The supplements and mountain wisdom that help me manage my COPD

Note: This column describes the author’s own experiences with various supplements. Not everyone will have the same response to treatment. Consult your doctor before starting or stopping a therapy.

Up here in the hills of West Virginia, we’ve always believed in taking care of what you’ve got, because getting more of it isn’t always easy. Doctors are sometimes a long drive away, the weather doesn’t always cooperate, and your body keeps its own schedule regardless of yours. So, when the years start stacking up, and the conditions start multiplying, you learn to be thoughtful about what you put in it.

I take a handful of supplements alongside my prescriptions, and each has a reason.

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What I keep on hand

CoQ10 came first. It’s a compound your body makes naturally to keep your cells energized and protected, but production drops sharply as you age. The supplement is believed to help boost antioxidants and reduce oxidative stress, which would be helpful for me as someone with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Quercetin is one I took up because of my history of smoking and COPD. It’s a natural flavonoid, the same family of compounds that make blueberries and apples worth eating. It has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that may help quiet the kind of immune overreaction that makes spring and fall so miserable for people like me. The science is still developing, but for someone whose airways have had a rough time, anything that might reduce inflammation is worth researching.

NAC, or N-acetylcysteine, is the one my lungs are most grateful for. It helps thin the mucus that builds up with COPD and supports the production of glutathione, the body’s primary antioxidant. A 2026 review of evidence confirmed what many COPD patients have experienced firsthand — that it can help reduce the frequency of those frightening flare-ups. After going through acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS, in 2022, and never quite getting back to where I was before, keeping my lungs as calm and clear as possible is a daily priority.

Iron is on the list because I have iron-deficiency anemia. Iron is essential to making hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body. When those levels run low, fatigue and breathlessness follow — which is the last thing anyone with COPD needs on top of everything else. My supplement helps fill the gap that diet alone hasn’t closed.

There are several forms of anemia, and I have another type in which my body does not absorb enough vitamin B12 and folate from the foods I eat. I take a vitamin B complex supplement. This regimen began when I was a senior in high school.

Magnesium is the one that helps me sleep through the night. Both my Trelegy Ellipta (fluticasone furoate, umeclidinium, and vilanterol) inhaler and my water pill can deplete potassium, and low magnesium makes that problem worse by interfering with how the body holds on to potassium in the first place. The result, without some help, is leg cramps that will wake me right out of a sound sleep. Magnesium supports muscle and nerve function, and while the research on cramps specifically is mixed, for many people, it makes a real difference on those long nights.

Finally, I take a probiotic. I started it after being hospitalized more than once for aspiration pneumonia, a serious lung infection that occurs when bacteria or other pathogens from the mouth or throat are inhaled into the airways. One of those hospitalizations involved a pulmonary candida infection, which is a yeast infection in the lungs, and it was not something I ever want to repeat. Research on probiotics and respiratory infections is still growing, but it suggests probiotics may help reduce harmful colonization in the throat and airways, support immune defense, and restore the microbial balance that antibiotics and illness can disrupt. I haven’t been hospitalized for pneumonia since I started taking a probiotic, and that is reason enough for me to keep going.

A word of warning

Now, a word of caution: What works for one person’s particular combination of conditions and medications may not be right for another’s. Supplements are not without their own interactions and risks. Before you add anything new, have an honest conversation with your doctor and your pharmacist. And take heart — paying this kind of attention to your own health, asking questions, and doing the reading are among the best things you can do for yourself at any age.

The mountains here in West Virginia teach you to be sturdy, and a little stubbornness in the name of your own well-being is never a bad thing.

Note: COPD News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of COPD News Today or its parent company, Bionews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.