Nutrition and COPD

Patients with COPD and a body mass index (BMI) outside the healthy range should be referred to a dietician for advice about nutrition.

Although the evidence for the benefits of nutritional supplements in underweight patients with COPD is limited, consider high-calorie supplements in malnourished patients.

Patients with COPD and coexisting obesity have impaired health-related quality of life, including increased dyspnoea and fatigue. However, overweight people with COPD have a reduced mortality risk (the ‘obesity paradox’), possibly because of decreased static lung volume or increased free fat mass. Weight loss strategies must be tailored to each patient and followed cautiously.