Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a long-term condition of the lungs where the flow of air to the lungs is restricted (obstructed). Symptoms include cough and breathlessness. The condition is most often caused by smoking and the most important treatment is to stop smoking. Inhalers are commonly used to ease symptoms. Other treatments such as steroids, antibiotics, oxygen, and mucus-thinning (mucolytic) medicines are sometimes prescribed in more severe cases, or during a flare-up (exacerbation) of symptoms.

What causes COPD?
Smoking is by far the biggest risk factor for COPD. The lining of the airways becomes inflamed and damaged by smoking. Cigarette smoking is the biggest risk factor.

Air pollution may cause some cases of COPD, or make the disease worse. Air pollution can be indoor air pollution or outdoor air pollution. Indoor air pollution seems to be involved in more cases of COPD than outdoor air pollution. Indoor air pollution includes fumes from indoor fires or stoves, and dust, fumes or chemicals present in some workplaces. The combined effect of exposure at work to air pollutants and smoking increases the chances of developing COPD.

A small number of people have a hereditary (genetic) risk of COPD due to very rare protein deficiencies that can lead to lung, liver and blood disorders. (The condition is called alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency. Less than 1 in 100 cases of COPD are due to this.


COPD symptoms-


Cough is usually the first symptom to develop. It is produced with phlegm (sputum). It tends to come and go at first, and then gradually becomes more persistent (chronic). You may think of your cough as a 'smokers cough' in the early stages of the disease. It is when the breathlessness begins that people often become concerned.
Breathlessness (shortness of breath) and wheeze may occur only when you exert yourself at first. For example, when you climb the stairs. These symptoms tend to become gradually worse over the years if you continue to smoke. Difficulty with breathing may eventually become quite distressing.

Sputum - the damaged airways make a lot more mucus than normal. This forms sputum. You tend to cough up a lot of sputum each day.

Chest infections are more common if you have COPD. A sudden worsening of symptoms (such as when you have an infection) is called an exacerbation. Wheezing with cough and breathlessness may become worse than usual if you have a chest infection and you may cough more sputum. Sputum usually turns yellow or green during a chest infection. Chest infections can be caused by germs called bacteria or viruses. 
Other symptoms of COPD can be vaguer. Examples are weight loss, tiredness and ankle swelling.

What is the difference between COPD and asthma?


COPD and asthma cause similar symptoms - in particular difficulty breathing (breathlessness). However, they are completely different diseases. Briefly:

In COPD there is permanent damage to the airways. The narrowed airways are fixed, and so symptoms are persistent (chronic). Treatment to open up the airways is therefore limited.

In asthma, there is inflammation in the airways which makes the muscles in the airways narrow (constrict). This is temporary so the narrowing comes and goes. So, the symptoms tend to come and go, and vary in severity from time to time. Treatment to reduce inflammation and to open up the airways usually works well.

COPD is more likely than asthma to cause an ongoing cough with phlegm (sputum).

Waking at night with breathlessness or wheeze is common in asthma and uncommon in COPD.

COPD is rare before the age of 35, whilst asthma is common in under-35s.

There is more likely to be a history of asthma, allergies, eczema and hay fever (so-called atopy) in people with asthma.

Do I need any tests?

The most common test used in helping to diagnose the condition is called spirometry. This is a breathing test. You will be asked to breathe or blow into a small machine called a spirometer which will measure how well your lungs are working. This test can help make a diagnosis of COPD.


A chest X-Ray show signs of COPD and can be used to help exclude other serious conditions (including lung cancer). Occasionally, a special CT scan of the chest - high-resolution CT - is needed. A blood test to make sure you are not anemic is often helpful.

A pulse oximeter is a device which can be clipped on to your finger. It measures your heart rate (pulse) and the amount of oxygen in your circulation (oxygen saturation). Lower levels than normal tend to be found in people who have COPD, especially if you have a flare-up (exacerbation) of your symptoms.

