Musculoskeletal Disorders in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Figure 5

Several risk factors, such as cigarette smoke, physical inactivity, inflammation and oxidative stress, corticosteroid use, hormonal disturbances, nutritional deficits, and age, lead to the development of skeletal muscle weakness and osteoporosis in healthy individuals, as well as patients with COPD. There are several therapy modalities that can be used to treat or inverse the consequences of these risk factors so that the risk of developing skeletal muscle weakness and osteoporosis can be reduced in patients with COPD.