Balancing COPD with other chronic conditions

HONEY BROOK, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Many people with COPD have other chronic conditions, too. Treating those multiple conditions can take careful coordination.

In diabetes, a new generation of medications is making a difference.

For Joan Belknap, nothing beats time with the grandchildren. However, this hairdresser really struggled with COPD - chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

"Anything that required exertion, I had a problem with," Joan explains. "Doing hair, you know, I would lose my breath. My customers were really patient."

And the steroid her doctor in Texas prescribed didn't help enough.

Moving to Pennsylvania, Joan's new pulmonologist sent her to the Temple Lung Center for new medications and pulmonary rehab, although she was skeptical the rehab would work.

"I thought - you people are nuts! I can't walk. How do you think I'm going to exercise?" she recalls.

Actually, exercise helps a lot.

Endocrinologist Dr. Kristin Criner says COPD patients like Joan often juggle multiple conditions. One study found that 55% also have Type 2 diabetes.

"Often these patients also have obesity and high cholesterol as well," Dr. Criner says.

She says the COPD-diabetes connection is still being explored, "Through environmental factors, genetic factors and immune factors that occur simultaneously in both the pancreas and the lung."

But doctors already know both are inflammatory responses and the standard advice to eat healthy and exercise can be hard to do.

"The steroids, that makes them hungrier, and they can't exercise because they can't breathe," Dr. Criner says.

Joan agrees. "I could sit down and eat a six-course meal," she says.

"I always tell patients, it's most important to treat your breathing and I can take care of the diabetes," Dr. Criner says.

Joan says the drug Mounjaro and nutrition classes have been invaluable.

"I lost 50 pounds and I lost it the way it was supposed to, 2 pounds a week," she says.

Dr. Criner says the new injectables could help so many diabetics.

"These are really changing the landscape for a lot of diseases," she says.

In fact, some early studies show the drugs might reduce COPD flare-ups. More tests are underway.