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Pulmonary rehabilitation
Your treatment team may prescribe pulmonary rehabilitation in addition to other types of care
Pulmonary rehabilitation is a combined program of education and monitored exercise designed for people with lung diseases. This exercise can help improve your symptoms and overall wellbeing.1
Pulmonary rehabilitation can have many benefits, such as helping you manage your breathing, giving you more energy and improving your quality of life.2–4
A pulmonary rehabilitation program uses a combination of exercising, teaching and counseling, including:2,3
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Physical conditioning
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Exercise training and breathing exercises
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Anxiety, stress, and depression management
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Advice and support to improve your diet
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Education about pulmonary fibrosis
A team of specialists, such as doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, social workers and dieticians, generally run pulmonary rehabilitation programs. You can receive pulmonary rehabilitation in your home, community, or local hospital.
The goal of pulmonary rehabilitation is to provide you with education, skills, and tools to help improve the management of your pulmonary fibrosis and increase your participation in social and physical activities.5
There are three main benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation for patients with pulmonary fibrosi
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Decreases the symptoms of pulmonary fibrosis (such as breathlessness and tiredness)
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Help patients to function better in daily living
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Reduce anxiety and depression
What makes up pulmonary rehabilitation?
Exercise training: With supervised training, you can learn to do tasks in a more efficient way. The result is that you may find you have more energy to do daily tasks and that your breathlessness becomes more manageable.
Breathing exercises: Simple exercises can be used to control your breathing and reduce breathlessness.
Education about pulmonary fibrosis: Information on pulmonary fibrosis, including how it will affect your life, dealing with symptoms, and understanding the medications you are taking.
Other components of a program may include mental wellbeing support, nutrition classes, relaxation, and help you quit smoking.
When you start pulmonary rehabilitation, your treatment team will create an education and exercise plan designed just for you.1
It is important to continue exercising even after completing your pulmonary rehabilitation program. Many courses offer a long-term exercise plan to help maintain the benefits you have gained.
Some pulmonary rehabilitation courses take place in a group in hospital, but often they take place in community halls, leisure centres or health centres. Most people enjoy these programs, gaining confidence and connecting with other people sharing similar experiences.
Key takeaways
Pulmonary rehabilitation helps people with lung diseases to help improve their symptoms and overall wellbeing
It involves exercise and education classes to help manage your symptoms
Continuing the exercises even after the course has finished can help give ongoing benefits
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NHLBI, NIH. What Is Pulmonary Rehabilitation? Available at: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/pulreh/ [Accessed March 2022].
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Raghu G, Collard HR, Egan JJ, et al. An official ATS/ERS/JRS/ALAT Clinical Practice Guideline: Treatment of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2011;183(6):788–824.
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Cottin V, Crestani B, Valeyre D, et al. Diagnosis and management of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis: French practical guidelines. Eur Respir Rev. 2014;23(132):193–214.
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Dowman L, Hill CJ, Holland AE. Pulmonary rehabilitation for interstitial lung disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2014;10:CD006322.
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Kenn K, Gloeckl R, Behr J. Pulmonary rehabilitation in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis – a review. Respiration. 2013;86:89–99.
Also in this section
Oxygen therapy
Lung transplantation
“Amongst the important strategies for maintaining patients’ quality of life, there is rehabilitation. Even if it has no direct effect on pulmonary fibrosis, it will have an effect on how patients feel about their breathlessness and will help them continue to do everyday exercises, and therefore help manage their quality of life”
