| Lung
—COPD and Asthma
What is COPD?
What does the term COPD mean? It stands
for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and refers to a problem
with breathing air out from your lungs. If you have difficulty
breathing "used" air out of your lungs, not enough space is left
for oxygen-rich air to enter your lungs.
Until recently, most people who had COPD were grouped
together and considered to have one disease. We now know
that several different diseases cause this difficulty in releasing
air from the lungs. Asthmatic bronchitis, chronic bronchitis,
and emphysema are three of the major diseases that are grouped
together as COPD.
Asthmatic and Chronic Bronchitis
Both asthmatic and chronic bronchitis occur when
the large airways or bronchi are inflamed and swollen.
Imaging what happens to your skin when you've gotten an insect
bite and it becomes swollen, red, and painful. This same
idea can be applied to the swelling that occurs with bronchitis.
The lining of the air tubes becomes swollen and produces large
amounts of mucus. Because mucus clogs the airways, it complicates
the problem, much like pus infects and irritates a wound and delays
healing.
The muscles that surround the airways may tighten
when they should not, causing bronchospasm. These narrowed
airways prevent all the "used" air from leaving the lungs.
Bronchospasm, inflammation, and swelling all make the space inside
the airways smaller. This reduces the amount of air that can flow
in and out of the lungs.
The first symptom of chronic bronchitis is a persistent
cough that brings up mucus. This is often followed by wheezing,
shortness of breath, and frequent chest infections. The
symptoms of bronchitis can usually be relieved or improved with
treatment.
Emphysema
Emphysema develops when many of the small air sacs
or alveoli in the lungs are destroyed. This reduces
their elasticity and decreases their ability to pass oxygen into
the blood and remove carbon dioxide from the blood.
Shortness of breath is the major symptom of emphysema.
At first, this difficulty in breathing may occur only with heavy
exercise. Later it happens with light exercise and, still
later, even when walking or engaging in other everyday activities.
Many people who have emphysema also have chronic bronchitis.
The mucus produced by these inflamed airways makes breathing even
more difficult.
In most cases, a person's lungs can take a lot of
abuse. It may be 20 or more years before someone who has
emphysema notices a change in his or her health. However,
when emphysema is diagnosed early, more can be done to treat it.
By stopping smoking and using appropriate treatments or medication,
persons with emphysema can generally lead a comfortable life.
What causes COPD?
Asthmatic bronchitis, chronic bronchitis,
and emphysema develop as a result of one or more of these factors:
- cigarette smoking,
- family susceptibility, or
- inhaling large amounts of dust at work
or at home.
Conditions that can make these diseases worse are frequent colds
or infections in the nose, sinus, throat, or chest.
It is also known that emphysema can be hereditary. In some
families this might be due to a lack of normal lung "defenses"
that fight damage within the lung. It may also be because
certain habits are passed along to other family members.
For example, if parents smoke, there is a good chance that their
children will smoke. Since smoking is the main cause of
COPD, persons with family members who smoke are at greater risk
of getting these diseases.
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