Over three years ago in early 2017 my lung function had dropped to 52% and my blood oxygenation to around 90%. I was told emphysema is irreversible and only worsens and when my lung capacity drops to around 48% and my blood oxygenation drops below 88% I'll need permanent supplemental oxygen, and at the rate it had been progressing since initially diagnosed in 2015 that would most likely be in a year or two. I did a lot to try to reverse it and it seems to have worked a bit as my lung function has risen to 61%, my blood oxygenation to 97%, and my dysponea has disappeared. Has anyone else managed to autophage away the systemic inflammation, stimulate their lung adult stem cells to grow new alveoli, and reverse their emphysema? I wasn't going to accept it was irreversible and chucked the prescribed medication, which they admit doesn't really fix it, and replaced it with supplements to treat the root causes. The mix of supplements, breathing exercises, HIIT, and fasting I worked out seems to have started reversing my emphysema and cleared up both my chronic bronchitis and asthma and I was wondering if any other COPD sufferers have had any luck trying to biohack COPD away. I'll share what I have discovered with anyone interested, and am not selling any miracle supplements or any rubbish like that. I was hoping others have managed to also find COPD treatments that actually work.
Reversing COPD: Over three years ago in early... - COPD Friends
Reversing COPD
Sounds interesting. CRONIFOMAD. I have just been told I have severe obstruction COPD. A year ago and not on any meds at all for this at present and I can walk around ok . With no problems on the flat. Hills are a different story. I used to be a driver in my working life and used to sing along to my favourites and I know singing is supposed to be good for lung disease Be interested to hear your thoughts Brian
I have tried singing (I'm pretty good at it)..I sing along to the Eagles, U2, BeeGees....I think it helps!!!
Yes Sweetsusie. It does. The lung foundation on this site They usually have local support groups where you can meet up and have a sing along as well. Not sure if they are meeting at present with the virus. Love all of those artists and Bon jovi. Meatloaf. Elvis to name a few. Keep singing and keep well. Brian
Thanks, Bingo88!
I would love to know what you are doing. I am always trying alternative ways of improving and eventually doing away with my lung issues. Reading your post is definitely encouraging! Thanks !!
My wife has been told she is not in good shape, so please share
Cant she be put forward for a lung transplant?
I have lost both upper lung lobes to lung cancer. I also have emphysema. If I could slow that down a bit, that would be wonderful. So yes, please share.
I am very interested in hearing what you have discovered - thanks in advance
Yes...I would be interested in what you are doing!
I think we would all be interested in reading your information.
Yes please share
I'd be interested in knowing what it is you are doing to improve it!! Thank you
Yes, please share.
So crono, what's the deal. Waiting for your advice,,,,
Would love to hear what you’re doing.
Bump.
I say Croni is BS.
I’d say so too
No, just dealing with a lot including a minor heart attack and then a stent operation due to Homocystinuria Accelerated Atherosclerosis. I just added another 'reply' to my original post.
Stop speaking bullshit to people who are suffering
I am not a clinician, but I do know that your HIIT (high intensity interval training), breathing exercises, and dietary adjustments are all quite helpful in improving your oxygenation and also reducing your SOB (shortness of breath). Your described increase of blood oxygen and your FEV1% rising to 61% can and does occur by the 3 steps you took as described above.
As far as rebuilding alveoli....doesn't happen. Reaearchers are still at the stage of working with mouse lung scaffolding.
COPD is simply not reversible at this time.
Trust science and empirical evidence.
Sensible answer!
Fev1 can and does increase once one stops smoking and starts being more active.I believe mainly sticking by those two rules you can stay at the same level for a long time. No such thing as “regrowing “ alveoli!
Indeed!! In fact, I know some that have been able to reduce or eliminate some of their use of supplemental oxygen simply because they exercised and regained some core strength. Staying active is KEY!
Keep moving. Stay off the cigs. Using muscles create more oxygen. Many learn the hard way and realise if they sit around to much and mope ( as I did at first)things just deteriorate ,
Actually, using muscles and building core strength allows the body to use less oxygen that if not in shape. I use the analogy of a car needing a tune-up. A poorly tuned car needs MORE fuel to go the distance. I tuned car needs and uses LESS fuel to go the same distance. So, if WE are in shape, our muscles (which rely on oxygen for fuel) will have less demand on our lungs and we will not as quickly become SOB (short of breath).
