Crying Out to God for Healing

WORD OF KNOWLEDGE

By Audra Haney
The 700 Club

CBN.com – In January of 2013, Caryn Jandl was diagnosed with a severe sinus infection that drained into her lungs. A deep, painful cough kept her awake, night after night. “Emotionally, I was drained. I was frustrated and since I couldn’t sleep, I wasn’t getting my immune system back to where it should have been.”

Caryn’s doctor gave her a strong 5 day antibiotic for the infection. “I came home and I took the two azithromycin. Five o’clock came and I started coughing and I coughed all night long. Saturday morning I took the next antibiotic, and I didn’t sleep that night either. The cough seemed to be getting worse. It wasn’t getting any better.”

Caryn finished 4 days of the antibiotics, but the coughing continued. “I would lay and cry, because there was nothing else I could do. And, I would pray, ‘God, please heal me.’”

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease COPD

By Bonnie Jenkins, Advanced Natural Medicine
My mother-in-law smoked for nearly 35 years before she finally gave it up more than 15 years ago. The problem is, however, that the damage to her lungs was already done – and now she’s living with a diagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, more commonly known as COPD.

The dog days of summer, with its thick and stagnant weather, can leave her literally gasping for air. She’s not alone. More than 30 million Americans live with a chronic lung disease and, for them, breathing can be a chore every day of the year.

3 Ways to Boost Your Lung Power

By David Blyweiss, M.D., Advanced Natural Medicine

Take a deep breath.
For most people, it’s not a big deal. But if you suffer from chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD), breathing may be one of the most difficult things you do.

COPD is a group of conditions that includes emphysema, chronic bronchitis and asthma. Smoking is the most common cause of COPD. But pollution and chemical fumes can also set you up for respiratory problems later in life.

Infants and Indoor Air Pollution

For many new mothers, bringing a baby into the world can be an amazing, and yet terrifying, event. It can be scary due to the overwhelming amount of things that can threaten a child’s life in their first 6 months. The reason for this is that during this period of time a baby is growing and maturing very quickly. One of these parts of the body that is growing very rapidly at this time is the lungs. If you are living in a home with poor indoor air quality and have an infant, it can be very damaging to your child’s health. Records of infant mortality rates in the United States around 2005 indicate that respiratory distress in newborns is the 7th most common cause of death.

Poor indoor air quality as a result of Indoor Air Pollution has been rated one of the top five environmental dangers in regards to human health by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). This is especially the case for individuals with comprised immune systems like that of the elderly and, of course, small children. Poor Indoor Air Quality can be the result of several factors, often thanks to inadequate ventilation due to improper construction of buildings by making them air tight to achieve energy efficiency combined with chemical contaminants, also known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These can be emitted from several common household materials, such as paint or carpeting, resulting in poor IAQ . Some of the VOC’s include carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide and many others. With nitrogen dioxide for example, there have been studies conducted that have shown that exposure can cause bronchitis in asthmatic children. For developing lungs, the precursor to childhood asthma can be triggered by several factors, including poor indoor air quality. Finally, the biological contaminants that contribute to poor indoor air quality include: mold, bacteria, mildew, viruses and pollen. Moisture intrusion and stagnant water are the environments where these contaminants fester the easiest. All the above contaminants can cause poor IAQ, most of which cannot be detected by the naked eye.

COPD Blog: Is It COPD or Asthma?

Robert T. Schreiber, MD, an American Lung Association in New York Expert

A middle-aged woman sits across the desk from me looking somewhat nervous. She’s been sent to my office by her primary care physician for a pulmonary evaluation. As a lung specialist, I’m being asked to determine the cause of her chronic cough and episodes of wheezing. Is it asthma or COPD?

I evaluate and treat patients like this all the time. To give an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan, I take a full history, do a physician examination, and order a few tests.

First I ask about her symptoms and medical history:

• Are the symptoms chronic (meaning long-standing) or did they start recently?
• Was there a sudden change that could have triggered the symptoms, such as an exposure to an allergen or toxic substance, an acute respiratory infection, or a new pet in the home?
• Is there a prior history of childhood asthma or recurrent coughing and wheezing as an adult?
• Is there a history of allergies?
• Does she smoke or has she smoked in the past?
• Do any family members have asthma or COPD?
• What level of physical activity is she able to do? Has her exercise tolerance been declining?