COPD treatment-

Smoking cessation is the most important step towards treatment.
Inhalers

The main treatments are medications given in devices called inhalers. The medicine within the inhaler is in a powdered form which you breathe in (inhale). The medicines in standard inhalers reach the lungs better if used with a spacer device. Inhalers include one, two or even three types of medicines. They may include:


A bronchodilator agent - this is a medicine which opens up (dilates) the airways. Some work quickly but don't last very long; others are longer-acting.
A steroid - these reduce the inflammation in the airway, thereby reducing the swelling. This, in turn, adds to the space available for air to pass.
A medicine which helps to dry up the secretions produced by the airways.
Home oxygen
This may help some people with severe symptoms or end-stage COPD. It does not help in all cases. Unfortunately, just because you feel breathless with COPD it does not mean that oxygen will help you. Great care has to be taken with oxygen therapy. Too much oxygen can actually be harmful if you have COPD.
Regular follow up in OPD is an essential part of treatment success.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease - Know More About It!

One of the best and easiest ways to manage the symptoms of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD is through a healthy and nutrient dense diet. This would not only help you to not only keep the severity of the symptoms in check but also to maintain a healthy weight.

Tips to keep in mind when choosing a diet

Managing Weight: It is essential for patients with COPD to manage their weight. The symptom of breathlessness could be more severe if you are overweight. You might feel fatigued and tired if you are underweight. Therefore it is crucial to monitor your calorie intake and therefore also your weight as recommended by the American Lung Association.
Balanced Diet: It is essential for patients with COPD to eat a healthy, nutritious and balanced diet. One that is varied and rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean meats or proteins according to a study published in the August 2014 issue of the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. A well-balanced diet will ensure that you get all the necessary vitamins such as C, E, and D that are necessary to help you cope with this condition.
Protein: Lean proteins such as eggs, meat, poultry, nuts, beans, and fish especially oily fish such as mackerel and sardines, should be incorporated into your meal plan. These proteins are necessary for patients with COPD especially if they are managing their condition through exercise.
Carbohydrates and food high in fibre such as lentils, oats, and beans will improve the functioning of the digestive system.
Potassium: Fruits and vegetables such as beets, potatoes, bananas are especially beneficial in preventing water retention in patients
Foods To Limit Or Avoid
People react differently to foods, there are some foods that patients with COPD should limit or avoid but if they do not seem to have an impact on your symptoms you can make them a part of your meal plan.

Limiting salt intake irrespective of whether you are a COPD patient or not is always a good step to take. But if you are a COPD patient excessive salt in your diet could cause fluid retention which could worsen your shortness of breath.
Dairy products such as milk and cheese can irritate the respiratory pathways making phlegm thicker.
Certain fruits and vegetables such as apples, cabbage, stone fruits such as peaches and soybeans can cause gas and bloating.
Caffeine in coffee and chocolate could interfere with certain medications that you have been prescribed. Confirm with your doctor if you can still include them in your diet. Patients with COPD need to drink plenty of fluids and it might be beneficial to opt for non-caffeinated beverages.
Fried, greasy and spicy food can cause gas and indigestion which can affect breathing.
Discuss your diet with your doctor or ask for a recommendation of a nutritionist who would help you to work out a meal or diet plan best suited for your condition. 

Best Diet For People Suffering From COPD!

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, abbreviated as COPD, is an umbrella term which refers to the group of lung infections and diseases that include emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and diseases of the small airways. Most people feel breathlessness, which is caused due to impairment of gaseous exchange that happens because of prolonged damage to the lungs over a period of time.

Symptoms such as fatigue, reduced tolerance to exercise, muscular dysfunction, breathlessness even after simple tasks like walking, anxiety, panic, depression, and mood disorders are associated with major chronic disorders of the respiratory system.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation:

Physiotherapy is an effective intervention to treat patients suffering from COPD. It is the part of a formal supervised, multidisciplinary, and an intensive Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program that helps in treating manifestations of the conditions like COPD and Asthma. It consists of exercises to improve and maintain good lung capacity, resistance training, aerobic exercises, and support to behavioural and lifestyle changes for promoting self- efficacy. Your physiotherapist will choose from the different techniques and positions used to remove the unwanted excess sputum from the lungs and airways. The main purpose of the Pulmonary Rehabilitation is to help in improving the psychological and physical conditions of the pulmonary patients, along with training them for health enhancement techniques. Also, it should be noted that Pulmonary Rehabilitation is the cornerstone of care for patients suffering from COPD that uses integrated care by exploring underutilized opportunities.

Benefits of Pulmonary Rehabilitation: 

There are well-researched evidences of the improvement in the capacity of exercising, less breathlessness and fatigue, better control over condition, and an overall improvement in the quality of life of the patients suffering from COPD and Asthma.