Sorry I meant exercise to supply the muscles with more oxygen and clear out more carbon dioxide😂
Yep!
We have adult stem cells in our lungs that in healthy people continually grow new alveoli, and lung disease begins when this natural process is disrupted. If not for this regenerative ability our lungs would be stuffed in early childhood. When I discovered how this process worked I took certain supplements and did certain techniques to autophage the diseased and senescent cells, to boost my adult stem cell numbers, to promote mitochondrial genesis, and to clean out oxidants from within the mitochondria itself. My emphysema in my lower lobes has partially cleared and my lung function has jumped back up by 10%. You seem dismissive of this approach. Why do you believe alveoli can't be regrown? Of course you need to bring your systemic inflammation right down for the healing to begin, which I check using C-reactive protein levels.
Can you tell what supplements you used?
My lung capacity dropped when I gave the cigs up It has progressed more quicker x
Dear moderator, why in the world is this forum for if not to share experiences, treatments, and hope??!!?!
Don't know much about it but I read somewhere that researchers have used vitamin D3 to repair and/or create new alveoli in mice. Of course it will take 500,000 years of "research" to have any human application.
Sorry for not adding to this post for a while but in addition to COPD I'm dealing with arthrosclerosis due to hyperhomocysteinemia plus chronic fatigue syndrome, and had heart surgery not that long ago.
Anyway, reversing emphysema. First I want to say I have no medical training and there may be mistakes in my research or things I've missed. In early 2017 I was told my lung function was at 52% and within a year or two it would probably drop to 48% and I'd need supplemental oxygen. My SpO2% was hovering around 90 to 92%. I also had severe dysponea, a side effect of emphysema. I was suicidal and didn't want to accept my condition was irreversible and worsening. The research I did led to strategies and supplements that helped me and may help others, but may make some cases worse so its a matter of trying what you believe may help in your own case rather than accepting my word as authoritative in any way.
DYSPONEA:
I looked into Buteyko breathing in early 2017 when trying to find ways to combat dysponea. Wim Hoff, circular breathing and Buteyko all use breathing techniques to alter CO2 retention and blood pH. The body really is amazing in how in a healthy state it self regulates so many complex biochemical reactions and interactions. As your CO2 increases your blood pH decreases and the affinity between oxygen molecules and haemoglobin weakens, allowing more oxygen to be delivered from the blood to the organs. If your CO2 drops too low your blood pH rises and becomes alkaline, which strengthens the bond between oxygen and haemoglobin and can lock the oxygen up in the blood and starve the organs.
Initially I thought I needed to expel as much CO2 as possible and get as much oxygen in as possible as I felt I was suffocating, and ended up with respiratory alkalosis and hypophosphateria. I discovered that the urge to breath isn't linked to oxygen deprivation like I had assumed but is linked to how much CO2 is retained. Its a complex balancing act that the body normally handles automatically.
Anyway, through regulating both how fast and how deep I breath I managed to get rid of the dysponea. You would have to find what breathing rhythm is best for yourself. I managed to habitualise myself into breathing slightly faster than I used to, which maintains my SpO2% higher, with occasional deep breathing to keep my carbon dioxide at the right place. Deep breathjng on its own did boost my blood oxygenation but depleted too much carbon dioxide. I must have done something right as the dysponea has gone, indicating my excessive carbon dioxide retention has lessened, and my blood oxygenation now generally sits at 95 to 97% when three years ago it was at 90 to 92%.
No matter what breathing technique used I would recommend using an oximeter to keep track of both heart rate and blood oxygenation, and using it for biofeedback to try raising and lowering both heart rate and oxygenation through breathing and mind control. While carbon dioxide isn't as easy to measure when doing breathing exercises you can tell through physiological changes like faintness and tingling extremities
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
buteykobreathing.nz/blog/CO...
My next update will be in reducing systemic inflammation and stimulating new alveoli growth.
Can you plz share what you've learned and what supplements you've used to start alveola regrowth? Thank you for sharing this information.
I would love to know how you reversed the progress of copd. I'm on oxygen 24/7 and 28% lung function. I'd welcome any advice. I take a few supplements and not much help.
