H: Can lifestyle changes help in PF?

People living with pulmonary fibrosis can take several positive steps to support their health, including staying as active as they comfortably can, maintaining a healthy weight and following a balanced diet. Gentle daily movement, social activities and even singing can help improve wellbeing and breathing efficiency. Avoiding smoking remains essential, and small, consistent lifestyle habits can make a meaningful difference in managing the condition.

 

🎥 Watch the Video: Can lifestyle changes help pulmonary fibrosis?

 

Professor Porter discusses the following:

• Which lifestyle changes can help in pulmonary fibrosis?
• What can I do to help manage my pulmonary fibrosis?
• How can exercise help pulmonary fibrosis patients?
• Which exercises are helpful in pulmonary fibrosis?
• How do I keep my muscles strong with pulmonary fibrosis?
• Can singing help my breathing?
  • Further reading on the benefits of singing
• Should I stop smoking if I have pulmonary fibrosis?

 

Full Video Transcript

This is a question that all our patients want to know – what can they do to help manage their disease? And I would say there’s a lot you can do as a patient. So, all our patients should be encouraged to exercise. For  some of you, that may seem a bit of a tall order, but even just a short walk around the block, or even if you can’t do that, just a short walk around the room every day, several times a day, just to keep your muscles strong and remind your lungs how to deliver oxygen to muscles when they start working.  For those of you that can manage it, longer walks are fantastic and any other sport that you enjoy, even just getting outside with a friend can be very helpful to lift your mood and help with the symptoms.

We also suggest a healthy diet and for you to maintain a healthy weight. One of the issues we have is that some of the medications for pulmonary fibrosis either cause you to eat more and increase your weight, such as Prednisolone, or you lose your appetite and you reduce your weight, such as Ofev.  So, maintaining a really healthy body weight is very important.

There are other things you can do. Join with groups of friends to do things together – I think company is very important – and singing is something that a lot of our patients have found a lot of improvement from, because it actually helps them regulate their breathing and just breathe a little bit more efficiently.

So, there are plenty of things you can do that that will help. Of course, the key thing I should have mentioned right at the beginning is to stop smoking – but many of our patients have long given up smoking by the time they come to us. But, if you are still smoking, that’s a very big ‘NO’.

 

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[Video published December 2025]