COPD Treatment, Causes, Types, Symptoms, Medication And Facts

What is COPD?

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) refers to certain lung disease in which the lung is damaged, making it hard to breathe. It is a long term, chronic condition in which the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs, commonly called the airways get partly obstructed making the passage of air through the lungs during respiration difficult.

Often the term COPD is used to define two chronic conditions – Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema which can either occur separately or together. However, COPD as it commonly occurs has these two illnesses appearing together. Chronic Bronchitis is a condition which has inflammation and swelling of the mucus lining of the trachea. This leads to excessive mucus that blocks the airways and causes cough that persists for several months and even years. The narrowing of the airways also makes many sufferers of the disease feel breathless.

Emphysema occurs when tiny air sacs called alveoli deep in your lungs become enlarged and stretched. This impairs their normal function and ability to inflate and deflate with air, as you breathe. Lungs will therefore not get adequate air which makes one experience breathlessness and difficulty while breathing which are early symptoms of emphysema.

The main characteristic of COPD, airflow limitation is not fully reversible but treatment can arrest further damage and manage the disease.

Common Causes of COPD

The great majority of cases of chronic bronchitis and emphysema are caused by long-term smoking. People in certain professions such as mining and chemical industries have routing occupational exposure to dust, harmful chemicals or fumes. Such occupational hazards are also known to cause COPD because inhaling these irritants affects the mucus lining of the airways causing cough and mucus that lead to either or both Chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

Air pollution by itself is not known to cause COPD in non-smokers but it seems to advance the onset of COPD in smokers. Secondhand smokers are also likely to suffer from COPD after several years of exposure to smoke.

There is a rare type of emphysema referred to as A1AD-related emphysema which is a genetic condition in which a person’s body lacks a protein called alpha1-antitrypsin. This protein normally helps protect the lungs. People with alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency who are smokers are also more susceptible to emphysema.

Major Symptoms of COPD

Sufferers of COPD are known to have varying symptoms but they almost always find that moderate daily activities also start to leave them short of breath. Bouts of bronchitis every few weeks or months, chronic cough and phlegm are some of the symptoms of COPD. In some instances, symptoms of COPD can be markedly similar to that of asthma. Only your doctor can determine if your symptoms are indicative of COPD after advising you breathing tests like spirometry. Your healthcare professional may also require you to take chest X-rays to rule out other pulmonary ailments.

What To Do If Diagnosed With COPD

The single most important step one can take when diagnosed with COPD is to quit smoking immediately if one is a smoker. Your persistent cough will start to relieve slowly, ease your breathlessness and you’ll also succeed in slowing down further lung damage. Your best bet would be following self-management options as advised by your doctor and adherence to prescribed medications.

What you can do to prevent COPD

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a condition of long-lasting obstruction of the airways that occurs with chronic bronchitis, emphysema or both. Inhaled toxins are the single most common cause of COPD. These toxins irritate the airways that go from the throat to the lungs, causing the inflamed mucus lining to leak mucus into the lungs.
Tobacco smoking is the number one risk factor associated with COPD. Since tobacco smoking as an addiction is seen all over the world, the number of people suffering from COPD seems to be an ever-growing number.

As COPD is a progressive disease, one has to understand the risk factors to improve their management of symptoms and halt the rapid progression of the disease. In the US, an estimated 14 million people have been diagnosed with COPD of which 12.5 million people have chronic bronchitis, and 1.7 million people have emphysema. Several millions may be undiagnosed and therefore unaccounted for in terms of numbers.

To understand what one can do to manage and control their risk to COPD, it is helpful to break them down risk posing factors as those that can be controlled, those that can only be partially controlled and risks that cannot be controlled.

Smoking – A major risk factor
In the US, more than 120,000 people die each year from COPD. Between 80 and 90 % of all these COPD deaths are due to smoking. In the UK, COPD clamis 30,000 people every year. Most sufferers of COPD are smokers or smokers who quit the habit. If a person has never smoked, the likelihood of that person developing COPD is very low.

