COPD

Are you suffering from frequent shortness of breath and chronic cough? Is COPD affecting your quality of life or your ability to do daily activities? Have you tried various treatments and not had any relief? Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT), the all-natural alternative, may be the answer for you.

Studies have shown:

• OMT improved exercise capacity and reduced residual volume (RV) in severely impaired COPD patients when combined with a pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) program

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), also called chronic obstructive
lung disease, is a term that is used for two closely related diseases of the
respiratory system: chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

Causes

Most patients with COPD have a long history of heavy cigarette smoking. Other risk factors of COPD include exposure to air pollution at work and in the environment as well as second hand smoke (exposure to large amount of smoke exhaled by a smoker).

Symptoms

The most common symptoms seen in COPD include shortness of breath, fatigue, chronic cough with or without mucus, wheezing and recurrent respiratory infections. Initially patients do not know that they are suffering from COPD. As the disease progresses, the cough becomes more frequent and more and more effort is needed to get air into and out of the lungs. In later stages of the disease, the heart may be affected.

Diagnosis

COPD may be diagnosed with the help of a chest X-ray, blood tests to measure the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood (arterial blood gas), and a lung function test (spirometry).

Treatment

There is no cure for COPD. Treatment is generally a conservative approach and aims at relieving symptoms and preventing further progression of the disease. Treatment options include:

• Quitting smoking is vitally important to help prevent further progression of COPD. The lung damage that has already occurred cannot be reversed, however, the disease progression can be slowed by stopping smoking. Counseling and medications may be prescribed to break the addiction and help patient to quit smoking.
• Medications: Your doctor may prescribe bronchodilators to open the narrow airways, anti-inflammatory medications or corticosteroids to lessen the inflammation of the airway walls, and antibiotics to treat or prevent infections
• Osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) can be used as an adjunct therapy for improving symptoms of COPD
• Oxygen may be used during COPD exacerbations and at the later stages of the COPD

For a list of articles supporting OMT, please click here.

• Asthma
• COPD
• Pneumonia