According to another journal article, the apparent reasoning for these results are as follows:
“A healthy diet for patients with COPD can lead to better breathing and possibly facilitate weaning from mechanical ventilation by providing the calories necessary to meet metabolic needs, restore FFM, and reduce hypercapnia. Carbon dioxide is a waste product of metabolism and is normally expelled via the lungs. However, patients with COPD who have limited and obstructed airflow have a compromised ability to take in oxygen and eliminate carbon dioxide. In patients with COPD, this impaired gas exchange increases patients’ ventilatory demands, as the lungs must work harder to clear excess carbon dioxide. In healthy individuals, increased carbon dioxide levels are easily eliminated.”
“The Importance of Proper Nutrition Proper nutrition can help reduce carbon dioxide levels and improve breathing. Specifically, it is important to focus on the percentages of total carbohydrate, fat, and protein that patients consume to see how their diet composition impacts their respiratory quotient (RQ), which is defined as the ratio of carbon dioxide produced to oxygen consumed. To put it simply, following metabolism, carbohydrate, fat, and protein are all converted to carbon dioxide and water in the presence of oxygen. However, the ratio of carbon dioxide produced to oxygen consumed differs per macronutrient; the RQ for carbohydrate is 1, fat is 0.7, and protein is 0.8. From a nutritional standpoint, this means that eating carbohydrates will yield the most carbon dioxide, while eating fats will yield the least carbon dioxide. That said, prescribing a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet would reduce patient RQ levels and carbon dioxide production. In fact, patients who have difficulty increasing ventilation following a carbohydrate load or patients with severe dyspnea or hypercapnia may benefit from a high-fat diet.”
The link for this article will immediately follow.
The article with the CO2 production ratios is here:
https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/td_020909p54.shtml
A ping to each of you.
Bflr
bkmk
bkmk
This is a newer COPD thread which speaks to Vitamin C at least temporarily restoring lung function:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3803267/posts
I notice better night time breathing and sleep when doing LC.
I’ve been off LC and it’s not good. Need to get back on after the holidays.
???