COPD

What you need to know about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a disease that has no cure. The most common cause is smoking, and COPD can lead to fatal diseases such as lung cancer. Long-term smokers are particularly at a high risk, so if you are a smoker, it’s very important that that you watch for the early warning signs of COPD. If caught early, your doctor can assist you in controlling it.

Symptoms

COPD occurs when the respiratory system is damaged. The body creates symptoms as it tries to compensate for the disease, such as:

• Persistent coughing (the most obvious symptom)
• Barrel-shaped chest
• Sputum produced when coughing (can be clear, white or yellow in color, and in severe cases, there may be blood present)
• Shortness of breath
• Wheezing in chest from partially blocked airways
• Rapid weight loss

Most sufferers do not notice the shortness of breath until it has progressed considerably (they tend to assume that their lack of breath is due to lack of exercise). The rapid weight loss occurs because the lungs have to expend more calories to do simple tasks.

COPD Stages

COPD kills countless people in the United States every year. The medicine prescribed for the disease largely depends on which stage the disease is in. In the initial stage of the COPD, any obvious symptoms may not be visible in the patient. If detected in the early stages, COPD can largely be controlled by quitting the smoking habit immediately. This stage is called stage 0, which is also known as the Risk Stage.

In stage 1, the patient may experience severe breathlessness on a regular basis. In stage 2, the performance of the lungs drops down to 40 percent. In stage 3, lung performance drops even further, below an alarming 35 percent. As the intensity of the disease increases, the patient’s quality of life decreases rapidly. This stage is considered to be severe, and in many cases, it can be life threatening. Severe COPD can be treated with one or more of the following: bronchodilators, inhaled glucocorticosteroids and inhaled anticholinergics.