I am very intrested, Please share what you no and how you did this with me please.
I'd be happy to hear of any supplements would reduce and or reverse my COPD /Emphysema
I really would like all the info you can give me, please. Also can you give more info on the breathing exercises that have worked for you.
The exact same thing happened to me except I was diagnosed with emphysema 15 years ago, and "end stage" for the past 7 years. Exercise and holistic supplements were the answer for me. I've been completely off supplemental 02 for over a year now. My 02 levels hit 100 two days ago after walking. I exercise on a treadmill daily (ok I try to do it daily ) and am very active with gardening, housework and running after 4 dogs. If I stop exercising, I loss the progress I've made.. it's that critical. My 02 can drop to 88 for a few seconds while beginning to exercise but I mostly end up at 98 after 30 minutes of walking. I also killed my breast cancer 6 months ago with with a one hour cryoablation procedure while awake, no pain, no cutting, burning or poisoning. Never give up research and finding solutions that work for you. Would be interesting to compare supplements for those of us that have "reversed" our COPD. (Bingo88 - hills do me in also 
I'm glad to meet someone else who didn't listen to the specialists. I went from a resting O2 of 90% dipping to 86% but now its back to 97- 99%. At times it still drops to 86% and I have to keep up the exercise. HIIT is my alternative to long aerobic exercise, and I do weight training using blood flow reduction bands. My main supplement is 600mg of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) twice a day, which boosts glutathione and lowers systemic inflammation. I also fast often and generally eat a Calorie Reduced Optimal Nutrition diet with just one meal a day and regular intermittent fasting.
Could you please tell me what to use to help my copd.
Sorry for taking a while for my second instalment. Life has been even harder than normal lately, and I'm battling Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHy)-Accelerated Atherosclerosis on top of my COPD.
Our lungs have evolved to rejuvenate as a natural process, and when this natural rejuvenation process is disrupted we get lung disease. We all have adult stem cells in our lungs that turn into new alveoli, and normal healthy lungs are continuously replacing old damaged alveoli with new ones. The alveoli we have grown by 18 can't last our entire life, but are continuously replaced.
When the rejuvenation process is overwhelmed it stops functioning, and inflammation rises as our lungs try to heal but can't. Inflammation is a normal and necessary process in healing (and in muscle growth) but too much inflammation is counter-productive and leads to other conditions such as heart disease. More moderate emphysema sufferers actually die of heart failure rather than lung failure due to the effects of this inflammation.
So to tackle emphysema we need to:
1. Reduce inflammation
2. Stimulate the body's natural rejuvenation processes
In this post I'll talk about inflammation and in the next I'll talk about rejuvenation techniques.
To reduce inflammation I recommend 600mg of N-acetylcysteine twice daily. This is only prescribed to some emphysema sufferers to reduce phlegm, even though it is recommended in the Australian New Zealand COPD-X Guidelines for all emphysema sufferers. It reduces inflammation by providing the body with cysteine, which is then converted to glutathione. N-acetylcysteine boosts your levels of glutathione more effectively than taking glutathione or cysteine due to interactions in the gut. Glutathione is your master antioxidant and is in every cell of the body, and in addition to antioxidant properties itself it let's your body recycle other antioxidants like vitamin A and E more effectively. I take a NOW brand of NAC (N-acetylcysteine) from iHerb that contains 600mg of N-acetylcysteine plus molybdenum and selenium.
I would also look into taking normal levels of 'standard' antioxidants vitamin A and E, but recommend mega-dosing with up to 2g per day of vitamin C powder with hesperidin. This is especially important if inflammation has started to effect the coronary arteries. Some people don't process beta-carotene that effectively and need some liver or paté now, or similar, and then to get retinyl palmitate for their vitamin A. With Vitamin E I use a mixed tocopherol blend. Generally taking antioxidant vitamins A, C and E daily has been found to reduce rather than extend longevity, but that was in healthy subjects and not emphysema sufferers with elevated systemic inflammation.
So the first step is to reduce inflammation as much as possible. 600mg of NAC twice daily has no negative side effects and I believe even healthy people over 50 should be on a gram a day to maintain more youthful glutathione levels.