The answers to these and other questions are the strongest clues I have to diagnose a patient’s condition.

Smoking is the most common cause of COPD. The risk of COPD from smoking is determined by pack years (number of packs per day multiplied by the numbers of years of smoking). COPD is more likely in people who have a history of 20 or more pack years. If the patient’s symptoms have been present for a long time and slowly worsening, it is more likely to be from COPD than asthma.

However, my patient’s symptoms could be a sign of asthma. In people with a history of allergies and childhood asthma, their asthma can reactivate as an adult. People who never had asthma can develop “non-allergic” asthma after an acute respiratory infection.

Both asthma and COPD can produce chronic coughing and wheezing, but the symptoms appear differently: People with COPD tend to have a chronic morning “smokers cough” as a sign of chronic bronchitis; most asthmatics have coughing and wheezing only during flare-ups.

The woman who came in today was a pack-a-day smoker for 25 years, and a casual smoker for five years before that. She quit smoking a few years ago, but has had a morning cough and recently started wheezing in cold weather and when she has a cold. She also gets short of breath easily walking up stairs, particularly if carrying packages.

In the examining room, I check her vital signs and do a head and neck exam, looking for evidence of chronic nasal or sinus swelling or nasal polyps (seen more commonly in asthma and allergies). I listen to her heart and breathing with my stethoscope; I hear mild wheezing in both lungs. Her heart sounds normal. I check the extremities for cyanosis (a blue color that might indicate a low oxygen level) and feet for swelling (which might indicate heart strain).

Next I order a chest x-ray. It looks for signs of cancer, “water on the lungs” and other problems that might cause her symptoms. Luckily, her test doesn’t show any of these.

Pulmonary function tests (PFT’s) are done next; these are breathing tests that measure lung capacity and flow rates. My patient’s PFT’s show that she can’t blow out as much air as she should in one second (her FEV1 is reduced). The next step is to give her a quick-acting bronchodilator and repeat the test. Most asthmatics have normal results after a bronchodilator, but when people have COPD, their tests do not normalize. My patient’s FEV1 is still low and for me, this clinches the diagnosis of COPD.

When I sit down with my patient to review the findings, I tell her she has COPD from years of smoking. Although she quit several years ago, most smoking damage is permanent. It’s common for patients to lose over half of their lung function before they realize it. Some of her loss of lung function is also a part of aging.

I outline a treatment regimen for her which includes taking an inhaled bronchodilator to control her symptoms. I also tell her to:

• Eat a healthy diet to strengthen her immune system.
• Get regular exercise to improve functional capacity.
• Avoid inhaled irritants and, of course, never smoke again.
• Take steps to prevent respiratory infections, such as getting immunizations for influenza and pneumonia, avoiding sick people, and frequent hand cleansing.

Her treatment also requires regular checkups with me to monitor her progress and adjust her medicines. As my new patient leaves, she isn’t happy that she has a chronic condition, but she seems satisfied that she has the right diagnosis and a plan of action.

Dr. Schreiber is board certified in internal medicine and pulmonary diseases by the American Board of Internal Medicine. He is a member of Nassau Chest Physicians, P.C., who are actively involved with the American Lung Association in New York. Schreiber is director of the SICU at St. Francis Hospital, medical director of the Oyster Bay Cove Village Police Department, and a member of the Nassau County Medical Reserve Corps. He is on the professional staffs of St. Francis Hospital, North Shore University Hospital (Manhasset and Plainview), and St. Joseph Hospital.

gotquestions  http://www.everydayhealth.com/health-report/chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease/copd-blog-copd-or-asthma.aspx

Smoking deaths triple over decade - tobacco report

A man lights a 'bidi' at a wood logging mill on the outskirts of Jammu


By Kate Kelland | Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Tobacco-related deaths have nearly tripled in the past decade and big tobacco firms are undermining public efforts that could save millions, a report led by the health campaign group the World Lung Foundation (WLF) said on Wednesday.

In the report, marking the tenth anniversary of its first Tobacco Atlas, the WLF and the American Cancer Society said if current trends continue, a billion people will die from tobacco use and exposure this century - one person every six seconds.

