Health Insights: COPD Diet and Exercise

Being underweight is often a problem for people with COPD. In the video above, Dr. Sonali Bose shares some tips on how to maintain a healthy weight in

Being underweight is often a problem for people with COPD. In this video, Dr. Sonali Bose shares some tips on how to maintain a healthy weight including eating small, frequent meals, resting between meals and taking the proper amount of supplements and vitamins to insure you’re getting the nutrients you need.

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This video features Sonali Bose, MD. Dr. Bose is board-certified in pulmonary disease and internal medicine. Dr. Bose is an instructor at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Duration: 2:50. Last Updated On: June 7, 2018, 2:38 p.m.

Reviewed by: Preeti Parikh, MD . Review date: June 23, 2017

00:00 [MUSIC]
00:06 My name is Sonali Bose, and I'm a Senior Pulmonary Fellow at
00:10 Johns Hopkins Hospital in the Division of Pulmonary Medicine and Critical Care.
00:16 Being underweight is a common problem with patients with COPD.
00:20 Remember that COPD is not just a disorder of the lungs,
00:23 but affects your body in total.
00:26 Being underweight is a problem because it reflects being malnourished.
00:30 And not having enough nutrition can make you more likely to
00:33 get infections which then make your COPD worse.
00:36 Tips for maintaining a healthy weight include eating small frequent meals
00:41 to ensure enough calories.
00:43 Resting in between meals, that you do not get tired while you're eating.
00:48 Making sure that you take vitamins to help supplement nutrients that you're not
00:51 getting through your meals.
00:52 Paying attention to what you eat is very important.
00:56 Eating foods that have a lot of salt may make your COPD worse.
00:59 Patients with advanced COPD oftentimes have difficulty with swelling in
01:05 their legs, and eating a lower salt diet can help with those symptoms.
01:11 If you wear oxygen, remember to wear oxygen while you're eating,
01:14 so that you do not get more short of breath.
01:17 Finally, if you find that your appetite continues to be a problem,
01:22 talk to your doctor.
01:23 He or she may be able to give you some medications which
01:25 will help stimulate your appetite and make sure that you get adequate calories.
01:31 Many patients have a lot of difficulty exercising because of
01:34 the shortness of breath that COPD gives them.
01:37 In general, we encourage our patients to stay active.
01:41 And to keep exercising as long as they don't experience a lot
01:44 of discomfort with it.
01:46 If you experience discomfort increasing pain, or
01:51 worsening shortness of breath while you're engaged in exercise, feel free to stop.
01:55 You have to listen to your own body.
01:58 Discussing with your doctor about the signs and
02:01 symptoms of when is too much is also very important.
02:04 If you continue to engage in your normal exercise regimen.
02:08 Walking is something I sometime suggest to my patients on level ground.
02:14 But you need to make sure that you're not overdoing it.
02:16 Pay attention to your own breathing while you walk and
02:20 participate in other exercise is going to be really important.
02:23 I try to remind patients that the more active that they are in
02:25 their regular lives, the better a prognosis they have for their COPD.
02:31 By remaining in tune and in touch and active with their original activities,
02:35 they not only derive the pleasure that they had from them previously.
02:38 But also give them a greater chance of being able to continue to
02:42 perform them even as their disease progresses.
02:45 [MUSIC]
02:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]