title: Nutritional supplementation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
abstract: Malnutrition in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with cachexia, sarcopenia, and weight loss, and may result in poorer pulmonary function, decreased exercise capacity, and increased risk of exacerbations. Providing nutritional supplementation is an important therapeutic intervention, particularly for severely ill COPD patients with malnutrition. Higher calorie intake through nutritional supplementation significantly increases body weight and muscle strength, and improves quality of life in malnourished COPD patients. Difficulties may be experienced by these COPD patients, who are struggling to breathe and eliminate CO2 from the lungs, resulting in dyspnea, hypercapnia, hypoxia, and respiratory acidosis, which exacerbates muscle loss through oxidative stress and inflammatory responses. To overcome these problems, nutritional supplements should aim to reduce metabolic CO2 production, lower respiratory quotient, and improve lung function. Several studies have shown that high-fat supplements produce less CO2 and have lower respiratory quotient value than high-carbohydrate supplements. In addition, high-fat supplements may be the most efficient means of providing a low-volume, calorie-dense supplement to COPD patients, and may be most beneficial to patients with prolonged mechanical ventilation where hypercapnia and malnutrition are most pronounced. Further studies are required to investigate the optimal nutritional supplements for COPD patients according to their disease severity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Chiayi Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang-Gung Medical Foundation, Puzi City, Taiwan; Department of Respiratory Therapy, Chang-Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Meng-Jer
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Chiayi Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang-Gung Medical Foundation, Puzi City, Taiwan; Department of Respiratory Therapy, Chiayi Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang-Gung Medical Foundation, Puzi City, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tsung-Ming
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Chiayi Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital, Chang-Gung Medical Foundation, Puzi City, Taiwan; Department of Respiratory Therapy, Chang-Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Clinical Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang-Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan. Electronic address: chestmed@cgmh.org.tw.
authors.forename: Ying-Huang
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Tsai
mesh_terms: D019587:Dietary Supplements; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000628:therapy*; D018529:Nutritional Support / Q000379:methods*; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D015431:Weight Loss
keywords: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; malnutrition; nutritional support; weight loss