Tobacco has killed 50 million people in the last 10 years, and tobacco is responsible for more than 15 percent of all male deaths and 7 percent of female deaths, the new Tobacco Atlas report found. (www.tobaccoatlas.org)

In China, tobacco is already the number one killer - causing 1.2 million deaths a year - and that number is expected to rise to 3.5 million a year by 2030, the report said.

That is part of a broader shift, with smoking rates in the developed world declining but numbers growing in poorer regions, said Michael Eriksen, one of the report's authors and director of the Institute of Public Health at Georgia State University.

"If we don't act, the projections for the future are even more morbid. And the burden of death caused by tobacco is increasingly one of the developing world, particularly Asia, the Middle East and Africa," he said in an interview.

Almost 80 percent of people who die from tobacco-related illnesses now come from low- and middle-income countries. In Turkey, 38 percent of male deaths are from smoking-related illnesses, though smoking also remains the biggest killer of American women too.

WLF's chief executive Peter Baldini accused the tobacco industry of thriving on ignorance about the true effect of smoking and "misinformation to subvert health policies that could save millions".

The report said the industry had stepped up its fight against anti-tobacco policies, launching legal challenges and seeking to delay or stop the introduction of plain packaging, legislation banning smoking in public places, advertising bans and health warnings on packets.

The world's six biggest tobacco firms made $35.1 billion in profits in 2010 - equal to the combined earnings of Coca-Cola, Microsoft and McDonald's, the report said.

Smoking causes lung cancer as well as several other chronic pulmonary diseases and is a major risk factor in heart disease, the world's number one killer.

More than 170 countries have signed up to a World Health Organisation-led convention committing them to cut smoking rates, limiting exposure to second-hand smoke, and curbing tobacco advertising and promotion.

WHO director general Margaret Chan said thanks in part to that convention, 1.1 billion people have in the past two years become covered by at least one measure designed to curb tobacco use. She added, however, that the battle was far from over and urged more countries to fight the industry.

"We must never allow the tobacco industry to get the upper hand," she said in a foreword to the report. "Tobacco is a killer. It should not be advertised, subsidised or glamorised."

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Ben Harding)

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/smoking-deaths-triple-over-decade-tobacco-report-075004760.html

What is Bad Ozone?

Sometimes we hear that ozone is good, as in the ozone layer, and sometimes we hear that ozone is bad as in air pollution or smog.  How can it be both good and bad?  This depends on where it is in the environment and how it is formed.  


This page will discuss the so called "bad ozone" or "ground level ozone".  To learn about "good ozone" by clicking on this link.  


In the Earth’s lower atmosphere, near ground level, ozone is formed when pollutants emitted by cars, power plants, chemical plants, and other sources react chemically in the presence of sunlight. 


Ozone pollution is a concern during the summer months when the weather conditions needed to form ground-level ozone—lots of sun, hot temperatures—normally occur.

Ozone can irritate your respiratory system, causing you to start coughing, feel an irritation in your throat and/or experience an uncomfortable sensation in your chest. Ozone can reduce lung function and make it more difficult for you to breathe as deeply and vigorously as you normally would. 


When this happens, you may notice that breathing starts to feel uncomfortable. If you are exercising or working outdoors, you may notice that you are taking more rapid and shallow breaths than normal. 


Ozone can aggravate asthma. When ozone levels are high, more people with asthma have attacks that require a doctor’s attention or the use of additional medication. One reason this happens is that ozone makes people more sensitive to allergens, which are the most common triggers for asthma attacks. Also, asthmatics are more severely affected by the reduced lung function and irritation that ozone causes in the respiratory system. 


Ozone can inflame and damage cells that line your lungs. Within a few days, the damaged cells are replaced and the old cells are shed—much in the way your skin peels after a sunburn. 


Ozone may aggravate chronic lung diseases such as emphysema and bronchitis and reduce the immune system’s ability to fight off bacterial infections in the respiratory system.

This is why ozone water treatment systems are designed to remove ozone before the vent gas is released into the environment.

