2nd World Congress on COPD, Asthma and Lung Health

There is no known cure for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), treatment can help to relieve your symptoms and slow its progress. The main goals of COPD treatments are to Make you feel better Allow you to participate more in life Help you stay active Prevent and treat complications Improve your overall quality of life The goals of therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are to prevent disease progression, relieve symptoms, improve health status, prevent and treat complications and exacerbations, reduce morbidity, and prevent or minimize adverse effects from treatment. Combination Therapy Anticholinergics and β-agonists reduce bronchoconstriction through different mechanisms, and there is a long history of combination therapy with short-acting agents in these classes for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Anticholinergic treatment in airways diseases The prevalence of chronic airways diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary d...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic disease composed of multiple components, which can include asthma, emphysema and/or chronic bronchitis. To reach a diagnosis of COPD you must have two or more of these diseases as diagnosed by your pulmonary (lung) doctor. All of these are considered to be obstructive respiratory diseases. Obstructive lung diseases are categorized as such because they impair the ability of your body to breathe oxygen into the lungs and expire carbon dioxide out of the lungs. Since COPD is a combination of two or more diseases, your symptoms tend to be more severe than if you suffered from only one of the diseases. Various Stages of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease(COPD) STAGE 1 - Mild COPD STAGE 2 - Moderate COPD STAGE 3 - Severe COPD STAGE 4 - Very Severe COPD STAGE-1: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a scourge in numerous parts of the world. Most patients with COPD exhibit gentle ailment. Mil...

Pain management is an important part of treatment for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), You need to stay on top of managing your COPD related symptoms, fitness levels, and ensuring you are maintaining a healthy weight. But that’s not all, another important aspect of COPD management that is often overlooked is pain management. The most common areas of pain in patients with COPD are in the neck, shoulders, upper arms, and chest. It can interrupt your sleep, make your breathing worse and make an otherwise good day with COPD, a bad one. Unlike acute pain that accompanies a sudden injury, chronic pain persists long after an injury has healed. It is pain that is often constant, and one that dramatically interferes with your daily life. What is Chronic Pain? Acute pain and chronic pain are actually two completely different things. Acute pain is a result of a sudden injury, but once the injury is healed your pain is gone. On the other hand, chronic pain continu...

FEV1, or forced expiratory volume, is a measurement taken from a pulmonary function test. It calculates the amount of air that a person can force out of their lungs in 1 second. Working out a person's FEV1 value can help in the diagnosis of a chronic lung disease, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). FEV1 and other measurements also allow us to understand how severe the disease. FEV1 Values and COPD COPD is a term used to describe certain medical conditions that affect the breathing, such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema. It can involve inflammation and mucus in the airways or damage to the lungs, both of which lead to breathing difficulties. People already diagnosed with COPD, or those suspected of having COPD or a related condition should undergo a pulmonary function test to determine their FEV1 value. A pulmonary function test is also called a spirometry test. It involves breathing forcefully into a mouthpiece. FEV1 values that are lower t...

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death. Worldwide, tobacco use causes nearly 6 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually, Lung diseases caused by smoking include COPD, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis and Lung Cancer also. The biggest impact smoking has on lungs is the damage done to the cilia. Cilia are tiny, hair-like protrusions in your lungs and respiratory tract that move back and forth as you breathe, to keep out foreign material or contagion. The images show cilia in healthy lungs. When you smoke, the cilia are destroyed, and you are unable to protect yourself against the contaminants and contagions you inhale. Cilia also help to move mucus through the lungs. Without cilia, many smokers develop a chronic cough, which is an attempt to move mucus from the lungs that the cilia would normally be moving. What are Cilia? The cilia are microscopic hair-like projections ...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD, is a common condition most often associated with smoking. As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COPD is the third driving reason for death in the United States with tobacco smoke is a key factor in its motivation. However, nonsmokers and even people who have never smoked can also develop the disease. According to 2011 research, just over 20 percent of people diagnosed with COPD are nonsmokers. Other causes, such as environment and genetics, play a more significant role than originally thought. What is COPD? In COPD, the airways that bring air in and out of the lungs become inflamed, inefficient, and blocked, making breathing difficult. If it is untreated, the inflammation worsens , and the symptoms become more severe. In severe stages, even everyday activities, such as walking up stairs, can cause shortness of breath. The most common forms of COPD are emphysema and chronic bronchitis , but the term...

What Is Vitamin D? Role of Vitamin D in the Body? Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that plays a central role in many components of health. It stands out from other vitamins because your body is able to make most of what you need through exposure to sunlight, which is why it’s often dubbed the sunshine vitamin . It’s also unique in that it actually acts as a steroid hormone rather than just a vitamin in the body and is involved in everything from weight management to bone health. When you consume vitamin D, it undergoes a two-step process to convert it into its active form. First, it’s made into its storage in the liver. Next, it’s converted into its active form in the kidneys. From there, it works by communicating with the cells to control a multitude of functions in the body, from altering calcium absorption to boosting immune health. Vitamin D and COPD  Vitamin D deficiency occurs frequently in COPD, Vitamin D levels are associated with respiratory functi...

There's no cure for COPD, but you can work with your doctor to slow its progression. First, learn about how the chronic lung condition develops COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease , affects your lungs and generally gets worse over time. As the elasticity of the airways and air sacs decreases, less air is able to go in and out as you breathe. Other complications of COPD such as thickening or inflammation of the airways and more mucus accumulation can further restrict airflow. The progression of COPD can vary greatly. COPD is an exaggeration of the natural aging process of the lung. How COPD Progresses Initially, the patient will develop a cough and possibly sputum production, Think of COPD progression in various stages. Stage I, or mild COPD, appears subtly you might notice you feel short of breath when you exercise or do strenuous tasks around the house like yard work or carrying heavy objects. Sometimes an unexplained cough is the flashing red...

Inflammation is a normal, yet a complex response that isn’t easily reduced to being all good or all bad. On the bright side, acute inflammation plays an essential role in protecting and healing the body after a physical injury or infection. Once the healing process reaches a certain stage, the immune system shuts itself off and inflammation generally resolves on its own. But inflammation also has a dark side. Chronic inflammation can be silent and destructive, occurring when the inflammatory response is out of proportion to the perceived threat it’s trying to thwart off, or when it’s directed at an inappropriate target. Chronic inflammation has a disturbing, long-lasting effect on the body that can last for days, months, or even years. Chronic Inflammation and COPD COPD is characterized by an abnormal, excessive inflammatory response of the lungs to harmful respiratory pollutants and gases. Although tobacco smoke is the chief offender in this process, air pollution and...

When you inhale smoke, you’re taking in substances that can damage your lungs. Over time, this damage leads to a variety of problems. Along with increased infections, people who smoke are at higher risk for chronic nonreversible lung conditions such as: emphysema, the destruction of the air sacs in your lungs chronic bronchitis, permanent inflammation that affects the lining of the breathing tubes of the lungs chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) lung cancer Withdrawal from tobacco products can cause temporary congestion and respiratory discomfort as your lungs and airways begin to heal. Increased mucus production right after quitting smoking is a positive sign that your respiratory system is recovering. The major health problems caused by smoking affect the nicotine delivery system: the airways, blood vessels and lungs in the human respiratory system. During normal breathing, air is ingested through the nose or mouth and travels through the bronchial tubes...