Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is a serious illness for which, as yet, there is no cure. However, COPD treatments have been developed over recent years which promise to greatly alleviate, if not entirely cure, this disease. COPD treatments, when combined with changes to your lifestyle and attitude toward maintaining your personal health and fitness, can contribute greatly toward allowing you to become more active, and simply feel better. So, while no permanent cure has yet been developed, there are COPD treatments which can, to a lesser or greater extent, slow the progress of the disease, especially if it is detected and treated in its early stages.
The single most important step you can take to prevent, or to treat, COPD, is to simply never smoke, or to stop smoking immediately. If you feel that taking this step is too heavy a burden to succeed on your own, there are many products and counseling programs available that can give you much needed support during your time of transition to a nicotine-free lifestyle. You can always ask family and friends to help support you in the crucial few early weeks after you quit.
It is also vitally important to avoid second hand smoke, not only for your own sake, but for the sake of the people around you. Inhalation of second hand smoke is a major factor in the development of lung cancer and COPD, even in people who have never smoked a cigarette in their lives.
There are many varieties of COPD treatments available today. An over the counter prescribed medication known as Bronchodilators is a common source of COPD treatments. What bronchodilators do is relax the muscles that control your airways (breathing passages). This ensures that breathing is easier once those passages have been opened to their normal extent (COPD tends to restrict and close these airways).
There are two major types of bronchodilators, either of which may be prescribed to you by a medical health professional, depending on the extent and severity of your illness. These COPD treatments include short-acting bronchodilators (which normally last 4-6 hours, and are prescribed for occasional usage), and long-acting bronchodilators (which last 10-12 hours, and are prescribed for daily usage).
In most cases, bronchodilators are taken by means of a device known as an inhaler. This inhaler allows the medicine to pass directly into your lungs. Although most inhalers are used in this simple fashion, some require more maintenance and care. It is best to consult with your doctor in order to learn the correct methods for long term inhaler usage.
There are several other commonly prescribed COPD treatments, including steroids which are used via the inhaler method to control severe symptoms of the later stages of COPD, such as inflammation of the breathing passages. Other COPD treatments usually entail the more costly, as well as risky, option of corrective surgery, and are usually resorted to as a last ditch measure when all other options have been exhausted. In short, it is vital to catch this disease in its early stages, before such risky measures need to be considered.
There are a wide variety of COPD symptoms which can mark the presence of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). Once these COPD symptoms have been recognized, the most important thing to do is to follow the advice of your professional health care provider in order to undertake a program of treatment and rehabilitation which can prevent, or successfully slow the progress of, the progressive worsening of your already existing COPD symptoms. Recognizing when symptoms are changing for the worse and growing more severe is an essential part of managing this deadly disease. Of course, early detection and treatment is the best of all options, but is unfortunately rather rare.
There are several recognizable COPD symptoms which can foreshadow the further development of this disease. Shortness of breath, dizziness, and brief spells of disorientation or confusion after heavy exertion (participation in sports or exercise, lifting of heavy objects, running or jogging, or even simple, every day house hold chores). If you should find yourself using more pillows in your favorite chair or couch, and even deciding to sleep there instead of going upstairs to bed to avoid the shortness of breath that may result from the exertion, this is a very ominous sign that COPD symptoms are already an unavoidable presence in your life.
An increased feeling of apathy, fatigue, weariness, sleepiness, and simple lack of energy or “spark” are all recognizable COPD symptoms. The lack of fresh oxygen getting into your lungs to replenish your blood with vital nutrients is at the root of these feelings. COPD constricts the airways to prevent oxygen from coming into your lungs, and thus causes them to become sluggish in keeping fresh blood pumping throughout your body, resulting in this “slowed down” sensation which can seriously impair your quality of life.