Tobacco smoke contains numerous poisonous chemicals and toxins. The prolonged exposure over several years to tar in cigarette smoke leads to the narrowing of the bronchioles and destruction of the lung’s filtering system. With habitual smoking, toxins and chemicals in tobacco smoke cause a build-up in the lungs over time which may cause permanent damage to lung tissue.

If you are a smoker and diagnosed with COPD giving up smoking can stop the disease from progressing even faster to the final fatal stage. Since there is correlation between the numbers of years one has smoked and the number of cigarettes one smokes on an average and the occurrence of COPD, people who are casual smokers or still not affected with COPD should quit smoking.

Controlling Other Risk Factors of COPD
Apart from tobacco smoke, other harmful substances that get into the lungs through breathing and damage them permanently are toxic chemicals, cotton dust and chemical dust or fumes.

Where smoke, chemical dust or fumes are occupational hazards that you cannot escape from use breathing aids that help filter these elements. Let your work area get as much ventilation and circulation of fresh air as possible.
Limit the time you spend exposed to secondhand smoke and industrial equipment or household appliances that give off emissions that cause respiratory ailments.

Risks Beyond Control
Some individuals are genetically predisposed to COPD due to a rare deficiency called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. This inhibits the production of a vital protein that protects lungs from damage. Other factors that affect lung health, such as asthma and low birth weight, can also hasten the progress of COPD.

Shortness of breath is a characteristic symptom for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). A major cause of breathlessness in COPD is hyperinflation of the lungs due to air trapping, which happens mainly due to airflow limitation. Breathlessness and the inability to engage in normal activity are the most distressing symptoms that COPD patients deal with. Starting early treatment and learning breathing and relaxation techniques are vital to coping with sudden bouts of breathlessness.

Anxiety and COPD

Breathlessness during COPD flare-ups is severe and is a cause for anxiety for COPD patients even when they are not in the middle of such an episode.
Understanding how the body reacts to stress and anxiety is very important. Panic and anxiety make the muscles in the body tighten which makes breathing even harder. This is precisely why patients and their caregivers need to learn to stay calm when they sense the coming of an attack, normally referred to as COPD exacerbation. As patients sense or find themselves in an episode of exacerbation, they panic causing their breathing to quicken. This is counter-productive and puts added stress on the respiratory system making it work harder.

Breathing Techniques

Learning to stay calm during flare-ups and actually slowing down breathing will have a calming effect. One can restore the regular pattern of breathing faster by learning breathing techniques such as pursed lip breathing. Here the patient inhales air through the nose and then gradually lets out the air through pursed lips, while keeping the mouth nearly shut. This forces air to stay longer in the body and opens up airways that much longer. Using this technique at least 10 times when a patient begins to feel breathlessness or stress can slow down breathing. Breathlessness tends to cause stress and stress seems to cause breathlessness too. So practicing pursed lip breathing several times through the day can keep panic away that worsens COPD symptoms.

Visualization Techniques

The power of suggestion is known to be very strong. Thoughts of stress bring on stress. Visualization is a relaxation technique where a person retires to a quiet place, isolates all disturbing sounds and very often darkens the room or lies with eyes closed. The entire body is then relaxed by focusing on each part. Then you lead your mind through peaceful images and enliven the scene in the mind with sounds that accompany the scene in reality. For instance, you think of a stream of water and then the green grass around it, the trees chirping in the trees, the gentle gurgling of water and the sweet smell of soil and water mixing together. Conjuring up such images works for many people and they experience immediate relaxation. Some use classical music, yoga and tai chi to that effect.

Recovering from Flare-ups

Remember to use whatever works for you during and after an episode of breathlessness. It is important to lay still for a minimum of five to ten minutes after a bout to help the body restore normal breathing. Do not be in a rush to get up and start normal activity.

All of these techniques should be used alongside prescribed medications and therapy. They are not a replacement for conventional medication.