Trial Parameters
Brief Summary
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a disease of the lungs that makes it hard for people to breath. Those with COPD spend considerably more time sitting and lying and less time performing physical activity than healthy individuals. Those who are the most sedentary have a greater risk of heart and blood vessel disease, which may lead to an early death. This project will investigate the effect of sitting still for 3 hours on blood vessel health in individuals with COPD. It will also investigate whether breaking up the amount of time patients sit with regular short bouts of walking (5 minutes each hour) at a comfortable pace chosen by the patient can have a positive effect on maintaining the health of their blood vessels. It is hypothesized that blood vessel health will be worse after 3 hours of sitting compared to when the sitting is broken up by short bouts of walking.
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria: Non-smoking (\>6 months) patients with stable moderate-to-severe COPD (post bronchodilator forced expired volume in 1 sec/forced vital capacity\<0.7 and \<lower limit of normal, 30%\<Forced Expired Volume in 1 sec\<80% predicted and exacerbation free for \>6 weeks) will be recruited for the study. Exclusion Criteria: 1. performing structured exercise training (or pulmonary rehabilitation) 2. have a history of deep vein thrombosis 3. are on anticoagulant medication 4. have advanced cardiac or cerebrovascular disease (i.e. heart failure, previous stroke or myocardial infarction) 5. have diabetes 6. have musculoskeletal contraindications that limit their ability to perform physical activity 7. vascular ultrasound measurements cannot be obtained.