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COPD ABCs
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Prevention is key when it comes to this disease
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By Gabrielle Lichterman
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MediZine's Healthy Living Third Quarter 2005
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When you think of the deadliest diseases in America today, cancer, heart disease and stroke most likely come to mind. But what about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)? Probably not. Many people are unaware of COPD, yet it’s the fourth leading cause of death among adults in the U.S.—and increasing in frequency so fast that experts believe it will become the third leading cause of death by the year 2020.
COPD is an umbrella term for a group of noncontagious lung diseases that include emphysema and chronic bronchitis or a combination of the two. A slowly progressing illness that destroys the lungs, COPD makes it increasingly difficult to breathe.
COPD does its damage in different ways, depending on which lung disease you develop, says Norman Edelman, M.D., chief medical officer for the American Lung Association: “In COPD patients who have bronchitis, the airways—the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs—get inflamed and become scarred and narrow, making it difficult to breathe in or out.
“In COPD patients with emphysema, the fine air sacs of the lungs, which are normally spongy, lose their elasticity, making it difficult for the lungs to take oxygen out of the air,” Dr. Edelman continues. “As a result, people get exceedingly short of breath and prone to infections. Many die of pneumonia. The inability to get a proper amount of oxygen also puts a burden on their heart, and they wind up with heart failure.”
While some people with COPD may have a genetic disorder or develop the condition after a long period of inhaling lung irritants, such as air pollution, industrial dust, chemical fumes or secondhand smoke, “about eighty-five percent of COPD develops as a direct result of cigarette smoking,” Dr. Edelman says.
That means you can prevent the main cause of this deadly disease simply by not smoking or quitting smoking right now. Even after someone has been diagnosed with COPD, it’s important for them to quit smoking, says Dr. Edelman, since continuing to smoke makes the disease worse.
Despite that fact, more than 36 percent of people with COPD are still lighting up, according to a recent study of 175,000 U.S. adults by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. However, the fault may not lie entirely with patients. The CDC researchers found that nearly 23 percent of the COPD patients studied reported not receiving any smoking cessation advice from a health-care professional in the past year.
While early detection is key, most COPD patients don’t get diagnosed until their 40s or 50s. “That’s because COPD develops slowly, so most people don’t realize they have it while it’s in the early stages,” says François Haas, Ph.D., director of cardiopulmonary rehabilitation research at New York University and author of The Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema Handbook.
So what symptoms should you be on the lookout for? “Chronic cough, the production of thick phlegm and shortness of breath,” Haas says. If you have any of these symptoms, get in to see your doctor. He or she will likely give you a spirometry test—a noninvasive breathing test that measures your lung function and helps determine whether you have COPD.
For now, COPD is incurable, and damage to your airways cannot be repaired or reversed. However, there are still ways to slow the damage and manage the symptoms so you feel better, Dr. Edelman notes. For instance, “there are new medications that can help COPD patients breathe more easily by dilating the airways or decreasing inflammation in the airways.”
There are also lifestyle changes you can make to reduce symptoms, such as increasing physical activity, doing breathing exercises and taking regular breaks to rest, he says. “And, of course, the number one way to stop the acceleration of COPD and prevent it in the first place is to not smoke or to stop smoking right now.”
1. Phone in. Smokers who receive telephone counseling are three times as likely to be abstinent a year after treatment, according to University of Minnesota researchers. Call 800-QUIT-NOW or 800-LUNG-USA. Both the call and the counseling are free!
2. Make it a snap decision. Forget about waiting until after the holidays or after you lose those last 10 pounds to kick the habit. You’re more than twice as likely to successfully quit smoking if something triggers you to do it on the spur of the moment than you are if you plan ahead. That’s what psychologists at University College London who surveyed 1,800 current and former smokers about their quitting techniques found. So if you find yourself feeling a sudden urge to quit—go for it!
Eating a diet that’s rich in omega-3 fatty acids—found in foods such as salmon, tuna, herring, walnuts and flaxseed—has been shown to curb COPD symptoms and reduce flare-ups, according to the results of a two-year study of 64 nonsmoking COPD patients conducted at Kagoshima University Hospital in Japan. How do omega-3 fatty acids work? The researchers found that they significantly help to decrease the lung inflammation associated with COPD.
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