About chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

What COPD stands for:

• Chronic means long-term - people live with COPD for many years.
• Obstructive means reduced airflow in and out of the lungs.
• Pulmonary refers to your lungs - it includes all the tubes that take in air through your mouth and nose and into your lungs.
• Disease means illness.

It's easy to get confused between COPD and asthma as, on the face of it, they seem to have similar symptoms.

Asthma affects people of all ages and is often triggered by allergic reactions. COPD mainly affects people over 40 and is largely triggered by just one thing you choose to do in life: smoke.

Unlike asthma, COPD causes permanent damage to the lungs. Sadly, it can't be cured and remains one of the leading causes of disability, chronic illness and early death. About 30,000 people a year in the UK die from COPD.

But you can change this. Many of these deaths are among people who don't take action quickly enough, simply because they don't realise they have COPD. Indeed, it's estimated that two million people are living with COPD that is undiagnosed. This is because the symptoms are barely noticeable in the early stages of COPD and worsen very gradually over 20 or more years.

If you're an ex-smoker, you've already taken the best step you can to limit the damage caused by tobacco. If you still smoke, quitting is the only way to slow the damage. And quitting at any point will help you improve your long-term health.

If unchecked, your COPD is likely to start to interfere with your normal daily life - walking to the shops, for instance, or climbing the stairs. By taking action now, both through changing your lifestyle and through medications from your doctor, you can slow or even halt the gradual decline in your lung health and allow you to live life to the full for as long as possible.

Some smoking facts

• One in four smokers develop COPD.
• COPD is incurable, but worsening of symptoms can be halted or slowed by giving up smoking.

See how much you know you about COPD by taking our true or false quiz.

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Types of COPD

The two main lung conditions which come under the COPD umbrella are chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

1. Chronic Bronchitis

   This arises when an infection causes the air passages within the lungs to become inflamed. The inflammation increases mucus production in the airways (phlegm) so triggering a cough. Although anyone can be affected, especially in winter, people who smoke are more likely to get it. Usually it clears up by itself but in some cases the lung damage caused by the infection leads to permanent damage – hence COPD.

2. Emphysema

   In emphysema, the air sacs in the lungs are gradually destroyed. This means there’s a smaller surface in the lungs to take in enough oxygen to meet the body’s needs.

Why do I have COPD?

Smoking is the biggest single cause of COPD. Eight out of ten people get COPD because they still are or have been smokers. The likelihood of getting COPD increases the more you smoke and the longer you smoke. And it's not just your own smoke - your chances of getting COPD also increase if you inhale a lot of other people's smoke (passive smoking).

Why does smoking cause COPD?

Everyone's lung function begins to deteriorate gradually from the age of 30. But for smokers, this loss of lung function is around three times faster than for non-smokers. This is because:

• Tobacco smoke contains thousands of poisonous chemicals, some of which cause inflammation and scarring in the lungs. This damages, and eventually destroys, the elasticity that allows the lungs to expand and contract as you breathe in and out.
• Cigarette smoke causes obstructions in the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs.
• Cigarette smoke damages the tiny air sacs, known as alveoli that are at the end of the airways allowing oxygen to be absorbed into the bloodstream.

The restricted air movement in and out of the lungs reduces the amount of oxygen reaching the heart and other muscles. This can make you feel tired very easily. But the damage builds up over many years as you continue to smoke and because it's gradual, people often think the changes are simply because they're getting older.

COPD is not curable, but if you quit smoking you can slow the effects of the condition.

Other causes:

In rare cases, COPD can be caused by factors other than smoking. Less common causes of COPD include:

• Pollution - exposure to indoor or outdoor pollutants. If you are exposed to toxic chemicals and pollutants at work, you may be at higher risk of developing COPD.

• Increased exposure to fumes and dust.

Being born more susceptible to the condition - COPD can be caused by a rare genetic condition called Alpha-1-Antitrypsin Deficiency.