According to the COPD Foundation, this disease affects as many as 24 million Americans, or about 6.3 percent of the population, although only about 11 million have been diagnosed with it. This disease causes serious, chronic disability and leads to early death, especially in women, who are being diagnosed with COPD at faster rates in recent years.
What is COPD?
According to the American Lung Association, COPD is a progressive lung disease that is caused by inflammation and thickening of the airways, along with the destruction of the lung tissues responsible for oxygenating the blood. Between 80 to 90 percent of COPD patients develop the disease as a result of cigarette smoking. The disease may also be caused by environmental pollutants such as workplace irritants like dust and fumes and air pollution.
COPD limits the body’s ability to get oxygen to the body tissues and makes it harder for the body to eliminate the carbon dioxide that builds up in the tissues. As the disease progresses, patients find it difficult to remain active because of difficulty breathing, which causes fatigue with the most basic of daily activities.
Within healthy lungs, bronchial tubes branch into small tubes called bronchioles, which end in small sacs called alveoli. Capillaries line the walls of these small air sacs, taking in oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide through a process called gas exchange. Patients with COPD have lungs that are less able to complete this process for a number of reasons:
- The bronchioles and alveoli lose their elasticity
- The walls of many of the alveoli are destroyed by pollutants, from cigarette smoke to workplace pollutants
- The alveoli become thick or inflamed
- The bronchioles become clogged with mucus, meaning that less air is taken in and expelled
What Are The Signs?
Many patients aren’t diagnosed with COPD until the disease is in its later stages, because they are unfamiliar with, or choose to ignore, the signs and symptoms, or because symptoms don’t become apparent until the disease has progressed. Among the early warning signs of COPD, The American Lung Association outlines that patients may experience:
- Chronic cough
- Shortness of breath while performing daily activities
- Frequent, recurrent respiratory infections
- Cyanosis, or a blue tinge in the lips or fingernails
- Chronic fatigue
- Producing large amounts of mucus
- A wheezing cough
How Is It Diagnosed?
If you begin to experience any of the symptoms of COPD, you should make an appointment with your doctor to discuss them and have yourself evaluated. Your doctor will likely ask you about your lifestyle habits, including smoking, your family history, and will use a stethoscope to check for unusual lung sounds. You may be asked to undergo one of several tests to confirm a diagnosis of COPD.
The most common test ordered by doctors is a lung function test called spirometry, where you will be asked to take in a deep breath, then blow as hard as possible into a tube that’s connected to a spirometer, a machine that measures the volume of air that you exhaled. Chest X-rays and computed tomography (CT) scans are also useful in giving doctors a detailed picture of the lungs, which can help show signs of COPD and rule out other conditions, such as congestive heart failure, which can present similar symptoms.
Some patients may have to undergo another procedure, called an arterial blood gas test, which measures the oxygen levels in the blood based on a sample drawn from an artery, most often in the wrist.
What Is The Prognosis?
COPD is a disease which progresses slowly, but can lead to major disability. Because it restricts your body’s ability to transfer oxygen to the tissues, it can prevent you from performing basic daily responsibilities, including walking, cooking and cleaning, and bathing and caring for oneself.
There is no cure for COPD, and currently, there are no treatments that can reverse the damage that has been done to the tissues in the lungs. However, the National Institutes of Health outlines several health and lifestyle changes that may help ease symptoms and slow the progression of the disease. Among them:
- If you smoke, quit. If you have difficulty doing this on your own, talk to your doctor about cessation options and consider joining a support group.
- Avoid lung irritants. These can include everything from secondhand smoke to paint fumes, dust, and irritants such as bug sprays.
- Follow your doctor’s orders. Take any and all prescription medications on time and don’t skip doses. You should make it a point to get an annual seasonal flu vaccine, as patients with COPD are at a high risk for developing potentially life-threatening complications from seasonal flu.
- Minimize and reorganize. Get help (if possible) minimizing your house to limit the amount of housework you’ll have to do, and perform your activities slowly, taking frequent breaks to avoid overexertion. You may have to rearrange the rooms in your home to minimize trips up and down stairs and limit how far you’ll have to travel around your home to access the things you need most often.
- Exercise! This may seem counterintuitive because your lungs aren’t functioning well, and you’re likely feeling fatigue with even the most basic activities. However, regular exercise that’s started slowly and developed into a routine over time, can actually help you feel better and breathe easier, according to the COPD Foundation.
- Patients with COPD who do less because of their fatigue contribute to the vicious cycle. Because they limit their physical activity, their fitness level goes down, and they are less able to perform over time. Regular exercise can help combat this.
- Be prepared for emergencies. If you develop a sudden, severe shortness of breath, find yourself unable to speak or catch your breath, be prepared to get emergency medical attention by keeping a list of medications that you’re taking, as well as your medical history, handy and ready to provide to emergency medical personnel.