What is COPD? Is it manageable and controllable?
Do you think regular being short of breath during light activity is just part of getting older? Do you think cough and cough again just due to sudden changes in weather? ?
These issues can also be signs of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) which is the third leading cause of death worldwide, causing 3.23 million deaths in 2019. Don’t ignore these changes of your body. ?
COPD—Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease—permanently damages the airways and air sacs in the lungs. The air sacs lose elasticity and cannot “bounce back” into shape after each breath inhaled stretches them to fill with air. The airways can also become swollen or thicker than normal and become blocked or obstructed by increased mucus, making it even harder to exhale. [1] It means that with COPD, your lungs can no longer take in all the air you need.
Symptoms of COPD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease appears gradually and worsens over a number of years. People are so used to living with COPD that they are not always aware of their symptoms. They may feel tight in the chest, experience wheezing, or make a whistling or squeaking sound when breathe. They may also feel extremely tired, or fatigued sometimes.
"But many of them don't recognize these symptoms or don't know they may be coming from a disease," says Dr. Prescott Woodruff, a pulmonary specialist at the University of California, San Francisco.
You can help by looking and listening for these telltale symptoms:
Conditions and their relationships of COPD
The two most common conditions of COPD are?emphysema?and?chronic bronchitis.
This lung disease causes destruction of the fragile walls and elastic fibers of the alveoli. Small airways collapse when you exhale, impairing airflow out of your lungs.
In this condition, your bronchial tubes become inflamed and narrowed and your lungs produce more mucus, which can further block the narrowed tubes.
Both of these conditions can exist without airflow limitation when they are not classed as COPD. And the specific relationship between COPD and emphysema and chronic bronchitis is shown in the figure.
Treatments for COPD
COPD is not curable, but the symptoms are treatable and its progression can be delayed.
Here are some effective treatments:
Stopping smoking can keep COPD from getting worse and reducing your ability to breathe.
A number of?medical treatments?are used in the management of stable COPD and exacerbations. These include?bronchodilators,?corticosteroids, and?antibiotics.
Oxygen therapy is first-line treatment for hypoxaemic acute respiratory failure (ARF). High-Flow through Nasal Cannula (HFNC) represents an alternative to conventional oxygen therapy. It provides humidified, titrated oxygen therapy matching or even exceeding the patients' inspiratory demand. [7]
Pulmonary rehabilitation is a program of exercise, disease management, and counseling, coordinated to benefit the individual.
Evidence supports in-hospital use of breathing devices such as bilevel positive airway pressure (BPAP), but some research now supports the benefit of its use at home. A non-invasive ventilation therapy machine with a mask helps to improve breathing and decrease retention of carbon dioxide (hypercapnia) that may lead to acute respiratory failure and hospitalization.
Surgery is an option for some people with some forms of severe emphysema who aren't helped sufficiently by medications alone.
The more you know about COPD, the faster you can respond when you find symptoms, and the sooner you can treat it. Help spread the word about COPD and fill the world with love. Hope you guys can live a healthy life.
References:
1. COPD LMBB: What Can You do About COPD, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, October 2018
2. Gold Report 2021, pp. 20–27, Chapter 2: Diagnosis and initial assessment.
3. https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2020/11/breathe-better-copd, Breathe Better With COPD, News in Health, 2020.11
4. Smoking and your heart. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/smoking-and-your-heart. Accessed June 10, 2019.
5. Herath SC, et al. Prophylactic antibiotic therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2018; doi:10.1002/14651858.CD009764.pub3.
6. Wilson ME, et al. Association of home noninvasive positive pressure ventilation with clinical outcomes in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2020; doi:10.1001/jama.2019.22343.
7. T. Renda, A. Corrado, G. Iskandar, G. Pelaia, K. Abdalla, P. Navalesi, High-flow nasal oxygen therapy in intensive care and anaesthesia, Br J Anaesth, 120 (1) (2018), pp. 18-27
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