Also, undergoing Pulmonary Rehabilitation lowers the rate of admissions, and re-admissions in hospitals due to recurrence of the symptoms and the related conditions.

It has also been reported that if Pulmonary Rehabilitation is properly undertaken, there is nearly no need for systematic health review to check COPD.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation, being a comprehensive program, helps in restoring fitness and easy breathing through breathing techniques, nutrition, exercise, relaxation, emotional support, medications, self-management, and other strategies for a better life, mainly by helping the lungs and the heart to function better.

How It Works?

Exercise is the key to any Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program for helping the lungs and the heart to function better and adjust to the condition. Some of the following exercises can be recommended based on the medical history of the patient:

1. Lower Body Exercise focuses on the workout of legs via running on a treadmill or climbing the staircase for rigorous training.

2. Upper Body Exercise includes working up the muscles of the arm and the chest by tasks as simple as lifting arms against gravity.

3. Breathing Exercise helps people with weak breathing and increasing their breathing and lung capacity.

4. Strength Training helps in building endurance and better stamina through activities like weight-lifting.

Other than exercise, Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program focusses on helping patients build an understanding of their situation and amend their lifestyles accordingly. This includes helping them understand their medication plan, teaching them to use their inhalers right, quitting smoking, consuming a healthy and balanced diet, and other methods as may be suitable based on their specific condition. Also, they are made aware of their symptoms so that if there is any recurrence, it can be immediately reported to the concerned health professional. They are trained through counseling to manage and deal with panic, anxiety, and depression caused due to their condition.

Take Away: Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program is an effective intervention and the cornerstone of care for improving the psychological and physical conditions of the pulmonary patients, along with training them for health enhancement techniques. It helps in treating manifestations of the conditions like COPD and Asthma.

Pulmonary Rehabilitation For COPD & Asthma!

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD is a group of progressive lung diseases. Emphysema and chronic bronchitis are the most common lung diseases. Emphysema gradually ruins the air sacs in your lungs, which are interfered with exhalation. The inflammation and swelling of airways in the lungs is called bronchitis, which further allows production of mucus, which leads to increased difficulty in breathing.

COPD is a case which makes it harder to breathe. The symptoms like coughing and shortness of breath are light at first. With passage of time, these symptoms worsen and make it increasingly difficult for the patient to breathe.

The patient may experience wheezing and feel heavy on the chest. Some patients suffering from COPD experience flare-ups of severe symptoms or exacerbations.
The main cause of COPD is cigarette smoking and therefore, people who are used to smoking for a longer time may suffer from this diesease. It is a disease that takes time to build up inside one s body. COPD can further cause heart problems and worsen respiratory diseases.

Severe symptoms of COPD include:

Occasional shortness of breath
Mild and reoccurring cough with mucus
Constant need to clear your throat
Noisy breathing
Frequent cold and cough
Loss of energy or feeling fatigued
Swelling of ankles, legs or feet
Sudden weight loss
Treatment of COPD
The treatment of COPD can ease its symptoms and avoid further complications. To treat COPD, one needs a skillful and experienced pulmonologist and respiratory therapist.

The medications which are preferred by the doctor are bronchodilators, which soothe the muscles of bronchial tubes, making it easier for the patient to breathe. This medicine is basically taken from inhalers. To reduce the inflammation, Glucocortico steroids are added.
Oxygen therapy is undertaken to provide oxygen to the patient through an oxygen mask or nasal prongs to ease the breathing process of the patient. A portable unit is advised, if the patient is cured at home.
Surgery is an option for severe COPD patients, which is undertaken if and only all other medications have already failed to control COPD, which can be the case in emphysema. Bullectomy is a kind of surgery in which the doctors eliminate the large bullae (air sacs) from the lungs. Volume reduction surgery is the last option for the doctor to cure a COPD patient. In this process, the damaged lung tissue is removed. The doctors go for a lung transplant in some rare cases of COPD.
The treatment for many diseases is a healthy and disciplined lifestyle. One should quit smoking and get the nutrition that their body needs. People should consult a dietician and get a healthy diet plan, and ask a doctor about the extent of exercise they should perform daily.

COPD - Can Oxygen Therapy Help Treat It?

