Emphysema

Symptoms and treatment of emphysema

If you believe you have emphysema, you need to get the facts in order to know what you are dealing with. Emphysema can be quite an uncomfortable lung disease, typically caused from smoking cigarettes. The small air sacs and airways in your lungs become damaged, which makes it difficult to breathe, thus shortness of breath is a common symptom. Another symptom is a loss of appetite, which isn’t so much losing your appetite as it is discomfort when eating, so you would just rather avoid it. This typically occurs once the disease has progressed.

Other Causes

Emphysema can also be caused by smoking cigars and pipes, as well as second-hand smoke. Also, low levels of the AAT protein can cause the disease. People with HIV are at a higher risk as well as people exposed to fumes from certain chemicals such as mining products. Reading the facts on emphysema will help you understand the disease. It’s not only caused from smoking, but the statistics are much higher for a smoker.

Progression

This disease progresses slowly and your symptoms will most likely be advanced by the time you discover that you have it. If you are coughing, it is likely due to bronchitis, which is a different type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Inflammation destroys the walls of the air sacs, collapsing the bronchioles and trapping air in the air sacs, which makes it difficult to exhale. These hard facts on emphysema show what a painful disease this is.

A simple cough should never be ignored. If it transforms into a persistent cough with an excessive airway mucus secretion, it’s usually bronchitis. If the process becomes chronic and the cough and sputum persists for a minimum of three or six months during one or two years with very short periods in which the cough disappears, the diagnosis is certain to be bronchitis, a disease of the lungs from the COPD category. In bronchitis, the large and small airways can be obstructed and it becomes very difficult to breathe.