Exercise may help patients with lung disease

Increased physical activity among patients with a type of lung disease could reduce their risk of anxiety as well as depression, a study has found.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a group of lung diseases that block airflow and make it difficult to breathe.The prevalence of depression and anxiety is approximately 40 per cent in COPD patients while the corresponding figure is less than 10 per cent in



the general population, the study said.

But, the results suggested that in patients with COPD, higher levels of physical activity could lessen the risk of developing anxiety by 11 per cent and that of depression by 15 per cent.

“In COPD patients, those with high physical activity are less likely to develop depression or anxiety over time,” said Milo Puhan from University of Zurich, Switzerland