Testimonials
Rachael is phenomenal!! Her knowledge of breathing technique’s and COPD transcends your experience with her into confidence!! Her technique’s incorporates all facets of breathing and is truly better breathing for life. She is so professional in the relaxing environment that she creates for her patients well-being. She is fun loving, caring and patient. My Father has COPD stage 4. He goes to Rachael once a week and it has changed his life significantly!!! He walks with more confidence, his posture is upright, his breathing techniques has changed dramatically for the better, his Oxygen setting levels on his Oxygen machine for Oxygen usage is lower. He has more energy. He is a different man all thanks to Rachael!! She is your one stop shop to better breathing for life!! I highly recommend Rachael and are truly grateful to her!!! Amé Labuschagne (Grateful daughter) 🙏🏼
Rachael is absolutely brilliant. She is a true professional in her manner, her expertise, and her invaluable advice.
Thank you Rachael for preparing me for the next 20 years of growing old gracefully!
I had Coronavirus and contacted Rachel during my recovery period.I am 78 and felt very weak and vulnerable. Rachel was fantastic. Firstly she was empathetic and understood how fragile I felt. Rachel put me at ease very quickly and understood exactly what I needed to do. She set up a gentle regime which I follow rigorously and feel so much better. The regime increases with intensity as I feel stronger. I am also aware of others who are using Rachel and have total confidence in her ability and understanding. Please contact Rachel for your own recovery sake,she really is good.
Rachel Garrod is very knowledgable and explained breathing techniques/mucus clearing techniques better than anybody has ever explained to me. I would highly recommend.
For the best possible help for COPD breathers, Rachel Garrod is the one to call!
I saw Rachel a week ago for breathing therapy. I have bronchiectasis and asthma and recently had been coughing a lot more. Rachel is kind and professional and I felt she really listens.she spoke with me for a full hour teaching breathing exercises and making suggestions to help me. On Thursday she invited me to one of her breathing workshops. I found it very useful and informative and a very relaxed 2 hours with some lovely people. Thank also to Sally who was able to teach us some yoga breathing and stretching. So I can highly recommend Rachel and Sally and thir workshops and look forward to the next one😊 also the tuna sandwiches were delicious 😋.
Better breathing. Absolutely true. Rachel showed me some easy exercises which worked immediately. A lot of coughing where we aimed for. It’s part of my daily life. Rachel is a very professional and lovely person. Try it. You won’t regret it.
Having suffered post covid difficulty in breathing as well as suffering from asthma, after my sessions with Rachel, my breathing has improved significantly. I have also learned relaxation techniques which have been very useful.
Would highly recommend anyone who has had problems like me to try this.
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Are you fatigued?
If you have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), other respiratory disease, Long COVID or ME/CFM, then you probably also suffer with fatigue. In medicine we describe fatigue as a “sensation of overwhelming tiredness, lack of energy, and feeling of exhaustion that is not relieved by rest and interferes with usual functioning.” Fatigue is a multi-component symptom, one questionnaire, the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20) describes subjective fatigue as encompassing five different components; general fatigue, physical fatigue, reduced activity, reduced motivation and mental fatigue, such as having difficulty concentrating.
Many conditions are accompanied by fatigue but it is particularly profound in respiratory disease. There are different reasons for this, the obvious one being a lack of oxygen to the cells, but we now also know that in COPD, and other conditions, the immune system is chronically elevated which causes the “flight or fight” response to remain permanently raised. The damaged lungs release pro-inflammatory cytokines (such as TNF-alpha and Interleukin-6) into the bloodstream. These inflammatory chemicals can cross the blood-brain barrier where they trigger something known as “sickness behavior." This is a coping mechanism - your brain wants to help you heal and it manifests as a profound lack of motivation.
This is all good if the inflammation is short lived (like having a cold that recovers in a week or so) but if the inflammation is chronic and persistent, as it is in COPD, then the “sickness behaviour” can in fact make us sicker.
