What is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease?

COPD is estimated to affect 32 million persons in the United States and is the fourth leading cause of death in this country. The lung is a fascinating organ with thin, delicate membranes of long, elastic, slender tubes, which are composed of living, breathing tissue. The growth of the lungs is a process of five expansive stages. The first four stages of lung development, happens before birth and the last stage concludes around the age of 2. The lung acts to transfer oxygen into your body and carbon dioxide out of your body. This transfer happens across the delicate tissue of the alveoli, or air sacks in your lung. Your heart also has to have a sufficient blood output in order to circulate the intake oxygen for proper oxygenation of your body tissues. Damage during growth renders the lung unable to function properly. Ultimately, this can lead to hypoxemia. Hypoxemia is low-oxygen concentration in the blood. Hypoxemia can lead to hypoxia. Hypoxia is low-oxygen reaching the tissues. If the tissues dont get enough oxygen, then they cant breathe and function properly. COPD is a common under diagnosed lung disease in todays society and the 1 cause is exposure to tobacco smoke. In 2000, studies showed the number of women dying from COPD surpassed the number of men. The numbers were 59,936 for women and 59,118 for men. Secondhand smoke, or environmental tobacco smoke, increases the risk of respiratory infections, augments asthma symptoms, and causes a measurable reduction in pulmonary function. Chronic smoke inhalation has an obstructive affect on the pink healthy lung tissue. Cigarette smoking induces cells to release neutrophil chemotactic factors and elastases, which lead to tissue destruction. COPD is an airflow limitation that is not fully reversible. The damaged lung tissue can be visualized as a dying stem from a budding coffee tree. The definition of COPD is chronic bronchitis and emphysema and excludes asthma and bronchiectasis. There are certain symptoms a doctor would look for when considering diseases like COPD. Initial examination for lung function by a physician is a very noninvasive experience. Chronic bronchitis is defined as persistent cough resulting in sputum production for more than 3 months in each of the last 3 years. This condition can also possibly cause asthma. Emphysema, which results in breathlessness, results from the destruction of the small air sacks inside of your lung. Its like the death of the coffee bean from the stem of a coffee tree. Damage to this part of the organ results in it turning black and enlarged. The air sacks become enlarged due to trapped air. The enlargement of enough air sacks can alter a persons body shape. As this trapped air accumulates the persons chest will start to protrude. The exhibition of this trait is called barrel chest. Being able to recognize the following symptoms below can also help stimulate a sense of healthy self-awareness. Dyspnea is having a shortness of breath and this symptom alone will have damaging affects to anyones lifestyle. Other things to be aware of: fatigue, exercise intolerance, chest tightness, cough, sputum production, and chest pain, among others. The type of dyspnea consistent with COPD is long-standing and slowly progressive. A person experiencing a shortness of breath for a long period of time with recurring dyspnea may possibly be at risk for COPD. Its exhibition may be constantly present or triggered by specific circumstances. Hemoptysis is a scary symptom of lung diseases and is defined as coughing up blood. Coughing up more than a half of liter of blood in 24 hours is rare and considered a medical emergency. No pain receptors exist inside the lung parenchyma, so a person cannot feel pain from this region. In diseases such as lung cancer, no pain is felt until the cancer invades the outer regions of the lung. Doctors would note: the look of your lips, the way your lungs expand, the symmetry of your lung expansion, how you inhale on inspiration, abdominal movement, rib cage movement, the expansion of your chest compared to your back, the angle of your trachea, and the shape of your thorax. They would feel regions of your chest and back feeling for abnormalities and auscultation would also be performed to listen for atypical breath sounds. Most of the medication used in COPD treatment are directed at the potentially reversal mechanism of airflow limitations.