He did ‘all the wrong things in life’: But after a COPD diagnosis this triathlete is rewriting his destiny
You don’t typically expect to see someone with lung disease competing in triathlons, but Russell Winwood isn’t your standard lung disease patient.
Winwood suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a chronic condition that causes the airways in your lungs to become inflamed and thicken. COPD patients often have symptoms like shortness of breath, a chronic cough, fatigue and wheezing, according to the American Lung Association — hardly symptoms that make it easy to do intense athletic competitions.
Still, Winwood has found a way to make it work. He uses supplemental oxygen when he runs and bikes in order to get his oxygen levels up to where they need to be.
Winwood has a history of health issues. He was diagnosed with asthma when he was 10 years old and, at age 36, he had a stroke. “That was the result of poor lifestyle and that was probably my first wakeup call,” he tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Winwood gave up smoking at that point, but his health problems continued.
“I would just get sick all the time,” he says. Winwood struggled with breathlessness and low energy levels, and eventually saw a doctor who diagnosed him with “very severe” COPD. “At that stage, my lung function was 22 percent,” Winwood says. “My wife and I sat there and thought, ‘This is ridiculous. We can’t just do this. We’ve got years ahead of us. We want to see our kids grow up. We want to see our grandkids.’”
So, he changed his lifestyle, including training for an upcoming Ironman triathlon. “I’m trying to raise $50,000 to go towards research into lung disease,” Winwood says. “I think that will help people see more about what lung disease is. All I’m trying to do is show other patients that if you mend your lifestyle differently you can have a better quality of life.”
Still, his training hasn’t been easy. “To this day I struggle sometimes when I see my friends that I used to train with,” Winwood says. “I can’t train with them anymore because I can’t keep up with them. That’s hard.” However, he says he’s learned that he can feel more “empowered” by his disease. “It’s given me a voice and it gives me the opportunity to help other people. That’s what I want to do,” he says.
Winwood says he’s made mistakes in the past about his health, but he’s hoping to make a change now. “I’ve done all the wrong things in life to get to the point [where] I am and I don’t hide that for one minute,” he says. “Now what I’m trying to do is do all the right things in life. If you look after yourself… things are going to turn around.”
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Dr. Oz on the serious health condition that makes breathing ‘a real challenge’
Why allergy season can be crippling for people with lung issues
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