What can help treat this fatigue? A review paper published last year in Respiratory Medicine by Zhang and colleagues (2025) looked at 35 studies that considered fatigue in COPD and found four things that were effective in significantly reducing it. Pulmonary rehabilitation, aerobic exercise, progressive muscle relaxation and acupressure (although the confidence of this data was lower than the others).
Exercise and pulmonary rehabilitation work by improving the cardiovascular system, building strength in the peripheral and respiratory muscles and helping improve respiratory patterns. Pulmonary rehabilitation is effective for people with high initial levels of fatigue and lower levels and even appears to improve quality of life most in those with high levels of fatigue (Maarten Van Herck et al, 2019).
In one study from my team, we showed improvements in General Fatigue, Physical Fatigue and Reduced Activity after a seven-week pulmonary rehabilitation programme (Lewko et al, 2013). Whilst there were no changes in the Motivation or Mental Fatigue we would argue that seven weeks may be too short a period to achieve change in these areas of fatigue.
In fact, motivation is an interesting concept as we often “wait for the right motivation” to start a new plan or hobby, but motivation is triggered by activity - once we start doing the activity and see results we are more likely to feel motivated to continue.
If you are fatigued, and waiting for the motivation to get started with an exercise programme you’d be better off starting, and perhaps, when the benefits kick in then so will the motivation to continue. Click on the link below to find out more about my online pulmonary rehabilitation programme.
https://betterbreathingphysio.com/pulmonary-rehab-programme/
References
Lewko A, Bidgood PL, Jewell A, Garrod R. Evaluation of multidimensional COPD-related subjective fatigue following a pulmonary rehabilitation programme. Respir Med. 2014 Jan;108(1):95-102. doi: 10.1016/j.rmed.2013.09.003. Epub 2013 Sep 14. PMID: 24084060. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24084060/
Van Herck M, Antons J, Vercoulen JH, Goërtz YMJ, Ebadi Z, Burtin C, Janssen DJA, Thong MSY, Otker J, Coors A, Sprangers MAG, Muris JWM, Prins JB, Spruit MA, Peters JB. Pulmonary Rehabilitation Reduces Subjective Fatigue in COPD: A Responder Analysis. J Clin Med. 2019 Aug 20;8(8):1264
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6722504/
Xiaona Zhang, Jiali Xue, Yan Chang, Rui Zhang, Jie Zhao, Xindan Li, Hongyan Lu, Xirui Jiang, Fang Yu, Pengfei Yang. Non-pharmacological interventions for fatigue in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and network meta-analysis,
Respiratory Medicine, Volume 248, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2025.108409.
Do you suffer from fatigue?
If you have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), other respiratory disease, Long COVID or ME/CFM, then you probably also suffer with fatigue. In medicine we describe fatigue as a “sensation of overwhelming tiredness, lack of energy, and feeling of exhaustion that is not relieved by rest and interferes with usual functioning.” Fatigue is a multi-component symptom, one questionnaire, the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20) describes subjective fatigue as encompassing five different components; general fatigue, physical fatigue, reduced activity, reduced motivation and mental fatigue, such as having difficulty concentrating.
Many conditions are accompanied by fatigue but it is particularly profound in respiratory disease. There are different reasons for this, the obvious one being a lack of oxygen to the cells, but we now also know that in COPD, and other conditions, the immune system is chronically elevated which causes the “flight or fight” response to remain permanently raised. The damaged lungs release pro-inflammatory cytokines (such as TNF-alpha and Interleukin-6) into the bloodstream. These inflammatory chemicals can cross the blood-brain barrier where they trigger something known as “sickness behavior." This is a coping mechanism - your brain wants to help you heal and it manifests as a profound lack of motivation.
This is all good if the inflammation is short lived (like having a cold that recovers in a week or so) but if the inflammation is chronic and persistent, as it is in COPD, then the “sickness behaviour” can in fact make us sicker.
What can help treat this fatigue? A review paper published last year in Respiratory Medicine by Zhang and colleagues (2025) looked at 35 studies that considered fatigue in COPD and found four things that were effective in significantly reducing it. Pulmonary rehabilitation, aerobic exercise, progressive muscle relaxation and acupressure (although the confidence of this data was lower than the others).
