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 also covers some types of asthma and bronchiectasis.
COPD causes 3 million deaths per year worldwide and ranks as the fourth largest cause of death. In the United States, it is the third leading cause of death. As many as 50 percents of people with the disease do not realize they have it, mainly because they consider the symptoms to be normal signs of aging.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 16 million adults in the U.S. currently have COPD.
Causes in nonsmokers
Secondhand smoke
Secondhand smoke is the combination of smoke from the burning end of a cigarette and the smoke breathed out by smokers. secondhand smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals. Hundreds are toxic and about 70 can cause cancer. since the 1964 surgeons general's report, 2.5 million adults who were nonsmokers died because of the breathed secondhand smoke.
Exposure to someone else's cigarette smoke as a child or adult may increase the risk of COPD. This includes a baby's exposure to its mother's tobacco use before birth.
Examples include dust and chemicals in the home, the outdoor environment, and the workplace. Environmental factors also include air pollution and smog.
Air Pollution and other natural variables greatly affect qualities identified with respiratory maladies, for example, COPD and asthma than hereditary parentage, another Canadian investigation appears.
People in contact with coal dust and crystalline silica through their work are at increased risk. An estimated 15 percent of COPD cases may be linked to the workplace.
Other industries where workers face an increased risk are rubber, plastics, textiles, leather, and construction.
A deficiency in a substance called alpha-1 antitrypsin, a protein made in the liver, may account for up to 5 percent of people with COPD.
Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency is estimated to affect between 1 in every 3,000-5,000 people in North America. Individuals who smoke and have AAT are at greater risk of COPD.
Experts also note there are a wide variety of genes at work that is continually being identified through research. These inherited factors put people at greater risk of COPD, even as nonsmokers.
The symptoms are the same for nonsmokers as they are for smokers. These symptoms include:
- Shortness of breath after even short periods of low-level exercise
- Wheeziness
- Coughing that produces excessive amounts of phlegm
- Tightness in the chest
- Tiredness and low energy levels
- Intolerance to exercise that results in any of the symptoms above
- Nagging, persistent cough
Long-term effects
People who have COPD have an increased risk of experiencing the following:
People who have COPD have an increased risk of experiencing the following:
- Feeling breathless after everyday activities
- Having depression and other mental illness
- Being unable to work or socialize as they want to
- Needing special breathing equipment
- Experiencing confusion or memory loss
Other diseases that are more likely in people with COPD include heart disease, asthma, stroke, congestive heart failure, arthritis, and diabetes.
Diagnosis
In some cases, a doctor may also recommend a blood test, a chest X-ray, or CT scan of the chest.
Others factors that aid a doctor in diagnosing COPD include evaluating the following:
A breathing test called spirometry, also known as a pulmonary function test or PFT, is used to diagnose COPD. A person blows into a machine that measures the ability of the airways to move the air out.
The result shows how much air a person exhales and how long it takes to do so. It is quick and painless and is carried out by a doctor or other trained healthcare professional.
A doctor will likely perform a physical examination as well, as the result of the spirometry can be affected by other factors, such as general fitness, heart disease, abnormalities of the chest cavity, and smoking.
In some cases, a doctor may also recommend a blood test, a chest X-ray, or CT scan of the chest.
Others factors that aid a doctor in diagnosing COPD include evaluating the following:
- Quality of life due to breathing symptoms
- Need for hospital visits due to breathing problems
- Frequency of chest infections
- Frequency of flare-ups of breathing problems
- Breathlessness during normal activities
- Oxygen levels in the body
Treatment
There is no cure for COPD at present. The earlier the disease is diagnosed, however, the more that can be done to ease the symptoms.
There are many ways that COPD can be treated to improve quality and length of life. These treatments include:
- Inhaled drugs that relax the muscles and open the airways
- Flu, pneumonia, and whooping cough vaccinations
- Oxygen therapy
- Antibiotics to treat chest infections
- Anti-inflammatory drugs called glucocorticoids, a type of steroid hormone
Exercise techniques, education, and support to help breathing may also help. This is called pulmonary rehabilitation. Research suggests that it can be effective in treating the symptoms of COPD but is, as yet, underused worldwide.
Prevention
To reduce the risk of COPD, the standard advice for nonsmokers, other than not starting to smoke, is to avoid high-risk environments and occupations.
These may be areas where there are fumes from tobacco, high air pollution, diesel, and where things such as straw, grass, and animal dung are burned as fuel. People should also avoid industrial cleaning agents that may pose a chemical hazard.
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