COPD or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is a well-known lung disease in which airflow from the lungs is obstructed. In most cases, symptoms include breathing difficulty, severe coughing and wheezing.
The known causes of COPD include long exposure to irritating gases and in most cases, cigarettes’ smoke is the main cause. COPD is considered to be very dangerous as people are at a higher risk of heart diseases, lung cancer and a long list of other chronic diseases.
There are two major reasons that contribute to COPD and they include bronchitis and emphysema. However, the bottom line is that COPD is treatable and with proper care, one can visibly reduce the symptoms and improve quality of life.
COPD Causes
In most of the developed countries, the cause of COPD is found to be cigarette smoke. However, in 3rd world and developing countries, the main cause for COPD becomes fumes from burning fuel for cooking and other relevant conditions.
Effect on the lungs
Let’s take a look at how the breathing process actually works. When we breathe, the air (oxygen) reaches our lungs through bronchi (couple of large tubes). These large tubes are furthered divided into many smaller tubes called bronchioles. The main function of our lungs is to depend on the elasticity of these bronchial tubes so that the air can be forced out of your body. What happens in COPD is that these tubes lose their elasticity to a good extent and some air is still left in the lungs when we exhale.
Other major causes include smoking cigarettes. However, it has been found out that only 20 to 30% percent of the smokers develop COPD and other factors such as genetic susceptibility also play a major role in COPD development.[i] Besides that, exposure to dust and smoke may play a major role to develop COPD and cause breathing problems to any person.
COPD Symptoms
COPD is potentially dangerous in a sense that a patient does not start to show any symptoms until or unless the disease has done much damage to the lungs. If a person has chronic bronchitis, daily cough and mucus production is a known symptom if the coughing stays for three months or longer for 2 at least 2 years.
Another known symptom for COPD is shortness of breath, especially if you are pushing yourself. However, both coughing and shortness of breath are the factors that are usually ignored or confused with some other disease. More often, it is the case that one might think of these symptoms just as an aftermath of getting old. It is recommended to check with your doctor if you have a pattern of coughing and or breath shortness.
COPD Treatment and Diagnosis
In most of the cases, COPD is misdiagnosed or is easy to ignore. For example, smokers who have quit smoking, may be told that they have COPD, while in reality, they have something entirely different. The diagnosis process is usually not that easy. All the doctors may do is take into consideration your signs and symptoms, look into your family history and finally discuss the exposure to the lung irritants. Depending upon your condition, you may be asked to undergo several tests in order to get a full diagnosis report.
These tests may include Chest X-ray to detect possible emphysema. CT scan is a good idea to get a more detailed view of the lungs and to determine if a surgery is needed. In most of the cases, there is no need of laboratory tests to diagnose COPD but may be recommended by the doctor to determine a few things.
The sad news is that there is no known cause of COPD. However, there are a few therapies and treatments that you can undergo to slow down the symptoms and minimize the effect of COPD. The steps and therapies you can take for COPD are meant to improve the overall quality of your life, help you stay active and change your lifestyle to a more active one.
Quit smoking
The first and foremost step in doing something about COPD is to stop smoking completely. This is because it is the only known source to keep COPD from growing and doing further damage to the lungs. Quit smoking before COPD evolves and make it even more difficult for you to breathe. However, leaving smoking is not as easy as it looks! This could be more difficult than you think if you have previously tried to stop and failed.
To tackle this, it could be a good idea to get in touch with your doctor. Ask them if it would be a good idea to get nicotine patch or to take any medicines. For some people, it would be a good idea to join a support group. These groups is comprised of people who are also trying to quit smoking.
Medications
There is a long list of medications that the doctors may prescribe in order to cure COPD. The first in line is Bronchodilators which is just like an inhaler and helps to relax your muscles around airways. As a result, you may find relief in coughing and breathing. Upon consultation with your doctor, you may use a short-acting Bronchodilator for activities such as workout and brisk walk etc. For everyday use, you may stick to long-acting Bronchodilators. [ii]
Steroids
Corticosteroid medications are something that the doctors may prescribe as they decrease inflammation and provide relief. However, they should not be taken on your own as they may cause oral infections and bruises as side effects. Doctors usually recommend these steroids to people with most often attacks of COPD. Budesonide is a steroid that helps in providing relief to a COPD patient.
Considering the lifestyle changes and a life of medications that you can take with a doctor’s prescription, it should be easy to diagnose and control COPD. Even patients with advanced COPD cases succeed in turning their life around by beating its symptoms.