Exercise and pulmonary rehabilitation work by improving the cardiovascular system, building strength in the peripheral and respiratory muscles and helping improve respiratory patterns. Pulmonary rehabilitation is effective for people with high initial levels of fatigue and lower levels and even appears to improve quality of life most in those with high levels of fatigue (Maarten Van Herck et al, 2019).
In one study from my team, we showed improvements in General Fatigue, Physical Fatigue and Reduced Activity after a seven-week pulmonary rehabilitation programme (Lewko et al, 2013). Whilst there were no changes in the Motivation or Mental Fatigue we would argue that seven weeks may be too short a period to achieve change in these areas of fatigue.
In fact, motivation is an interesting concept as we often “wait for the right motivation” to start a new plan or hobby, but motivation is triggered by activity - once we start doing the activity and see results we are more likely to feel motivated to continue.
If you are fatigued, and waiting for the motivation to get started with an exercise programme you’d be better off starting, and perhaps, when the benefits kick in then so will the motivation to continue. Click on the link below to find out more about my online pulmonary rehabilitation programme.
https://betterbreathingphysio.com/pulmonary-rehab-programme/
References
Lewko A, Bidgood PL, Jewell A, Garrod R. Evaluation of multidimensional COPD-related subjective fatigue following a pulmonary rehabilitation programme. Respir Med. 2014 Jan;108(1):95-102. doi: 10.1016/j.rmed.2013.09.003. Epub 2013 Sep 14. PMID: 24084060. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24084060/
Van Herck M, Antons J, Vercoulen JH, Goërtz YMJ, Ebadi Z, Burtin C, Janssen DJA, Thong MSY, Otker J, Coors A, Sprangers MAG, Muris JWM, Prins JB, Spruit MA, Peters JB. Pulmonary Rehabilitation Reduces Subjective Fatigue in COPD: A Responder Analysis. J Clin Med. 2019 Aug 20;8(8):1264
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6722504/
Xiaona Zhang, Jiali Xue, Yan Chang, Rui Zhang, Jie Zhao, Xindan Li, Hongyan Lu, Xirui Jiang, Fang Yu, Pengfei Yang. Non-pharmacological interventions for fatigue in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and network meta-analysis,
Respiratory Medicine, Volume 248, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2025.108409.
Projects
Home Services Stop Smoking Dysfunctional Breathing Prices Rachel's CV Testimonials Projects+34 699 501 190rachelgarrod1@gmail.comLinda Vista Baja, Calle Los Eucaliptos 77, San Pedro, Marbella, Spain 29670
Prices
Explore a range of packages designed to enhance your well-being and support your health goals.Includes: Once a week supervised online rehab session in small groups, recorded and sent via email if unable to attend live.Recorded videos of breathing exercises and...
Dysfunctional Breathing
Discover personalised physiotherapy solutions designed to improve your respiratory health and overall well-being.Breathing is essential of course. But not all breathing is good – sometimes it’s downright dysfunctional! Specifically, dysfunctional breathing is when...
Stop Smoking
Rachel Garrod provides the herbal supplement Cytisine, which has been proven to reduce the urge to smoke and helps you quit for good. Stop smoking Quitting smoking can be hard! However motivational interviewing and goal setting with affirmations have been shown to...
Services
Discover personalised physiotherapy solutions designed to improve your respiratory health and overall well-being.What I doPulmonary RehabilitationBreathing Pattern Re-EducationCOPD & Emphysema / BronchitisAsthmaCystic FibrosisLung CancerChronic Heart...
Home
Discover personalised physiotherapy solutions designed to improve your respiratory health and overall well-being. Respiratory Physiotherapist, Marbella & San Pedro, Spain.Rachel Garrod is a highly experienced physiotherapist specializing in respiratory care. With...
Contact
Linda Vista Baja, Calle Los Eucaliptos 77, San Pedro, Marbella, Spain 29670