COPD And Headaches

If you have copd, you may find that you have frequent morning headaches. Also it may be accompany with some other symptoms like chest pain, Wheezing, Extreme shortness of breath, Choking upon waking up, Rapid breathing Low oxygen. The main reasons are easy to know, as breathing decreases during sleep at night, which lead to the lack of oxygen and the buildup of CO2.

Among of the reasons, hypoxia is a condition where oxygen intake is too low.This can be addressed by your doctor prescribing oxygen therapy. Headaches caused by hypoxia are usually taken care of when the patient gets oxygen during sleep time.

Also, the sleep apnea will cause headaches in people with COPD.Again, this condition leads to hypoxia and morning headaches. A CPAP machine, which we had a brief talk last week, helps to keep the airways in the body open so that there is air exchange Studies have shown that the CPAP can reduce the chance of death in patients with COPD and sleep apnea. 

After we know the main reason leads to headaches is lack of oxygen, what we need to do is to improve the oxygenation by taking some measures.

The first one we’d like to suggest is quit smoking, smoking does much harm to our lung and decrease the air flow. 

The secondis pay more attention to your diet, just we can talk before, be care of the food with caffiein, also, eat more food which will help to reduce headaches, like brown rice, peas, almonds ect

The thirdone is exercise your lungs, Any exercise that elevates your heart rate and allows you to take in more air will help strengthen your lungs. Healthier lungs will take in more oxygen when you are sleeping, so exercise is a great benefit.

The forthis getting a good pillow. A nice, firm, pillow is needed to use at bedtime so that your head is elevated. This position improves airflow to lungs.

The fifth is taking supplement oxygen during the night. It will help a lot to improve the oxygen in blood.