Leonidas Grigorakos^1,2*

¹Faculty of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
²Intensive Care, “KAT” Trauma Hospital of Athens, Kifissia, Greece

*Corresponding Author: Leonidas Grigorakos, Associate Professor, Faculty of Nursing, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.

Received: February 19, 2017; Published: March 21, 2018

Citation: Leonidas Grigorakos. “The Role of Nutrition in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease”. Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 2.4 (2018).

Abstract

  A considerable proportion of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are malnourished. Due to macronutri- ent and micronutrient deficiency, alterations that further increase the severity of COPD may be generated. Thus, achieving an optimal nutritional status arises as an important medical objective which can delay disease’s progression. This brief review provides an overview of the consequences of malnutrition and highlights the role of nutrition in the effective management of patients with COPD. It concludes that nutritional support should be initiated early in the illness and that further studies are required to investigate the optimal nutritional supplements for patients with COPD, according to their disease severity.

Keywords: Respiratory Disease; COPD; Nutritional Support

Copyright: © 2018 Leonidas Grigorakos. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.