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COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is a disease that affects approximately 2-3 million adult Poles. Do you have coughing fits in the morning? Do you often catch a cold? Can’t catch your breath when you quicken your pace? Perhaps you belong to this group. The research does not take into account those people who suffer from COPD symptoms, but do not cure their disease.
COPD – Characteristics
Inconspicuous and often neglected symptoms may indicate COPD – chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It is a great enemy of our lungs because it is deceptive and causes no symptoms for many years.
A mysterious word in the name of the COPD disease is obstruction. In medicine, it means narrowing the inner diameter (so-called lumen), e.g. of a blood vessel or bronchus. In COPD, obstruction is the narrowing of the airways, which makes it difficult for air to pass through the lungs.
Most people with COPD have difficulty breathing out of their lungs, though also scooping it may be difficult. A person who experiences bronchial obstruction experiences shortness of breath, chest tightness, and often hears his own wheezing.
In Poland, 2-3 million adults suffer from COPD, and 15 every year. dies because of it. This is probably enough to talk about the dangers of COPD more often.
Check it out: Pulmonologist – specialist in lung diseases
The rest of the article under the video.
COPD – Symptoms
There is no single symptom specific to COPD. Usually in the course of COPD there is a morning cough (at night the patient is unlikely to cough), sputum production and increasing shortness of breath. The latter symptom of COPD initially manifests itself only during exercise, and as the disease progresses, it worsens so much that it makes it difficult or impossible to perform even simple activities.
A huge diagnostic problem in COPD is that other diseases can have similar symptomssuch as asthma and cardiovascular disease. This is why COPD is diagnosed late, often at a stage when the patient cannot be helped.
But COPD is not just about breathing problems. The developing disease also contributes to pulmonary hypertension, skeletal muscle weakness, metabolic disorders (e.g. type 2 diabetes), anemia, osteoporosis and general organism exhaustion. A patient who, due to limited lung capacity in COPD, experiences distressing breathlessness with every movement, avoids exercise. He stays at home, isolates himself from the world, and this causes growing anxiety and depression.
Check it out: Lung capacity – why it needs to be tested
COPD and cigarette smoking
About 90 percent. COPD cases are the result of many years of active or passive smoking. 10 percent sick people are people who have worked in places with high air pollution or have genetic lung defects. Home-burning and cooking with biofuels can also be lung-killing.
There are over 4 in cigarette smoke. compounds that go to the lungs. They are so poisonous that they mobilize the lungs to defend themselves immediately, i.e. to produce more mucus.
Some substances in the smoke block the movement of the cilia and destroy them, depriving the lungs of the possibility of self-cleaning. A disease called chronic bronchitis or COPD develops, and an early symptom is coughing.
Toxic substances from the smoke, as well as pollutants in the air, settle in the mucus layer covering the respiratory tract – from the trachea through the bronchi, to the smallest bronchioles with alveoli at the ends. The mucus traps debris, and then millions of microscopic cilia move them rhythmically back to the throat. We remove a lot of them by coughing or grunting.
Tobacco smoke causes a lot of white blood cells, or leukocytes, to accumulate in the lungs. From the blood, they get into the alveoli to neutralize harmful compounds in the smoke. Some of them die and break down in the lung tissue, releasing the so-called elastase.
This powerful digestive enzyme destroys the elastic fibers in the lungs that allow us to breathe and causes the small air sacs in the lungs to burst. And it is in the alveoli that gas exchange takes place, i.e. oxygen penetrates the blood, and carbon dioxide from the blood flows into the alveoli. When there are fewer and fewer bubbles, it is not only more difficult for us to breathe, but also less oxygen reaches all cells of the body.
Check it out: Burning sensation in the chest – heart or lungs?
COPD – risk groups
Once upon a time, COPD was reserved for men. Miners, cement workers, etc. suffered from it. Smoking was also a male habit. But that has changed. Women are catching up with men in these shameful statistics – almost half of the 2 million sick Poles are women. Moreover, Danish and Canadian studies have shown that women who smoke the same number of cigarettes as men are more likely to develop COPD.
COPD – Diagnosis
Anyone concerned about the condition of his lungs, the so-called shortness of breath, he gets tired with even a little effort, he should examine his lungs. The basic test that determines their condition is spirometry, i.e. the measurement of lung capacity. The test allows you to assess whether the lungs are older than our record. Before the measurement, the following data are entered into the computer: gender, age and height, thanks to which it is known what standards are provided for our lungs.
