Even a Simple Walking Program Can Improve Physical Conditioning for COPD Patients!

This month Portuguese researchers published the results of a study indicating that a pulmonary rehabilitation program built solely around a walking program (versus more intensive cardiovascular/strength training exercise typically found in rehab programs) produced improvements in several key measures of physical conditioning.

    For those who suffer from chronic shortness of breath and are not eligible for an outpatient pulmonary rehab program here in the United States and are reluctant to begin a cardiovascular/strength program on their own, this study highlights that conditioning benefits can be achieved by simply starting and maintaining a regular walking program.

The study, published in the Jornal brasileiro de pneumologia, took 16 COPD patients through a 7 week exercise program consisting of three 20 minute walking sessions each week (Ferreira SA, et al. Pulmonary Rehabilitation in COPD: from exercise training to "real life". J Bras Pneumol. 2009; (35) 11:1112-1115.) For those of you who are interested, the full text of the article can be viewed by clicking here.

Prior to the first walking session, researchers had each patient undergo a two separate 6 minute walk tests (known in pulmonary medicine circles as the 6MWT). Researchers also measured peak heart rate (pulse) during and after exercise, perceived breathlessness, aerterial blood gasses and patient self-reported changes in quality of life. The patients were all male with a mean age of 68. All had either Stage III or Stage IV COPD (moderate to severe, respectively), all were former smokers, and none were on home oxygen therapy.

A 6MWT is simply a mechanism used by physicians to establish a baseline and measure progress of a person's physical conditioning. During a 6MWT, patients simply walk as far as they can in a six minute period. Researchers measure the distance walked (known as the 6MWD) in either meters or yards.    

In this particular study, after the 7 week walking program was completed, researchers had the study subjects perform two additional 6WMT. The results? The mean distance walked by the 16 subjects rose on average 6-8%.

You might say that's not much of an improvement but consider the program only involved walking at a comfortable pace for 20 minutes 3 times a week for 7 weeks. Consider further that 31% of the patients reported an obvious improvement in their health (rising from moderate health status to good or very good health status). Further still, perceived breathlessness fell by an average of 11%. Heart rates measured during and after exercise also fell from the beginning of the study compared to the end.

The researchers concluded, "The exercise training protocol with walking resulted in improvement in quality of life and exercise capacity."

So, if nothing, get up and get walking! Your heart and lungs will thank you – even if you have COPD, even if you are an active or former smoker – exercise is powerful medicine!