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smoking 101 | |
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get motivated to quit | |
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helping someone quit | |
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smoking & your health | |
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smoking & asthma | |
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smoking & COPD | |
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glossary | |
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smoking Q & A | |
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smoking & COPD Smoking causes approximately 80 to 90 percent of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) cases. That’s an enormous proportion. So what is COPD and what can a smoker do to prevent it? This section will briefly discuss these questions. COPD stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. A person with COPD usually has both chronic bronchitis and emphysema although not all types of chronic bronchitis are associated with COPD. Let’s start out by defining these two closely related diseases of the respiratory system. chronic bronchitis This is a long-standing inflammation of the airways that produces a lot of mucus causing wheezing and infections. It’s considered chronic if someone has coughing and mucus on a regular basis for at least 3 months a year and for 2 years in a row. emphysema Emphysema is a disease that affects the air sacs and/or the smallest breathing tubes in the lungs. Simply put, the lungs lose elasticity, similar to an overused rubber band. This causes the affected areas to become enlarged. People with COPD suffer from shortness of breath, chronic coughing, and difficulty breathing. The severity of the disease increases greatly over time. Most people with advanced COPD must have supplemental oxygen supplies in order to breathe. Cigarette smoking is the most significant risk factor of COPD. Studies of large groups of people show that lung function (the ability to move air in and out of the lungs) decreases naturally as people age – even in healthy non-smokers. But healthy non-smokers have better lung function than smokers to begin with. So symptoms of decreasing lung function usually do not arise in healthy non-smokers. However, in smokers, lung function tends to worsen much more rapidly. The best way for a smoker to prevent COPD is to quit smoking as soon as possible. If you quit before serious COPD develops, your lung function rate of decline almost returns to normal over time. |
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