The diagnosis of COPD is quite easy, and the examination itself is very simple – first we exhale, then we draw as much air as possible into the lungs. We take a disposable mouthpiece connected with a spirometer to our mouths. We exhale for 6 seconds and thus the vital capacity of the lungs (VC) is measured, i.e. the largest volume of air that a person can draw into the lungs after the deepest inhalation.
The second lung feature to be tested in spirometry is the expiration rate (FEV1), which is the maximum volume of air that we exhale during the first second of sharply exhaling. The computer calculates the ratio of VC and FEV1 to the standards provided for us.
A healthy person over 25 starts losing about 15 ml of their maximum FEV each year1 (in a 25-year-old man with a height of 175 cm, it is approx. 3 l). On the other hand, a patient with COPD caused by smoking loses about 50 ml of FEV per year1. As a result, at 65, only a third of his lung tissue is working.
Check it out: When is breathlessness a serious illness?
COPD – Treatment
If a study shows that we have COPD and it is not yet advanced, it is usually enough to quit smoking, eat right and start exercising regularly. The lungs damaged by COPD will not heal itself, but the disease will slow down significantly.
Conversely, if COPD is advanced, the chances of recovery are slim. But we can extend our lives. A necessary condition in the treatment of COPD is to quit the addiction and take medications regularly. Usually these are bronchodilators, and therefore allow a greater supply of oxygen to the body, inhaled corticosteroids and other anti-inflammatory drugs. Expectorants are also needed to help remove residual mucus. You can also use the breath trainer – Gima three-chamber respirogram or the breath trainer with the ability to set the resistance Threshold IMT Philips, which facilitate the removal of mucus and support the work of the lungs.
Are you tired of your cough? Have you noticed any disturbing symptoms? Make an appointment with a pulmonologist.
COPD – Prescription Oxygen
When respiratory failure in the course of COPD becomes deeper, it is necessary to administer oxygen. While oxygen does not cure your disease, it relieves you and slows down its progression. In milder cases, oxygen is inhaled through special oxygen tubing attached to the patient’s nostrils.
Oxygen therapy for COPD should be used for at least 15 hours a day, including overnight. Unfortunately, not all patients can benefit from such assistance under the National Health Fund. Anyone who can afford it buys their own oxygen concentrator (cost about PLN 2,5).
But that doesn’t solve all medical problems. First of all, because people who use oxygen therapy on such principles fall out of the care of specialized institutions. The National Health Fund signs contracts for this type of service with people or institutions that do not have adequate experience in this field.
Nobody checks (this is the case, for example, in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship) whether people who provide oxygen treatment at home are certified by the Polish Society of Lung Diseases. This is far-reaching recklessness, because improper oxygen administration can lead to retention, i.e. retention in the body of carbon dioxide, and thus coma and, consequently, death of the patient. So if you need oxygen, look for a licensed facility.
With advanced respiratory failure in the course of COPD, it becomes necessary to support the patient’s breathing. This enables the so-called non-invasive mechanical ventilation (NMV), which is a simple respirator that pumps air into the lungs through a mask worn over the patient’s nose. Unfortunately, this method of treating respiratory failure is almost inaccessible to COPD patients in Poland.
COPD – surgical treatment
In extreme cases of COPD, doctors sometimes choose to undergo surgery. Life-saving therapy is lung transplantation or surgery to remove damaged parts of the lung.
Although it sounds paradoxical (after all, COPD is about reducing the volume of the lungs), cutting out some of the damaged lung tissue changes the position of the diaphragm and ribs, making it easier for the patient to breathe. The patient is less dependent on oxygen therapy, and can also do more without overwhelming breathlessness.
COPD – slowing the development of the disease
To slow down the development of COPD and not to harm yourself, you should:
- Give up smoking and stay away from smokers.
- Take your medications regularly.
- Avoid contaminated air, e.g. coal dust, exhaust fumes, chimney smoke, chemical spray.
- Protect yourself against respiratory tract infections, e.g. stay in large crowds as little as possible during the infection season, get vaccinated against flu every year.
- Move in the fresh air, take a lot of walks doing breathing exercises recommended by your doctor.
- Eat healthy – your diet should be rich in protein, calcium (but not dairy, which increases mucus secretion), potassium and vitamin C. It is also important to drink plenty of still liquids. Salt and products that increase the amount of gas in the intestines (e.g. legumes, cauliflower, onions, cabbage) should be eliminated from the menu.
Where to go for help?
- COPD Patient Relief Society BREATH (www.oddech.org).
- tel.: 600928558
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