As well as lack of energy, the increased prevalence of headaches, particularly severe migraines which occur in the morning or at bedtime, can be yet another commonly occurring one of these COPD symptoms. Sometimes these headaches can be combined with frequent, sudden spells of dizziness or loss of balance, even when one has simply gotten out of one’s bed or chair after a long rest. In addition, the restlessness that can come from long periods of sitting or lying still to avoid these headaches and dizzy spells can be another issue that compounds itself on top of your purely physical COPD symptoms.
Depression that results from this lack of mobility and the corresponding decrease in your quality of life can be another frequently occurring one of these COPD symptoms. The feeling of hopelessness can result in neglect of one’s treatment for this illness, and even in the suicide of some sufferers who feel that they will never get any better, and have nothing but increasing pain and helplessness to look forward to. It is vitally important to do everything one can to avoid developing these COPD symptoms, or, if this is no longer possible, to treat them quickly so as to prevent the onset of more severe symptoms.
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COPD symptoms are signs which point to the presence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, an illness which obstructs the capacity of the lungs to take in fresh oxygen which is needed to replenish the blood with vital nutrients. COPD symptoms, especially in the severe and final stages of the disease,make it hard, or nearly impossible to breathe, and can lead to other, potentially fatal, issues such as heart failure. In short, COPD is a serious illness which it is vital to guard against, and to catch early in its progress, if long term damage is to be prevented. The biggest single preventative step one can take to ward off COPD symptoms is simply never to smoke, or to quit immediately if you are still smoking.
There are several steps which one can take to prevent the worsening of COPD symptoms, once the disease has been diagnosed. Early treatment of this disease is essential to preserving what you can of your long term lung function. An accurate and timely diagnosis of COPD symptoms, and any changes for the worse that may occur in them, can help to determine whether the treatment of this illness ought to begin at home, in your doctor’s office, or at the emergency room of your local hospital.
There are a common variety of noticeable warning signs for these COPD symptoms. These early symptoms, however, are unique to each person who suffers from this illness. However, they are common enough to be universally recognizable as indicating the presence of COPD, and can thus be listed for the benefit of those who believe they may be suffering from COPD symptoms.
Signs of the early onset of this disease include such COPD symptoms as an increase in the amount of sputum (mucus) that your body produces and, especially, a noticeable increase in the viscosity (stickiness and thickness) of this muucus. This can be accompanied by a frequently recurring cough, especially one that grows more wracking ( a “hacking” cough), as well as persistent wheezing, and shortness of breath. In some cases, one may notice blood in one’s mucus, or a change of the color of your mucus to a sickly yellow or greenish shade.
A general feeling of sickness, or poor health, accompanied by sluggishness, may prevail. One may dismiss these COPD symptoms as the general “slowing down” that occurs with the onset of middle age, but this may be a grave error. These feelings of slowness or sluggishness may be accompanied by dizziness or “wooziness”, and a sensation of becoming “scatterbrained” or absent minded.
There may be present a marked inability to remember details or whole events, indicating some impairment of one’s long or short term memory capacity. Confusion, forgetfullness, some impairment of vision ( a sudden increase in one’s near or farsightedness), and slurring of one’s speech may become noticeable to oneself and to others. These COPD symptoms may also be accompanied by an increase in sleepiness (spending longer hours in bed, or resting after exertion), or a sudden onset of its opposite, insomnia.
The various states of progress of the illness known as COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) are known as the Four COPD Stages. Each of these four COPD stages marks a level of progress that the illness has reached. Tests undergone to determine the level of these COPD stages that the patient is currently at are usually performed by a doctor using a process called spirometry. Spirometric testing for COPD stages is used by medical professionals as a guide to determine the initial treatment necessary for this disease.
The Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Diseases (known as GOLD) has determined that the severity of this disease is to be divided into four successive COPD stages. These stages, as classified using spirometric measurement, are known as mild, moderate, severe, and very severe.
