An Understanding Of COPD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a disorder which causes difficulty in breathing. The lungs get damaged thereby making it difficult to take air in the body. It can basically be referred to as two long-term lung diseases, they are emphysema and chronic bronchitis and they generally occur together. In treatment for copd the airway which carries air in and out of lungs may become partly blocked from swelling or mucus. Thus, difficulty in breathing is formed. The air sacs that are at the end of the airways lose their elasticity which leads to the collapse of small airways thereby making it more difficult to breath. It is caused due to various reasons like smoking, exposure to pollution, unhealthy air, dust, chemicals etc. In very few cases it is found that this disease is caused due to genes, if the protein called alpha 1 antitrypsin is in lack in the person’s body then they are more likely to get prone to this disease. The person suffering from copd treatments has symptoms of wheezing, chronic coughing, tightness of chest, breath shortness, fatigue and in some patients even depression is seen. Spirometry is the most common breathing test used to check whether a person is suffering from COPD or not. The test is easy, simple and painless it involves breathing into a large hose connected to a machine and the machine then measures how much air your lungs can hold and how fast you can blow air out of your lungs. Additional tests to rule out other lung problems, such as heart failure, asthma etc can be asked by the doctor to get it done, which may include other tests like a chest X-ray, a test to measure lung function and level of oxygen in your blood.