What Is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)?

What is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)?

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, also abbreviated to COPD, is the name for a group of conditions which affect the lungs and cause difficulty in breathing.

Chronic means that it is a long-term condition that will not go away, even with suitable treatment. Obstructive means that your airways become narrowed and so it is harder for air to pass in and out of the lungs, and Pulmonary means that the issues arise in your lungs.

The two most common forms of COPD are Bronchitis; where the airways become inflamed and narrowed, and Emphysema which affects the alveoli (air sacs) within the lungs, causing them to become larger and significantly reducing their ability to absorb oxygen.

Our airways are lined with muscle and elastic tissue which, when healthy, keeps the lungs open and allows us to breathe easily. With COPD those airways can become narrowed due to the lung tissue being damaged so there is less flexibility within the airways, the elasticity of the lungs can be reduced making it harder to breathe, and in some cases the lining of the airway becomes inflamed reducing its ability to take in the oxygen our bodies require to function.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder is progressive; meaning that over time the symptoms are likely to get worse, and at present there is not a cure, although there are a range of treatments available for those who suffer from it to help reduce some of the symptoms and improve quality of life.

The most common symptoms of COPD include:

• Breathlessness when active
• A persistent cough, often with phlegm or sputum
• Frequent chest infections

The most common cause of COPD is smoking, although there are many cases where non-smokers can be affected. In these situations it is likely that the sufferer will have been exposed to certain fumes, dust, or air pollution. In all of these cases the outcome is similar: smoking (and the inhalation of certain dangerous fumes, dusts etc) irritates the lungs which in turn can cause inflammation. Subjecting your lungs to this kind of treatment invariably leads to scarring within the lung, which in turn reduces the elasticity and makes it harder to breathe.

COPD is one of the most common respiratory diseases in the UK – it is thought that there are more than 3 million people living with the condition, although only around 900,000 have been diagnosed. It usually only begins to affect people over the age of 35, and most sufferers are not diagnosed until they are in their 50s. Some cases of COPD can arise due to genetic conditions, but these are very rare indeed.

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