COPD stages 1: Mild
In the initial stage, Mild COPD, there will be some noticeable, but mild, difficulty in breathing, but the patient will most likely not be aware that their lung functioning capacity has began to decline. During this earliest of COPD stages, you will most likely not suffer any COPD symptoms, but may experience chronic cough and excessive mucus. During these very early COPD stages, future patients will not be likely to associate these symptoms with a chronic illness, and will very rarely seek professional medical care.
COPD Stages 2: Moderate
During the second of these COPD stages, the Moderate, your breathing limitation becomes worse, and you will likely begin to notice symptoms of COPD, particularly shortness of breath. This will most normally come after heavy exercise or running, and will bring with it excess coughing and mucus production. You may experience some pain while breathing after playing sports or using several flights of stairs. It is during this time that most people will begin to consider receiving professional medical treatment.
COPD Stages 3: Severe
During the third of these COPD stages, the Severe, the person suffering from this ailment will begin to show signs of severe breathing problems. Not only will shortness of breath become more noticeable, the patient will likely have trouble walking or running more than short distances, and may become out of breath after even very short periods of exercise, or performing simple, common household tasks. When you reach this level of COPD stages, you will experience several minutes of fatigue and difficulty breathing per day.
COPD Stages 4: Very Severe
A person who reaches the fourth of these COPD stages, Very Severe, will be suffering from a very seriously impaired quality of life, and may already be near the end. Any spike in the development of the disease at this point can be potentially fatal. Breathing is possible only with great difficulty, and chronic respiratory failure may be in your very near future. People at this last of the COPD stages often suffer additionally from complications of the heart, which can also lead to death.
It is strongly suggested that anyone who believes they are suffering from any of these COPD stages should seek professional medical help immediately.
For those who wonder what is COPD, the answer is as follows. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (which can also be known in certain professional circles as COLD– Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease) is an umbrella term which describes ailments of the lungs which include many of the same symptoms. These symptoms can include (but are not limited to) progressive restrictions of the ability of air to flow in and out of the lungs, with increasing shortness of breath as the disease makes it progress.
COPD is an extremely insidious and “hard to catch” disease. Victims can suffer some of its early symptoms for several years without realizing what is COPD, and the disease is frequently diagnosed too late, after some lung capacity has already been irretrievably lost. It is, unfortunately, very possible (and likely) for a victim to suffer from the early stages of COPD without even knowing it (thinking they suffer merely from a common cold or hacking cough, perhaps a flu virus) until some of its more generally known symptoms appear.
The two main conditions of impaired breathing ability that make up what is COPD are emphysema and chronic asthmatic bronchitis. In both cases of this type, the damage that is done to your airway passages will eventually severely interfere with the normal regular exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your lungs, leading to the sufferer being slowly poisoned to death through their inability to expel the harmful buildup of carbon dioxide from their system.
It should be immediately noted that COPD has been proven to be a leading cause of illness and premature death all over the world. COPD was ranked as the sixth leading cause of death at the turn of the century. COPD is further projected to be the fourth leading cause of death worldwide by 2030, which will be due chiefly to an increase in smoking among the population of many less developed countries. At present, the cost of controlling what is COPD in the United States is estimated at $42.6 billion annually, due to health care costs and the loss of economic revenue due to workers becoming too sick to perform their jobs.
Most of the time, COPD seems to be caused by long term smoking. Thus, the risk of developing what is COPD can be prevented altogether, or greatly lessened, by never smoking, or quitting as soon as possible after you have started. The damage to your lungs caused by smoking can never be reversed. Therefore, treatment of what is COPD will generally focus on controlling your existing symptoms, and attempting to control the present damage and prevent further deterioration.
Although symptoms of what is COPD can be controlled if caught in time and arrested by prompt professional medical care, the disease itself is not curable or reversible at the present time. It is therefore highly recommended to all who read this that they avoid smoking, as well as second hand smoke, at all costs. Report any suspicious, lingering symptoms to your doctor, and do not take chances with your health.