Spirometry is a common medical test that is conducted in order to detect whether your lungs are working properly. This is done by detecting the amount of air you can inhale and exhale along with the time taken to complete both of these procedures. Spirometry is useful to diagnose any underlying medical condition like asthma, Chronic Obtrusive Pulmonary Disease, persistent coughing or problem during breathing. If you are receiving treatment for chronic lung disorder, spirometry is also useful to check whether or not your lungs are responding to the specific kind of treatment.

Procedure: The process of spirometry involves the use a mouthpiece and a tube adjoined with a machine which displays the recorded results. Before the onset of the procedure, which generally takes place in a hospital, you will be prescribed by the doctor to wear comfortable clothing which will not restrict your normal breathing process and will be asked to have a light meal before the procedure. The procedure will be conducted while you are sitting. 

Spirometry takes an estimated amount of 15 minutes to get over with. The nurse will put a clip on your nose in order to close your nostrils. After that, you have to take a deep breath and then breathe out as hard as possible on the tube for a few seconds. You have to make sure that there's no air leakage during this procedure by putting your lips tightly over the tube. In order to arrive at a stable result, you have to conduct the test three times at least. If the results are hugely diverse, then you have to take the test again. The highest result among the three tests is usually denoted as the ultimate test result.

Risks: Spirometry is generally a low-risk inducing procedure. But in some cases, it might cause loss of breath, moments after the procedure. Also, spirometry should not be conducted if the patient has recently had a heart attack or surgery of the eye, abdomen or chest. If you are suffering from vomiting tendencies and you have regular instances of blood in your cough, you should also avoid spirometry.

The Procedure and Risks of Spirometry

Chronic Bronchitis is a result of inflamed bronchioles (pipes carrying air to alveoli or balloons) that can produce mucus and lead to coughing and difficulty in breathing. When smoking causes inflammation of the bronchioles, constriction or squeezing takes place. This results in wheezing because air is travelling through narrowed tubes.

Emphysema, in short, is basically a dead lung. As smoke travels farther down your respiratory tract, the air sacs in your lungs (alveoli), start popping out or dying. Your bank of alveoli gets depleted over time as you continue your habits. You will notice as you increase your heart rate whether its by running or walking a flight of stairs this activity requires your red blood cells to move faster through the alveoli and have less time to receive oxygen from the lung. This leads to having less oxygen on red blood cells whose job is to deliver oxygen to the rest of the body.

Symptoms

In COPD, Both the airways(pipes) and lung parenchyma are affected by the disease and airflow limitation is progressive. COPD has been predominantly seen in patients above 40-yearold and frequent smokers.

The symptoms indicative of COPD are as follows:

 

1) Chronic cough - Also referred to as smoker's cough, the cough is relentless and does not subside with regular cough treatment. This is one of the first indications of COPD.
2) Mucus buildup - There is constant built up of mucus which gets expelled during coughing. The person never feels completely clear of mucus, and the regular cough expectorants do not help relieve the symptoms.
3) Fatigue associated with limited activity - As noted earlier, the reduced capacity of the organs limits their activities. Therefore, regular activities like walking short distances or climbing stairs can induce fatigue.
4) Shortness of breath - The above fatigue is associated with shortness of breath, even with small physical exertion. A person with COPD will see marked tiredness and reduced ability to perform routine chores and feel a tightness in the chest.
5) Wheezing - Passage of air through the obstructed air tubes produces a whistling sound or wheezing. It is more pronounced when there is mucus accumulation in the airways.

Rarely, Frequent respiratory infections, more frequent flu attacks, swelling of the feet and ankles, cardiovascular disease, weight loss, and morning headaches.

Treatment 

While there is no cure for COPD, once it sets, the following are some ways to slow its progression and reduce severity of the symptoms:

1) Bronchodilators - Dilate the air tubes and ease flow of air
2) Corticosteroids - Help reduce inflammation and thereby improve airflow through the tubes
3) Flu vaccination - Helps curb the frequent flu attacks
4) Antibiotics - To contain infections
5) Pulmonary rehabilitation - A combination of breathing exercise and patient education to improve lung function.
6) Oxygen therapy - In very severe cases, oxygen may be required.
7) Lifestyle changes - Eating healthy foods, preventing exposure to dust and smoke, quitting smoking, breathing exercises, bi-annual medical check-ups to monitor lung functions are essential.

Knowing that you have COPD is the first step towards managing COPD, which can be managed effectively.

COPD Is Broken Down To Clinical Scenarios - Chronic Bronchitis & Emphysema!

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