Here are some additional links on ground level ozone:

Ozone and Your Health (USEPA)
Smog - Who Does it Hurt? (USEPA)
Summertime Safety: Keeping Kids Safe from Sun and Smog (USEPA)USEPA Ozone Air Quality StandardsUS Ozone Air Quality Trends


gotquestions http://www.spartanwatertreatment.com/ground-level-ozone.html

Jesus, the Balm of Gilead

by: Alan Bullock

There are three things I remember about John on the day that I met him.  He was a tree trimmer, an alcoholic and almost dead.  My wife Anoosh and I were sharing our testimony in a church in Michigan when John’s mother came to the altar for prayer.  She told us how he had fallen over 60 feet just two days ago and had broken ten percent of the bones in his body.  Once at the hospital, they found he had one collapsed lung and the other lung was functioning with the assistance of medical equipment.  Our Faith
Why does the cup of peace and plenty,
And our prayers seem distant from on high;
When our requests are oft so very many,
And our faith needs wings to fly?
Why do we oft endure temptation,
And faith bears a heavy load,
As if each were assigned a tribulation
To conquer as days unfold.
Why does our prayer need wait the hour,
When ill befalls His children in gloom;
Is it not to see His wondrous power,
And His love a healing balm of perfume.His family had been praying for years for John to straighten out his life and become a Christian, but now the doctors gave him less than two weeks to live and his family was devastated.   In sheer desperation, his mother asked us to visit and pray for her son.  Standing over his still body, I broke down in tears and began to weep.  In the midst of that terrible scene I had an overwhelming sense to breathe on him.  Call it odd, bizarre or strange if you will, but I knew it was a message from God.  In front of the family and nurses, I breathed heavily into the nostrils of a near-dead man.  A month later John walked out of that hospital room to the astonishment of the doctors and nurses and is now a born again believer.  What perils are you confronting today?   Jesus, our healer,stands ready to breathe the power of the Holy Spirit into your most troubling circumstances.Yes, there is a Balm of Gilead whose healing salve can mend a broken body.  The healing properties of the balm of Gilead were known throughout the world.  Balm is described from antiquity as being a “rare, fragrant and stimulating ointment”.  Its properties to heal wounds bordered on the miraculous.  The miracle power of God lives on through the New Testament church.  I don’t pretend to understand how healing or prayer work, but I know when we pray God hears us.

Trust Him!  Believe in Him! He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think (Eph. 3:20).

Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord (James 5:14).

Hope and faith are powerful instruments of healing when used with the Word and spoken in the name of Jesus.

MEET THE AUTHOR

ALAN BULLOCK

Alan has pioneered several churches and has also been blessed to travel the world preaching and teaching in churches and conferences as a missionary evangelist for over thirty two years.

Copyright © 2011 by Alan Bullock

Urban pollution will be top environmental cause of early death by 2050, new report says

Urban pollution is predicted to cause more early deaths than any other environmental factor. China and India will be hit especially hard, a new report says.

Amy Silverstein 

Urban air pollution will become the top environmental killer by 2050, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has found. The Paris-based policy group said Thursday that dirty air will kill more people worldwide each year than dirty drinking water or unsanitary living conditions.

A new report released by the group says that 3.6 million people are expected to die each year from breathing in air pollutants that affect the respiratory system. Most of those deaths will occur in China and India. 

"Action needs to be taken now to prevent irreversible damage to the environment," the report urges.

Possible solutions include switching to cleaner forms of energy and changing the way fuel is taxed. Many governments, for example, give tax breaks to people who use diesel fuel because it has lower greenhouse gas emissions. But diesel fuel is actually worse for human health because it releases more "particulate matter" into the air, which harms the lungs, the Guardian reported.  

"In environmental terms, there is no reason to give diesel tax breaks," Simon Upton, environment director at the OECD, told the Guardian.

The report also found that greenhouse gas emissions will increase 50 percent by 2050 if world governments do not come up with new policies to fight pollution, such as carbon taxes. If nothing changes, renewable energy sources will continue to make up just 10 percent of energy sources, Reuters reported.

"Greening agriculture, water and energy supply and manufacturing will be critical by 2050 to meet the needs of over 9 billion people,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said in a press release. 

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/120316/urban-pollution-will-be-top-environmental-cause-early-death

Is it safe to fly with a newborn? My baby is one month old.

