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Hello and welcome to HealthiNation. I’m Pat Murphy. Everyday, more than 16 million
adults over 40 struggle to breathe because they have a condition called chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease or COPD. Now, there are some hereditary causes for COPD, but about
85% of cases are directly related to smoking tobacco. Let’s hear from Dr. Holly Atkinson
about how the lungs are affected by COPD.
PHYSICIAN: When we breathe, air is pulled into and pushed
out of the lungs. It’s inside the lungs where the new, fresh air is exchanged with
air that contains carbon dioxide from the body. But when you have COPD, that transfer
of air … and even just breathing becomes difficult. Again, COPD stands for chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease. In plain English, that means a long term blockage in the airways.
Most of the time, if you are diagnosed with COPD it means you have bronchitis or emphysema
that won’t go away. That can lead to both immediate and lasting damage to your lungs,
and body. But before we talk about the effects and treatment for COPD, let’s go inside
the chest and see what happens as we breathe.
When we breathe, air enters the lungs and moves through small tubes, called bronchial
tubes. At the end of each of these bronchial tubes are small, balloon like sacs called
alveoli. These are filters between the air in the lungs and the blood that moves throughout
the body. The thin walls of the alveoli allow oxygen from the air to go into the bloodstream
and carbon dioxide to pass through from the bloodstream into the lungs to be exhaled.
This is what keeps the body’s cells alive and functioning.When you have COPD caused
by emphysema, the alveoli filters become damaged. First, their elasticity becomes reduced, limiting
the ability for the alveoli to move as you inhale and exhale. Second, the alveoli become
permanently enlarged, which increases the overall size of your lungs and puts greater
strain on your chest muscles to breathe in and out. When you have COPD caused by chronic
bronchitis, the bronchial tubes become inflamed, and enlarged. This can narrow the airways.
The air passageways can also become blocked because of increased mucus production caused
by enlarged mucus glands. Finally, the cells that help move mucus out of the body can become
damaged, reducing your ability to clear mucus from your air passage.
More than 85 percent of COPD cases are caused by smoking tobacco. That’s because a chemical
in smoke stimulates inflammation in the lungs, leading to either chronic bronchitis or emphysema.
Heavy smokers are at the greatest risk, and cigarette smokers have more risk than cigar
and pipe smokers. The remaining causes of COPD are either unknown, or in a small number
of cases … about 1 or 2 percent, are due to a hereditary condition known as “familial
emphysema.”
COPD can make breathing extremely difficult, even under the easiest conditions. Watch our
other segments to learn the signs, symptoms and treatments available for this condition.