Summer Triggers COPD (Pt.2)

Summer triggers COPD with heat and humidity.  Summer is heating up.  So, Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists (FLASS) are issuing a Summer COPD alert: Summer heat can trigger your COPD symptoms.

Just as the Florida summer continues to gain intensity, our FLASS patients are noticing more intensity in their symptoms.  Likewise, just as heat triggers COPD, so does humidity.  The combination of heat, humidity and a mild to moderate, COPD diagnosis has brought some of our FLASS patients into previously unchartered territory.

Welcome to Part II of our Summer Triggers COPD Guide

With the heat-wave, some COPD patients are facing:

• New and exaggerated symptoms, like extreme shortness of breath.
• Some COPD patients are dealing with unwelcome challenges, like curtailing their normal work hours. They find they need more time to gain sufficient rest, especially after outdoor activity.
• And certain patients are coping with exacerbations. We hope these more severe symptoms do not lead them into a dreaded summer hospitalization.In fact, the pulmonologists and health care professionals at FLASS say, “Let’s try to stop this before it even starts.”  If you now know heat triggers your summer COPD symptoms, we must find a way to help you “cool” it.
  

  A Little Backstory Review

As we stated in our previous blog, this blog and the next two complete our 4-part Guide for Summer COPD 2019.  Although COPD is incurable for now, research is ongoing. Scientists both in research and clinical care are helping patients hone techniques for living longer and better with COPD.

We Hope Summer Triggers Your Personal Efforts to Take Care of Yourself

In fact, we must assure you that you can live many enjoyable years after this diagnosis. Your quality of life will depend on two valuable points:

1. Your commitment towards proper self-care.
2. The careful supervision you or your caregiver takes with your medications.

We briefly outlined COPD definitions and the 4 Stages of COPD in our last blog, part 1, by getting back to the basics. In this, part II of the FLASS Summer COPD Guide, we intend to “demystify care.”

And we will bring you a more in-depth discussion of COPD care in the first two of the four stages of COPD. As we discussed in the last blog, if you’re in stage one, your airflow is only somewhat limited. Occasionally, you are probably feeling shortness of breath.

The Secret Behind Summer COPD Stress:  Temperature 

• Heat, Humidity and activity trigger breathlessness in COPD patients during our summer season, even at Stage I. (In later stages of  COPD, patients notice this symptom more frequently.)
• In Stage 1 and II, you’ll have periods where you won’t notice the difficulty so much or so often. Summer heat triggers more difficulty in catching and keeping your breath. (In fact, the very mildness of your symptoms in Stage I and II explains why so many go undiagnosed in Stage I or 2 of COPD.)

Understanding Homeostasis and COPD

First of all we want you to understand that homeostasis is the state in which the body is in stable equilibrium, maintained by physiological processes.

The experts state, “Homeostasis is any self-regulating process by which an organism tends to maintain stability while adjusting to conditions that are best for its survival.”

To put the lesson of homeostasis simply, when “homeostasis is successful, life continues…” When it is unsuccessful, distress, disaster or even death can occur.

1. Even healthy bodies require adequate oxygen for proper functioning and extra energy.  When COPD is present, however, energy is expended– just to breathe. So there really isn’t enough “leftover” to maintain homeostasis.  Add to this fact of the disease, the stress of hot summer air on inflamed and irritated airways.  By the way, you know, even normal lungs do not like overly heated Florida air.   
2. Thus, in homeostasis, your hard-working lungs labor constantly to achieve this equilibrium.  Meanwhile, the heart, kidneys, skin, nervous, endocrine, immune and all body systems are also working to achieve and maintain homeostasis. So with all this intense work going on to maintain well-being in the body, what could be the big secret summer trigger for your COPD?

The answer is “stress,” and some of that can be alleviated simply by changing just one summertime variable: Temperature!

Stage One:  Life with COPD

Dyspnea is the medical term for that “breathlessness feeling.” That term is frequently utilized in all discussion of all the stages of COPD.

• There may be mucus accumulation occasionally along with the dyspnea. However, at Stage 1, you probably will need very little medication.
• Should the need arise, then your healthcare provider will probably prescribe a very short acting marked bronchodilator. A familiar example is Albuterol. Most patients with moderate Stage 1 COPD sufferers will find it sufficient to relieve coughing and dyspnea of Stage 1.

Dypsnia and Bronchospasm:  The Viscious Cycle

Thus at extreme temperatures, the COPD patient experiences bronchospasms.  Bronchospasm decreases the size of the airways. Then the patient finds it even harder to breathe in or out.

The terrible cycle begins because bronchospasm leads to more dyspnea. Then, just when we think the triggers cannot get any worse, imagine the hot air is full of air pollutants. Therein resides another factor with which the lungs to have to deal!   It’s easy at this point to see a viscous cycle that needs changing.

Noticing Life Changes in Stage 2 of COPD

In the second stage of COPD, more of the same is a key phrase.  More dyspnea, more bronchospasms, more fatigue.

The reality of the actual COPD diagnosis will no doubt set in at Stage 2. You see, it is at Stage 2 that most patients notice their symptoms begin to interfere with normal life activities.

Summer Triggers More Shortness of Breath in Stage 2

In fact, most people do not even notice they are making  subtle changes in their life-style due to their  shortness of breath at this stage.

• You will begin to realize you need more medical help coping with this condition.
• If you were taking Albuterol in Stage 1, now you will need a longer acting bronchodilator such as salmeterol.

As Stage 2 begins to progress into 3 and 4, your medications and treatments will begin to change over time. Your pulmonologist or healthcare provider will determine your COPD FLASS Action plan. And of course we will consider your overall health profile as we plan treatment and medication for your individual needs.

Prevention is Good Medicine:  Handy Hints to Avoid Summer Triggers:  

As taught in nursing schools many moons ago, “ an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.  Some safeguards are easy to institute and change in your daily life now. Be aware that they might  become harder with the intensifying progression of COPD.

We cannot control the winter or summer temperatures but we can control our environment by:

• drinking plenty of fluids and increasing the fluid intake even when not thirsty or more active.
• Wearing appropriate clothing and sunscreen even if not planning to be in direct sun…
• Planning activities carefully during early morning hours or after the sun goes down…
• Parking in shady areas staying cool when at all possible and using air-conditioning…
• Using the buddy system and having someone call at least twice a day whether it’s hot or cold outside,,,
• Avoiding excessive activity strenuous or excessive…
• Taking your medications as directed…

As previously stated in this Summer 2019 series, FLASS  knows that patients tend to perform better when they love what they’re doing.  That is why Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists strive at all levels to improve the quality of your life.

Avoid Those Summer Triggers with Your COPD Action Plan

It’s also why we say that when you are here, you are family.  Keep in constant communication with your FLASS team through our connect system, and we will help you get through the summer triggers.

By the way, Sam the Yard-Man is learning to delegate some of his outdoor duties during the hottest days to his team. In fact, he has moved into an assistant manager situation three days a week, in a nice air-conditioned office.  He will grin and tell you how much he anticipates the arrival of winter.