COPD stands for
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease involves permanent
progressive damage to the lung.
Typical symptoms include:
• shortage of breath (dyspnea) during physical exercise.
Depending on the stage of the disease, people with COPD
get out of breath during the simplest of everyday activities
such as climbing the stairs, carrying shopping bags
or just going for a walk.
People with advanced COPD
also have respiratory problems when they are at rest.
Other symptoms are:
• daily, persistent productive cough,
• noisy breathing such as wheezing and rattling
• and more severe symptoms during colds or bouts of flu.
COPD is caused by long-term exposure
of the lungs to pollutants,
particularly tobacco smoke.
Dust or toxic gases are also a risk for miners
or residents of areas with high smog levels, for example.
In rare cases there may also be an inherited risk.
COPD does not occur suddenly but develops slowly
over several years of exposure to pollution.
The pollutants
cause lasting irritation of the airways.
The bronchial tubes narrow
and become clogged with mucus
as it becomes harder to cough up phlegm.
Damage also occurs to the walls of the air sacs (alveoli) in the lung
where gas exchange takes place.
This means the surface area of the lung is reduced
so less oxygen enters the blood.
This is referred to as pulmonary emphysema.
Treatment cannot entirely halt progression of the disease.
The therapeutic goal is therefore to improve quality of life
and alleviate acute symptoms.
Treatment thus consists of bronchodilators
and anti-inflammatory drugs.
• physical activity,
• breathing exercises,
• inhalation
• or changes to diet
can also improve the situation.
Disease Management Programs
provided by health insurance providers
can help patients to mitigate the progression of the disease.
In short:
In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
the airways are narrowed and clogged with mucus
and the air sacs (alveoli) in the lung are damaged.
This means that people
with advanced COPD find it very difficult to breathe
and get out of breath during the simplest of everyday activities.
A persistent, productive cough
is also one of the typical signs of COPD.
The disease takes years to develop
with smoking as the commonest cause.
The progression of the disease cannot be halted
but only alleviated.