COPD is a major cause of death and illness throughout the world and the 4th leading cause of death in the U.S. and the world.

What is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)?

COPD is a non- contagious lung disease in which the lung is damaged. COPD develops slowly, usually as a result of smoking, and it may be many years before you notice symptoms like feeling short of breath. Most of the time it is diagnosed in middle-aged or older people.

There is no cure for COPD, because there is still no way to reverse the damage to airways and lungs. There are COPD treatments to slow its progress.

The American Lung Association tells How Our Lungs Work: “Your lungs have two main parts: bronchial tubes (also called airways) and alveoli (also called air sacs). When you breathe in, the air moves through your bronchial tubes and into your alveoli. In the alveoli, oxygen goes into your blood while carbon dioxide moves out, to be exhaled. Healthy lungs do this very well, about 25,000 times a day.”

“The lungs must play many roles—supplier of oxygen, remover of wastes and toxins, defender against hostile intruders. They contain at least three dozen distinct types of cells, each with its special tasks and abilities.”

The airways and air sacs in the lung are normally elastic; that is, they try to spring back to their original shape after being stretched or filled with air. This elastic quality helps retain the normal structure of the lung and helps to move the air quickly in and out. In COPD, much of the elastic quality is gone, and the airways and air sacs no longer bounce back to their original shape. This means that the airways collapse, like a floppy hose, and the air sacs tend to stay inflated. The floppy airways obstruct the airflow out of the lungs, leading to an abnormal increase in the lungs’ size. In addition, the airways may become inflamed and thickened, encouraging cells to produce more mucus, contributing to the difficulty of getting air out of the lungs.

What Causes COPD

Cigarette smoking is the most common irritant that causes COPD. Pipe, cigar, and other types of tobacco smoking can also cause COPD, especially if the smoke is inhaled. Breathing in other fumes and dusts over a long period of time may also cause COPD. The lungs and airways are highly sensitive to these irritants. They cause the airways to become inflamed, narrowed, and destroy the elastic fibers that allow the lung to stretch.

Other things that may irritate the lungs and contribute to COPD include: living or working around certain kinds of chemicals and breathing in the fumes, in a dusty area over many years, with heavy exposure to air pollution or being around secondhand smoke (smoke in the air from other people smoking cigarettes).

Signs and Symptoms: • Cough • Sputum (mucus) production • Shortness of breath, especially with exercise   • Wheezing (a whistling or squeaky sound when you breathe) • Chest tightness.

A cough that doesn’t go away and coughing up lots of mucus are common  symptoms of COPD. However, not everyone with a cough and sputum production goes on to develop COPD, and not everyone with COPD has a cough.

A simple, painless test called spirometry can help to diagnose COPD, while neither a physical exam nor a chest x-ray can detect COPD in its early stages. Spirometry is important for all smokers, former smokers, and people exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke or to irritants in the workplace.

The severity of the symptoms depends on how much of the lung has been destroyed. If you continue to smoke, the lung destruction is faster than if you stop smoking.

Help Yourself by Quitting Smoking!

Since COPD cannot be cured, your doctor will recommend treatments that help relieve your symptoms and help you breathe easier. The treatment for COPD is different for each person and is based on whether your symptoms are mild, moderate, or severe.

The most important thing you can do is to stop smoking; this can stop or at least slow the damage to your lungs, your health, and may save your life. Talk to your doctor about how to stop smoking. If you quit smoking soon, you have a better chance of living longer.

For information on how to quit smoking and to get help to quit, call the California Free Help line:1-800-NO BUTTS, Tobacco Control Resource Program from County of San Diego, visit: www.TobaccoFreeCA.com. The American Lung Association has a free online program called Freedom From Smoking. Look for it at www.LungUSA.org. You can also visit the Web site of the U.S. Office of the Surgeon General, http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/tobacco/ 

Some local hospitals and health plans offer smoking cessation programs as well. For more information about COPD, contact the American Lung Association of San Diego and Imperial Counties at 619-297-3901 or 800-LUNG-USA.

This article is excerpted from the NHLBI Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Data Fact Sheet and The U.S. National Institute of health, with contributions by Ross Porter of the American Lung Association of San Diego & Imperial Counties.

BY THE COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES