Strategies plentiful to treat COPD
Q: I’ve been diagnosed with COPD (I don’t smoke!) and was given a prescription for a bronchodilator and a corticosteroid. Is there anything else I could be doing to help improve my breathing? — Jeremy F., Houston
A: Absolutely. Start with deep breathing exercises (through your nose), along with meditation. That style of deep breathing acts as a mini meditation, plus it gets more oxygen and nitric oxide into your lungs, which improves lung function and helps drain your lymphatic system, clearing toxins from your body and calming your stress response.
Now add in meditation: A recent seven-year follow-up study from the University of California, Davis found that people who meditated regularly developed their ability to sustain attention for longer periods of time than those who didn’t and helped prevent “typical patterns of age-related decline.”
Deep breathing exercises, meditation, tai chi (and yoga) will all improve your health.
Q: I’m getting a knee replacement soon, and
I’m worried about getting hooked on pain meds following the surgery — withdrawal is awful. It’s happened to me before. Are there any new treatments for opioid withdrawal that I should know about? — Cassie F., Hillsdale, Florida
A: Two things you need to do right away are: 1) get in touch with a pain management specialist, especially if you’ve been addicted to opioids before; and 2) ask your orthopedic surgeon about getting regional (in this case, the knee) anesthetics during the operation that let you wake up without (so much) pain. They may make other pain meds unnecessary (or far less necessary) post-op.
Also, there are two newly available medications that can make withdrawal from opioids less grueling.
There’s a recently Fda-approved generic version of the opioid-based (and potentially addictive) buprenorphine-naloxone film. That should make this remedy more widely available and less expensive. There’s also lofexidine, a non-opioid treatment that reduces the release of norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter that is thought to play a role in many of the symptoms of opioid withdrawal. Although it has been around for 20 to 25 years in the U.K., it just received FDA approval. It provides a 14-day treatment. Both meds work about 40 percent of the time, but hopefully you won’t need to try them.
Email questions for Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen to youdocsdaily@sharecare. com.