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Chronic Lung Disease
You walk up the stairs and are already out of breath. After a bit of cycling you will feel stuffy. And that annoying cough keeps playing up; you’re not getting rid of it. These are a few typical features of the chronic lung disease COPD.
Do you also suffer from it? That nasty, persistent ‘smoker’s cough’, where you sometimes cough up phlegm? Then you may well have COPD, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. That term actually stands for two lung conditions: chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
One million patients
In short, your lungs and airways no longer work properly in these conditions. That makes you stuffy. Over the years, that tightness gets worse.
If you are a COPD patient, you are certainly not alone. In the Netherlands, an estimated one million people are walking around with this lung disease. However, most of them – between 50 and 70 percent – do not know that, even though it is a serious condition.
COPD is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. In addition, the number of patients is increasing, especially among women. This is because women have started smoking more and more in recent years. And you guessed it: smoking is by far the leading cause of COPD.
What exactly is COPD?
COPD is a chronic narrowing of the airways that restricts breathing and is characterized by symptoms of shortness of breath, coughing and/or phlegm. The airway narrowing is permanent and largely irreversible. COPD includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
Chronic bronchitis is a chronic inflammation of the mucosa due to prolonged exposure to certain irritants. Emphysema involves stretching of the lungs and loss of lung tissue. Because the alveoli become irreparably damaged in the long run, you as a COPD patient will have problems with your oxygen supply and breathing becomes increasingly difficult. Many people do not take the complaints seriously at first. This is because the symptoms develop very gradually. It starts with a harmless-looking smoker’s cough, often containing mucus. Later on you will experience more and more shortness of breath and wheezing. First only during heavy exertion, but later also during your normal daily activities.
Causes
As mentioned, smoking is the main cause of COPD. This is because tobacco smoke irritates the mucous membranes inside the airways and eventually causes irreparable damage. 90 percent of all people with COPD are or have been smokers.
However, smoking is not the only cause. In some patients there is a link with prolonged inhalation of dusty air or toxic substances. For example, at work. Just think of a sawmill or a poultry farm. In some cases it is due to air pollution or there is a question of heredity.
To the doctor
When you have COPD, you cannot get better. The damage to your lungs is permanent. But you can make sure that your complaints do not get worse and that you are bothered as little as possible. That is why it is important that you see your doctor as soon as you recognize symptoms of COPD.
Your GP will first ask all kinds of questions about your complaints. If he suspects that it is indeed COPD, he will then do a lung function test. This is also known as spirometry. You have to exhale as hard and as long as possible into a device. For example, it measures how much air you can blow out in one second. You can then see how well your lungs and airways are still working on the so-called GOLD table (Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease).
Stages of COPD
There are four stages of COPD; from mild to very severe. In stage I on the Gold grading, you are still blowing out 80 percent or more of the average volume that someone with healthy lungs blows out.
In stage IV, that percentage has shrunk to 30 to 50 percent and you suffer from chronic respiratory failure. In that case you will sometimes be referred to the pulmonologist. Your GP can help you with a mild form of COPD.
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