Oxygen is vital to everyone, not just people with respiratory problems. Only certain people with COPD will need home oxygen therapy.
*This situation affects some patients with severe COPD – measuring oxygen saturations when you are stable is a good screening test; a specific oxygen assessment is indicated if stable oxygen saturations are below normal.
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- Person 1: A person without COPD has enough oxygen.
- Person 2: COPD means you have to work harder to get oxygen in to your lungs and this makes you feel breathless but levels of oxygen in the blood are not too low.
- Person 3: This person with COPD lacks oxygen in their body so oxygen therapy may help. This situation affects some patients with severe COPD – measuring oxygen saturations when you are stable is a good screening test; a specific oxygen assessment is indicated if stable oxygen saturations are below normal,
If you still feel breathless there may be other causes of breathlessness
For more information on breathlessness please see the section on: What makes you breathless.
