COPD & Emphysema Support Group
COPD is a progressive disease characterized by airflow obstruction or limitation. Emphysema is characterized by loss of elasticity of the lung tissue, destruction of structures supporting the alveoli and of capillaries feeding the alveoli. Both have symptoms that include shortness of breath, among other respiratory troubles. If you are a COPD or Emphysema sufferer, join...
I found Dr. Deane Hillsman's COPD instructions online. (http://knol.google.com/k/deane-hillsman/copd-and-emphysema-self-care-part-1/3a6pnq7nv0reh/8?domain=knol.google.com&locale=en#) If the link doesn't get you there you can do a google search. Dr. Hillsman is a Pulmonary Physician, Sacramento, CA.
He states, I tell my patients "I Can't Help You, but I Can Teach You How to Help Yourself'. He explains that in most diseases we take the medication and we get well. Not so with COPD, medication can HELP, but that's all medication can do, help. If we want to breathe better than we have to do some things to make that happen and no one can do them for us! He also explains that the more inactive we are the worse our breathing gets, the harder it is to breath and the harder it is to do any activity. This creates a vicious downward spiral, more inactive, harder to breath and so on and so on. He talks about patients he's had with Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency and cor pul and they were to start breathing better and become more active once they were able to open up their chests again.
That man has put together a complete 3 part program explaining the whole dynamics of our disease. What is happening in our lungs, what we have done to make things worse (example, froze our chest) and how to correct our breathing to get our lungs to work more efficiently again. He has a video after each section. What he has posted is a book. I've been reading and watching the videos for the last two days and still not done. He has nothing to sell.
Dr. Hillsman explains how to develop your own home rehab (under doctors knowledge of course). He said there is just a little over 130 certified trained people for rehab programs and they are just not available to most. He tell you about someone who has put together a COPD exercise video (this is for sale at www.mindpub.com site for $20).
Dr. Hillsman program can get heavy and I found myself having to go over some parts a couple of times and one part (a breathing belt I don't get at all). Hey, it's free. But I learned a lot of things that I did not know and put his breathing techniques into practice. I'm still not done with it. We have learned a lot of what he talks about here but his program is structured and not piece mealed. It's also good refresher. Because of his video's I was able to get back to a 30 minutes non-stop walk again today, first time in 3 days.
He states, I tell my patients "I Can't Help You, but I Can Teach You How to Help Yourself'. He explains that in most diseases we take the medication and we get well. Not so with COPD, medication can HELP, but that's all medication can do, help. If we want to breathe better than we have to do some things to make that happen and no one can do them for us! He also explains that the more inactive we are the worse our breathing gets, the harder it is to breath and the harder it is to do any activity. This creates a vicious downward spiral, more inactive, harder to breath and so on and so on. He talks about patients he's had with Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency and cor pul and they were to start breathing better and become more active once they were able to open up their chests again.
That man has put together a complete 3 part program explaining the whole dynamics of our disease. What is happening in our lungs, what we have done to make things worse (example, froze our chest) and how to correct our breathing to get our lungs to work more efficiently again. He has a video after each section. What he has posted is a book. I've been reading and watching the videos for the last two days and still not done. He has nothing to sell.
Dr. Hillsman explains how to develop your own home rehab (under doctors knowledge of course). He said there is just a little over 130 certified trained people for rehab programs and they are just not available to most. He tell you about someone who has put together a COPD exercise video (this is for sale at www.mindpub.com site for $20).
Dr. Hillsman program can get heavy and I found myself having to go over some parts a couple of times and one part (a breathing belt I don't get at all). Hey, it's free. But I learned a lot of things that I did not know and put his breathing techniques into practice. I'm still not done with it. We have learned a lot of what he talks about here but his program is structured and not piece mealed. It's also good refresher. Because of his video's I was able to get back to a 30 minutes non-stop walk again today, first time in 3 days.
Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (hereditary Emphesama)which Trenzy was asking about earlier.
Great post - have a good day
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Congratulations on a great find and thanks for sharing.
Cheara.