Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a lung disease that makes it hard to breathe. It is currently the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. with over 12 million sufferers. It most commonly results from smoking over an extended period of time.
There are two different type of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Emphysema is when the air sacs start to collapse and become floppy. In chronic bronchitis, the airways are continually irritated causing lots of coughing and mucus to line the airways, making it even harder to breathe normally.
The symptoms of both types of COPD are very common to one another. A chronic cough, mucus lining the throat, fatigue, multiple respiratory infections, headaches, shortness of breath after little to no exercise, swelling of the ankles and wheezing are the typical symptoms.
It is important for someone diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease to stop smoking immediately to prevent further damage to their lungs. There is no cure to get the lungs to become healthy again but treatments include inhalers and steroids to reduce inflammation and help sufferers of COPD breathe. Lung rehabilitation is important to teach people how to breathe differently with COPD and exercise is also very important to improve health but should be closely monitored.
The only way to slow the disease from developing is to make healthy lifestyle changes and use any treatments given by doctors. Lung transplants are given rarely and only in very severe cases.
A healthy person without COPD can breathe through a straw or walk a half mile to understand how a person with COPD breaths normally.