 Submitted by kvanthillo

Dear Parents of Airborn Newborn:

Most pediatricians believe that a baby of 4 to 6 weeks can handle air flights, although perhaps it would be best to postpone air travel with an infant this young if it can be avoided. A significant problem is the chance that contagious illnesses carried by other passengers will infect the tiny traveler because of the constant re-circulation of cabin air. Another difficulty is that ordinary cabin pressurization usually causes intense pain to infants' ears (helped, somewhat, by having the baby suck or drink during ascent and descent).  

The wisest route is to ask the baby's own doctor, who may be aware of certain issues which would be important in making the best decision here.

Elizabeth Berger MD

Child Psychiatrist and author of "Raising Kids with Character"

Answered by Dr. Elizabeth Berger

Was this Helpful?

http://www.parents.com/advice/babies/safety/is-it-safe-to-fly-with-a-newborn/ 




Infants less than 16 days old are not allowed to travel by air because cabin pressure could implode their frail lungs - check with the airline for specific guidelines on contraindications to air travel and reservation requirements of infants. 

'Cinnamon Challenge' Sparks Health Concerns

By Katie Kindelan | ABC News Blogs
A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, Mary Poppins famously sang, but a spoonful of cinnamon can cause dangerous side effects. 

That is the warning from concerned parents, school administrators and medical experts alike in response to the "Cinnamon Challenge," a game challenging people to swallow a teaspoon of cinnamon without water in 60 seconds.

The game has gone viral, spurred on by teens uploading thousands of videos on YouTube and Facebook showing them gagging, choking and spitting while trying to complete the challenge.

Doctors say the challenge is impossible because the cinnamon cannot be digested without water and warn that by inhaling the cinnamon dust teens run the risk of inflaming or scarring their lungs.

"If you have some fine particles, like cinnamon in your lungs, it may be hard to clear out," said Dr. Robert Zaid of Providence Hospital in Mobile, Ala.  "Your lungs can kind of collapse on you. There have been several cases reported where kids needed ventilator support because they weren't able to maintain their airway."

In Michigan school administrators are sending advisories to parents alerting them to the dangers the challenge could pose to their children after four apparently related cases were reported to the Children's Hospital of Michigan Regional Poison Control Center in the last month alone, according to the Detroit News.

Dejah Reed, a freshman at Huron High School in Ann Arbor, Mich., spent four days in the hospital with an infection and a collapsed right lung after she ingested cinnamon two week ago.

"She was going in and out of consciousness. She couldn't breathe. She was turning pale," her father, Fred Reed, told local affiliate WXYZ. "I hope parents and kids learn that it's not fun and games. She could have died."

Even a site devoted to the challenge, Cinnamonchallenge.com, has this disclaimer prominently displayed on its homepage, "DO NOT ATTEMPT THE CINNAMON CHALLENGE WITHOUT TALKING WITH A DOCTOR.  OBVIOUSLY THEY ARE GOING TO TELL YOU NOT TO DO IT. THE CINNAMON CHALLENGE CAN BE DANGEROUS AND SHOULDN'T BE TAKEN LIGHTLY. YOU NEVER WANT TO PURPOSELY OR MISTAKINGLY INHALE ANY SUBSTANCES SUCH AS CINNAMON. IT'S GOING TO BURN, YOU ARE GOING TO COUGH, AND REGRET YOU TRIED…SO WATCH MOVIES OF PEOPLE ALREADY FEELING THE PAIN."

Despite the serious health risks the game has been popularized by athletes and even a politician.

In November, during the NBA lockout, basketball stars Nick Young and JaVale McGee attempted the cinnamon challenge in a YouTube video that has been viewed more than 100,000 times and posted on ESPN.com.  In February Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn took the challenge while appearing on a talk radio show, though he drank water to get it down.

Medical experts like Dr. Zaid are echoing school administrators in advising parents to warn their children that attempting viral, online dares like the "Cinnamon Challenge" could land them in the hospital, according to WXYZ.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/28561424

Why Women Need to Know about COPD

Learn more about one of the surprising killers of women, and get the facts that could save your life 

By Teresa Dumain

It kills more women than breast cancer,Alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes. If that’s not enough to get your attention, consider this: More women than men die from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD. Smoking is the primary cause of COPD, an umbrella term that covers chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and other diseases that involve progressive damage to the lungs. 