I'm actually pissed off NAC isn't recommended to all COPD / emphysema sufferers as a matter of course, and as the medical guidelines recommend clinicians do I can only surmise its due to ignorance or as there is no pharmaceutical company pushing GPs and respiratory clinics to do so. NAC is a cheap supplement and not an expensive pharmaceutical so its not in anyone's financial interests to recommend we take it. Unlike the Big Pharma sprays and powders which only treat the symptoms of COPD and have many possible negative side effects NAC actually treats one of the causes of emphysema worsening and only seems to have beneficial side effects.
Next 'reply' I'll discuss how to stimulate adult stem cells to grow new alveoli, something my current respiratory specialist said is impossible.
The lung alveoli turnover time is about 8 days.
book.bionumbers.org/how-qui...
It's easy to reverse COPD conditions without supplements or exercise or changing diets.
COPD and most other chronic diseases are related to chronic inflammation. The first thing to think about in treating/curing COPD is to reduce inflammation.
Conventional wisdom looks for antioxidants (to reduce reactive oxygen species level). However, most antioxidants do not reduce sufficiently lung inflammation. In other words, the effectiveness level of existing antioxidants (supplements or foods) is too low.
By reducing/ eliminating chronic inflammation, new alveoli would quickly start to function. The remaining problem is reduced elasticity of some damaged tissues (or, fibrosis).
It's known for many years that hydrogen gas is capable of reducing both inflammation and fibrosis. Since it's cheap and not patentable this product is not attractive financially.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
Signed up to post this info. Get a good broccolli sprout supplement and pair that with NAC. nih.gov/news-events/nih-res...
Did I miss this (Stimulate the body's natural rejuvenation processes) I am really interested in this step. I know preliminary studies show stem cell has promising results. But looking for anything that might help.
Just read your post Cronifomad and completely agree. I too have been taking NAC for years that has helped keep me off supplemental 02 for almost 2 years now. I also take other supplements that I am 100% positive have helped. My son is in the hospital with pneumonia for 2 weeks now and thankfully I know by experience how to help him recover when he gets home. Everyone Stay Safe please!
nature.com/articles/s41586-...
Lymphotoxin β-receptor (LTβR) signalling promotes lymphoid neogenesis and the development of tertiary lymphoid structures1,2, which are associated with severe chronic inflammatory diseases that span several organ systems3–6. How LTβR signalling drives chronic tissue damage particularly in the lung, the mechanism(s) that regulate this process, and whether LTβR blockade might be of therapeutic value have remained unclear. Here we demonstrate increased expression of LTβR ligands in adaptive and innate immune cells, enhanced non-canonical NF-κB signalling, and enriched LTβR target gene expression in lung epithelial cells from patients with smoking-associated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and from mice chronically exposed to cigarette smoke. Therapeutic inhibition of LTβR signalling in young and aged mice disrupted smoking-related inducible bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue, induced regeneration of lung tissue, and reverted airway fibrosis and systemic muscle wasting. Mechanistically, blockade of LTβR signalling dampened epithelial non-canonical activation of NF-κB, reduced TGFβ signalling in airways, and induced regeneration by preventing epithelial cell death and activating
I would like to learn more about your holistic approach to your emphysema. I’m looking to improve my condition. Thanks!
I'd like to know what info you have please!
Good morning! I appreciate the info you are sharing. A bit off validation to me as I've always felt the alveoli could/ does regenerate . Just how to get it going with our conditions?Took NAC years ago , impatient and stopped. Have ordered the NOW product to get back on it.
I'm and have been @ 31-34% dince diagnosis in 2012. Live off grid in Alaska on an island and have a bit of a laborious life style which is believe has kept me off oxygen 24/7. I do use a concentrator when doing heavy stuff like gardening, hauling supplies etc ( what I refer to as heavy stuff used to be easy stuff in the days before copd! 🤣)
I again appreciate all this info you generously have shared with us.
Wishing you swift recovery from your heart ❤️ issues and will look forward to your future posts.
Hello, Cronifoad -
I’m pleased to hear about your COPD reversal. It gives me hope!
I’ve become discouraged with the approach of the medical community to my emphysema. I’ve been looking all through the internet for real solutions and there are quite a few. I’m interested in knowing what your process was, what supplements you used, exercises, and dietary changes you made. What follow up practices you do for continuing care.
Thanks for sharing your success. I want to join you!
Dland6
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