPD stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, which is one of the most common lung diseases. Having COPD makes it difficult to breathe. There are two main forms of COPD including chronic bronchitis, with symptoms that include a long-term cough with mucus. The second form of COPD is emphysema, with symptoms that cause the destruction of the lungs over time.

Typically those with COPD have a combination of both forms. The leading cause of COPD is smoking. The longer a person smokes and the more often they smoke each day, the more likely they will to develop COPD. There are rare cases of COPD where nonsmokers get the disease because they don’t have a specific protein in their body. This protein is called alpha-1 antitrypsin. Without the protein patients can develop emphysema. Those afflicted with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) will often find difficulty doing something as normal and natural as breathing.

For an individual that has COPD, the airways are often blocked by this lung disease. Emphysema and chronic bronchitis often make up chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and long term damage to the airways is likely with this as the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide can be interfered with.

It’s essential that somebody with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease gets help as any problems with breathing can be frustrating and create long term damage. It is highly recommended that those with COPD seek medical attention. It’s helpful to ensure that you get a proper diagnosis when it comes to this disease and therefore find the very best treatments.

There are some medications that can help you to cope with the symptoms associated with COPD, but they are not likely to help you get rid of it.

One can find some helpful natural cures involving lifestyle changes that will lessen the effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Using home remedies for COPD can make life a bit easier and help to manage the onset of symptoms overall.

Home Remedies and Natural Cures for COPD:

Reduce Anxiety:

Webmd reports that staying calm and reducing anxiety are helpful with COPD. COPD sufferers fearing an attack- Even if they are not experiencing breathing problems (at that time) can trigger breathlessness due to increased breathing and heart rate. Hobbies such as yoga, tai chi and even massage can help reduce anxiety.

Use a Humidifier:

In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), mucus can build up in the lungs and the airways. Therefore ensuring that the airways remain clean and clear can help to lessen the flare ups often associated with COPD. Drinking plenty of water can be another excellent measure to ensure that the lungs and airways remain clear.

A very effective home remedy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is to use a humidifier.  Humidifiers can help to keep the air at the best level of moisture (which is approximately between 30-50 percent humidity). This humid environment is good for you and your skin (inside and outside) and helps to keep skin moisturized, reduce dryness and irritation in the throat and nasal passages and allows for easier expulsion of phlegm.

If you don't have a humidifier, it may be helpful to set a pot of water on the stove and let it slowly simmer. While difficult to control the overall humidity, the steam from the hot water does release moisture in the the air which will help to moisturize your airway.

Controlled Coughing:

Learning the best and most effective ways to cough can allow an individual to suffer much less when it comes to COPD. Working with a specialist to learn the most effective ways to cough as well as the appropriate positions for can be an helpful for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

COPD usually involves a build up of phlegm as a result of inflamed airways in the lungs. The airways become blocked and it becomes harder to breathe because the airway becomes blocked.  The build up of phlegm is usually persistent and can be better expelled by something called controlled coughing, which is a cough that has just enough force to expel mucus but not enough force to cause inflamed airways to narrow or collapse.

How to do COPD controlled coughing: Breath in deeply through your nose. As you exhale slowly through your mouth, put hour hands on your stomach, push in and lean forward 3 to 4 times.

Breathing relaxation techniques such as yoga can also focus on the breathing that an individual uses and make COPD much more manageable to live with.

Avoid Smoke and Other Air Pollutants:

In this case, it’s a simple instance of avoidance. Many times smoking throughout an individual’s life may have caused or contributed to the onset of COPD. Therefore quitting smoking or eliminating any exposure to second-hand smoke can help to act as a natural cure for COPD. This is a simple measure as there’s nothing you really have to do, but rather something that you just must avoid to ensure that you aren’t afflicted with the symptoms.

If you are going out in public a face mask might be helpful. HEPA air cleaners with dust filters are a nice addition to anyone's home. There are phone apps that report the neighborhood air quality like IQAir that alert you when it may be harmful for sensitive groups to venture outside.

Supplemental Resveratrol

Resveratrol may be helpful for COPD. As resveratrol has antioxidant and ant-inflammatory properties and it's being studied for its possible effectiveness in the treatment of COPD. 

Those that supplement with resveratrol have shown decreased inflammation and oxidative stress in the lungs. The anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of resveratrol might also help respiratory muscle impairment in COPD. 

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29200030/