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    Nutrition and COPD: What You Need to Know (Part 2)

    Posted on: March 30th, 2015 by BrevardBlogger No Comments

    Nutrition and COPD Part 2

    Nutrition and COPD: What You Need to Know (Part 2)

     

    In part one of this two-part blog post, we discussed the importance of good nutritional choices for people living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. Solid dietary habits can help these individuals maintain good energy levels and ideal weights, which can both aid in comfortable, efficient breathing.

    Today in our blog post, Brevard Medical Equipment offers suggestions on foods to include and avoid in your diet, along with some nutritional tips that you might never have heard!

    Tip #1: Control the sodium (salt) in your diet. High sodium intake can cause the body to retain too much water, which often makes breathing more difficult and uncomfortable. Here are some tips for reducing your sodium levels:

    • Remove the salt shaker from your table, and don’t add salt to foods when cooking.
    • Instead, try flavoring foods with herbs, spices, or salt-free seasoning blends.
    • Check food labels! Avoid foods that have more than 300 mg of sodium per serving.
    • Ask your doctor before using salt substitutes. Often, they contain ingredients that can be just as harmful as salt.

     

    Tip #2: Include high-fiber foods in your diet. Fiber helps to move food along the digestive tract and control blood glucose levels, which can both affect your energy level. Some high-fiber ideas:

    • Vegetables and fruits
    • Legumes, which include dried peas, peanuts, alfalfa, and beans
    • Whole-grain foods, such as rolled oats, whole-wheat bread, brown rice pasta, and barley

     

    Tip #3: Avoid overeating, and limit foods that have been linked with gas or bloating. Both conditions can make breathing uncomfortable. Such foods include:

    • Carbonated beverages, such as soda and sparkling water
    • Fried, greasy, or very spicy foods
    • Surprisingly, some produce is on this list, too! Examples are apples, avocados, melons, beans, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, radishes, and soybeans.

     

    Finally, some interesting nutritional tips you might never have heard:

    • Always try to eat while sitting up – this will help take pressure off of your lungs and make meals more comfortable.
    • Try having five to six smaller meals a day, instead of the traditional three larger meals. Smaller meals don’t require your stomach to expand as much, reserving plenty of space for your lungs to expand and contract.
    • Try drinking your beverages after you’re finished eating. Drinking before or during a meal can make you feel full or bloated, which makes breathing uncomfortable.
    • Talk to your doctor before drinking alcohol. In addition to having no nutritional value, alcohol can slow your breathing and make it difficult to cough up mucus when necessary.

     

    These tips are intended to provide information, but they are not meant to take the place of a doctor-supervised eating plan. Please talk with your doctor and/or nutritionist to create food guidelines specific to your condition and situation.

     

    Thanks for letting Brevard Medical Equipment share these tips with you! And, as always, if we can be of any assistance, give our medical equipment experts a call at 321-453-3370. We’d be happy to chat with you.

     

     

    Nutrition and COPD: What You Need to Know (Part 1)

    Posted on: March 25th, 2015 by BrevardBlogger No Comments
    Learn more about the connection between nutrition and living with COPD.

    Learn more about the connection between nutrition and living with COPD.

    Nutrition and COPD: What You Need to Know (Part 1)

     

    Often, when we consider nutritional choices, we weigh outcomes like our overall health, our weight, and our waistline. But did you know that for those living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, nutritional choices can actually affect their breathing efficiency and comfort?

     

    Food fuels our bodies, similarly to how gasoline fuels our cars, and so the food that we choose directly impacts the energy that we have and the way that we feel. In this two-part blog post, Brevard Medical Equipment explores the connection between nutrition and COPD.

     

    Simply put, the food that we eat and the oxygen that we inhale are converted into energy and waste products (such as carbon dioxide) during a process called metabolization. That energy is used for all of our activities – walking, talking, sleeping, and breathing.

     

    For those living with COPD, breathing requires more energy than it does for a person living without the condition. In fact, for those individuals, the muscles used in breathing can require 10 times the number of calories to do their jobs! It seems obvious, then, that for people living with COPD, food choices are incredibly important.

     

    In addition to giving you the energy you need, good food choices can help you maintain a healthy body weight. If you are living with COPD, being overweight can require your heart and lungs to work harder, which, in turn, makes breathing more difficult. In contrast, being underweight can open the door to fatigue, weakness, and lowered immune response. Talk with your doctor to determine your ideal weight and to decide how many calories you should be consuming each day to maintain that weight.

     

    Stayed tuned for part two of our blog post, where we’ll share some specific suggestions for foods to include and avoid in your diet, along with some nutritional tips that you might never have heard! Brevard Medical Equipment cares about your health, and we’re excited to share this information with you. And, as always, if we can be of any assistance, don’t hesitate to give our medical equipment experts a call at 321-453-3370!

     

     

    Some Unique Things to Try for Your New Year’s Resolutions

    Posted on: January 22nd, 2013 by BrevardBlogger 13 Comments

    We’ve all heard the same old suggestions to living healthier and creating New Year’s resolutions: Eat better, exercise more and so on and so forth. The list of overused recommendations seems to continue endlessly from various reliable and unreliable sources. We have some interesting and effective suggestions for making 2013 your best year yet.

    To help yourself improve your health this year, try starting a regular exercise regiment in combination with eating healthier.

    Diet

    Do you remember that thing called the food pyramid that we learned in earlier years? It was recently changed in 2011 to portray a plate and glass with five food groups, but the idea is the same: Keep your food intake healthy and balanced. A very common statement with dieting is that you must eat more fruits and vegetables, cut down on fat, etc. Though true, the focus in that statement is about eating a more balanced diet. It’s not all about the protein and fat. There are other areas that need to be considered such as carbs, sodium, sugars and fiber.

    Additionally, studies have shown that keeping smaller bowls and plates, creates smaller portion sizes. Not only does this save you money, but it also keeps your hunger satisfied, without overeating.

    Exercise

    It is important to keep your muscles and joints fresh and moving. Make sure that you’re doing the right exercise for the right reasons. Exercise isn’t all about losing weight or increasing strength. There are additional benefits such as increased heart health and flow of oxygen to the brain. Other popular benefits are increases in balance and flexibility. Especially when we start getting older, balance allows you to stay on your feet longer and more comfortably while flexibility provides a more free range of motion for day-to-day activities. Do some research into resistance training, an increasingly popular form of exercise perfect for blood flow and strength maintenance. It also doesn’t require much equipment so save some gym membership money!

    Mental Health

    Mental health is commonly overlooked for New Year’s resolutions and personal goals. Recent studies have shown that your goals are affected by your attitude. Keeping a healthy and optimistic mind keeps your internal mental health in top shape. Surrounding yourself with the same kind of people has the same effect. Especially when creating New Year’s resolutions, being around people with the same interests and goals provides motivation, a support group and peer goal maintenance.

    Whatever your New Year’s resolutions, always keep your goals within reach, but not too farfetched. Test out the waters in the beginning and learn what is too easy and what is too hard to find a nice middle ground. Too difficult of goals can create stress, which is not what your mental health needs or deserves.

    Lastly, whether you follow our suggestions or create your own, consistency is essential. Don’t fall off the wagon for a week or two or take a break from your routine. Always keep yourself in check. If you cheat on your goals, you cheat on yourself. From all of us at Brevard Medical Equipment, good luck and enjoy this new year!