Dyspnea, or shortness of breath, is a common COPD symptom. You may experience different levels of dyspnea, but you can take steps to make breathing easier and help preserve your lung health.

If you live with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), you may find it more challenging to catch your breath after a walk or physical activity or even when you’re just sitting or relaxing.

This group of lung diseases can leave people breathless, fatigued, and struggling to breathe well. Known by the medical term dyspnea, shortness of breath happens with COPD because your lungs become damaged and don’t work as they’re supposed to.

How severe that shortness of breath is can vary, but you can take steps to prevent it or manage the symptom if it does occur. Your healthcare team can guide you in developing a care plan that helps you manage your COPD overall and work to live with dyspnea and other symptoms.

COPD is a group of lung disorders, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis. They attack your lungs in different ways, but shortness of breath is one of the early and main symptoms that people experience with COPD.

How COPD types affect your breathing

The two main types of COPD are emphysema and bronchitis, affecting how you breathe.

Emphysema: This condition destroys the walls between the air sacs in your lungs. Your lungs also have trouble supplying oxygen to the body’s tissues and getting rid of carbon dioxide. This damage reduces how much air your lungs can hold and pass along. As a result, you may not have the lung capacity to do normal tasks. This will cause you to grow tired and breathless quickly.

Bronchitis: This disease inflames and irritates the lining of your airways, causing it to grow thick and inflexible over time. When your airways can’t properly clear themselves, excess mucus will become a problem. Eventually, your airways will become very rigid and clogged by mucus. This makes breathing difficult. You may find that you’re out of breath much faster than normal. You may also feel tired more easily.

You can learn more here about how COPD affects breathing and which exercises and techniques can help improve it.

There are several ways to measure breathlessness.

Many healthcare professionals use the Modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale (MMRC), which is the most common scale because it’s simple and valid for measuring dyspnea in COPD.

To use the MMRC scale, you choose one of five statements to describe your breathlessness:

  1. “I only get breathless with strenuous exercise.”
  2. “I get short of breath when hurrying on the level or walking up a slight hill.”
  3. “I walk slower than people of the same age on the level because of breathlessness or have to stop for breath when walking at my own pace on the level.”
  4. “I stop for breath after walking about 100 yards or after a few minutes on the level.”
  5. “I am too breathless to leave the house” or “I am breathless when dressing.”

Doctors can use your answer to determine certain treatments and predict outcomes.

They may also use a spirometry test to determine the severity of your breathing challenges.

COPD has no cure.

Medication and treatment may help slow the progression and prevent damage, but it’s not possible to stop COPD. Treatment also can’t reverse the damage the disease causes to your lungs and airways.

With smoking and exposure to poor air quality as two main causes of COPD, taking steps to stop smoking and limit other risk factors can be helpful when it comes to COPD and shortness of breath.

You can also try these strategies to possibly help cope with breathlessness and fatigue.

Plan your physical activity

Certain types of physical activity may leave you breathless when you live with COPD.

You may be avoiding any exercise to not experience breathlessness. However, exercise can help increase your stamina and reduce episodes of breathlessness.

At the same time, it’s important to not overdo it. Work with your healthcare team to find a workout plan that is safe for your fitness level and will not worsen your condition.

You might consider doing these exercises to help manage your COPD, especially if you experience any breathing difficulties.

Practice smart breathing

If you have COPD, your doctors may refer you to a respiratory therapist.

They can teach you to preserve your breath when you’re physically active. They can also teach you exercises to possibly help you quickly regain your breath when you are breathless.

These five breathing exercises could help you manage COPD-related dyspnea.

Quit smoking

Smoking is the leading cause of COPD. If you smoke, quitting can help ease your symptoms of COPD.

Your healthcare team can also help you find a smoking cessation plan that works for you.

Find ways to stop smoking and limit your exposure to secondhand smoke as a key way to help prevent and manage COPD.

Breathe better air

Along with cigarette smoke, other air pollutants can irritate your lungs and leave you breathless. Try to avoid car exhaust, paint fumes, and even cleaning supplies.

These 14 techniques may help you improve indoor air quality, manage COPD symptoms, and address any shortness of breath that you may experience.

Shortness of breath is a common COPD symptom. Known as dyspnea, this breathlessness can range in how severe it feels and affects your life.

Aside from working to prevent COPD or slow how quickly it progresses, you can also take steps to manage this symptom if it does develop. You may try different breathing techniques or how you exercise each day.

Your healthcare team can help guide you on possible treatments and medications and develop a care plan for managing your COPD and other symptoms.

Your personal COPD roadmap

Find out more about COPD wherever you are in your personal journey with the condition, along with helpful tools and stories from others in the COPD community.