Healthy eating ‘creates lung health benefits for COPD patients’

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) sufferers can improve their lung health with better dietary habits, new research has revealed.

Carried out by researchers in the US and Europe, the study assessed COPD patients' lung function within 24 hours of eating healthy food such as grapefruit, bananas, fish and cheese.

It was found that people who consumed fish, fruit and dairy products of this kind showed improvements in lung function, less emphysema, improved six-minute walk scores and a decrease in certain inflammatory markers associated with poor lung function, including white blood cells and C-reactive protein.

These findings may form the basis of future studies into the role of diet as a possible modifiable risk factor in COPD.

Lead author Dr Corinne Hanson said: "This study demonstrates the nearly immediate effects a healthy diet can have on lung function in in a large and well-characterised population of COPD patients."

NHS figures show there are more than three million people living with COPD in the UK, of which only about 900,000 have been diagnosed.