“It used to be an all-boys party,” says Neil Schachter, MD, medical director of the respiratory care department at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. “But the burden of the disease recently crossed over.” One reason: Women started smoking later than men. “It wasn’t until the 1970s and 80s that smoking rates picked up for women,” explains Schachter. “And now we’ve reached the time where we start to see the effects.” COPD is number four on the list of top lady-killers; here are seven more things you need to know and reasons you should care about this deadly disease. 

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1. You could have it, and not know it. An estimated 12 million Americans are walking around winded, blaming old age and added weight. Shortness of breath is the cardinal symptom of COPD, says Timothy R. Wu, MD, director of the COPD Center at Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass. But because the disease develops slowly, mild signs are sometimes easy to miss; plus, people tend to adapt their behavior to compensate. “If you can’t catch your breath going up a flight of stairs, next time you’ll probably take the elevator and not give it a second thought,” he says. Persistent coughing and chest congestion or excess phlegm are also indicative of COPD; for most people, symptoms start to surface around age 40.

2. You could have it, and your doctor might not know it either.Studies have shown that when men and women presented the same symptoms, men were more often correctly diagnosed with COPD. Women were incorrectly diagnosed with asthma, says Wu. Currently, more than 12 million people in the US know they have COPD, and while the screening test literally takes seconds, it’s grossly underutilized, adds Schachter. All you have to do is take a deep breath and blow into a machine for a count of six seconds. The machine (called a spirometer) measures how “big” your lungs are and how fast you breathe air out of them. The test—known as spirometry—can detect COPD even before symptoms appear, and help determine its severity. “It’s important for anyone over age 40 with a history of smoking, or any symptoms at all, to talk to their doctor and ask to be screened,” says Wu, but women should be extra vigilant. “Though we’re getting better at diagnosing the disease, many doctors still lean toward assigning COPD to men.”
 
3. Smoking might cause your lungs more harm. That’s because women have narrower airways than men, so the toxins in cigarettes may have a stronger effect, even if they smoke the same amount, explains Wu. Still, heavy and long-term smoking is the most significant risk factor for both men and women, it’s the most common cause of COPD, and it’s responsible for up to 90% of related deaths. Breathing in other irritants, such as secondhand smoke, air pollution, and chemical fumes or dust from the environment or workplace can also inflame the lungs and contribute to increasing your risk.

4. Breathing in bad stuff isn’t the only way to get COPD. Researchers are studying different potential predispositions to the disease—genetic or otherwise; one known genetic disorder called alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency is the source of a few cases of COPD. Also under investigation: if female sex hormones may make women more prone to developing the disease. 

5. You’ll need to see your doctor more often. There’s no cure for COPD, but the right treatment plan can help control symptoms and delay the progress of the disease. Frequent checkups are important so your doctor can monitor your medications and keep you informed of new options (last March, the FDA approved a drug to reduce flare-ups and symptoms in some patients). Your doctor may also recommend nicotine replacement products and drugs to help you quit smoking; discuss different COPD therapies (such as pulmonary rehabilitation or oxygen treatment); talk to you about getting the flu or pneumonia vaccines (both of which can cause complications); and keep an eye on your overall health. “COPD is a systemic disease that’s linked to an increased risk of heart disease, depression and number of other conditions,” says Wu.

6. You shouldn’t stop exercising. Regular physical activity can ease COPD symptoms and boost energy, strengthen your heart and respiratory muscles, help you lose weight, fight depression, and most importantly, help your body use oxygen better. Just don’t push yourself too hard: “Walking 30 minutes, three times a week, for example, is a healthy amount of exercise,” suggests Schachter. Stretching is also a good option to reduce injuries and improve flexibility; upper body strength training is especially helpful to build respiratory muscles. “Anything that gets you moving is good, but talk to your doctor before starting any workout program,” advises Schachter.

7. You might need to redecorate. “Think minimalist,” says Schachter. Cut down on the knickknacks and trinkets, rethink long drapes, wall-to-wall carpet, and roll up some throw rugs—“They’re all collecting dust and allergens that can irritate your airways and increase breathing problems,” he says. More tips to help keep indoor air clean: Open the windows to help ventilate your home after using smelly cleaning products, bug sprays, and paint; and ban smoking indoors. 
 


Do you know anyone who might have COPD? 

prevention.com