Dietary prescription for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) demonstrate classic signs of undernutrition. A low body mass, weight lose, and decrease in lean body mass have been associated with impaired functional status and poor outcome. The nutritional deficiencies accompanying COPD have been refractory to strategies aimed at increasing calorie intake, indicating that the underlying pathophysiology is not a simple nutritional defect amenable to correction. The association of cytokine-induced inflammatory markers in COPD patients suggests that interventions aimed at controlling cytokine production may be required to reverse the cachexia syndrome and improve functional status.