What is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) ? (Part 1 of 4) | HealthiNation

Go inside the body to see what happens when someone has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD.

Related Videos:
Signs of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) (Part 2 of 4) | HealthiNation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt65ie9f_6g

Preventing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) (Part 3 of 4) | HealthiNation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9dYsB7ab9I

Treating Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) (Part 4 of 4)| HealthiNation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS4jLFUxSt0

TRANSCRIPT:

What Is COPD?

COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It is characterized by a long-term blockage in the airways. Most of the time, COPD means you have bronchitis or emphysema that won't go away, which can lead to both immediate and lasting damage to your lungs and body.
What Happens with COPD?

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 act as 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 from the bloodstream into the lungs to be exhaled. This is what keeps the body's cells alive and functioning.

In people with COPD caused by emphysema, the alveoli filters become damaged. Their elasticity becomes reduced, limiting the ability for the alveoli to move as you inhale and exhale. They also become permanently enlarged, which increases the overall size of your lungs and puts greater strain on your chest muscles to breathe in and out.

In people with COPD caused by chronic bronchitis, the lining of the bronchial tubes become inflamed and thickened. This can narrow the airways. The air passageways can also become blocked because of increased mucus production caused by active and enlarged mucus glands. The cells that help move mucus out of the body can become damaged, reducing your ability to clear mucus from your air passages, which makes breathing difficult.

Causes of COPD

More than 85 percent of COPD cases are caused by smoking tobacco. A chemical in smoke stimulates inflammation in the lungs, leading to either chronic bronchitis or emphysema. Heavy smokers are at the greatest risk-cigarette smokers have more risk than cigar and pipe smokers. A very small number of cases (1 to 2 percent) are caused by a hereditary condition known as "familial emphysema." The remaining causes of COPD are unknown.

Sources
COPD. Bethesda, MD.: National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, 2009. (Accessed December 30, 2009 at http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/lung/copd/.)

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Bethesda, MD.: National Institutes of Health, 2009. (Accessed December 30, 2009 at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/copdchronicobstructivepulmonarydisease.html.)

Facts about Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Atlanta, GA.: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009. (Accessed December 30, 2009 at http://www.cdc.gov/copd/.)

Fahy JV and Dickey BF. Airway Mucus Function and Dysfunction. New England Journal of Medicine 2010;23:2233-43.

Quon BS, Gan WQ and Sin DS. Contemporary Management of Acute Exacerbations of COPD: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Chest 2008;133;756-766.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• COPD
• diseases
• lung disease
• lung cancer
• what is asthma
• what is copd
• about copd
• inhalers
• emphysema
• what is emphysema
• what is lung disease
• respiratory disease
• lung diseases
• pulmonary disease
• lung cancer symptoms
• pulmonary fibrosis