COPD

A. COPD and Its Symptoms

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common, advancing, and severe lung disease that is characterized by persistent limitation in the flow of air making it hard to ventilate. Patients exhibit extensive dyspnea, chronic cough, and excessive production of sputum. Chronic airflow limitation inherent of COPD results from long-term inhalation of respiratory tract irritants, such as cigarette smoke, resulting in an abnormal inflammatory response in the tract. Inflammation causes the bronchial smooth muscle to contract leading to bronchoconstriction. This makes ventilation very difficult. When inflammation goes unchecked it develops further and causes structural alteration and narrowing of the ventilation tract and destruction of the lung tissue where gaseous exchange occurs (De SErres, 2002, p. 21).

The term COPD is used to replace two conditions Chronic bronchitis and Emphysema. Chronic bronchitis is caused by inflammation of and narrowing of the bronchi as a result of continued irritation of the epithelia lining of this airways. It is characterized by presence of thick mucus which makes ventilation uncomfortable. A cough with thick sputum production is also present for at least three months. Emphysema caused by extensive damage to the alveoli leading to lose of their shape and elasticity which impairs their mechanism of recoil during expiration and or destruction of the walls of the air sacs. There is no cure for COPD. However, treatments can help manage the disease.

COPD symptoms initially do not manifest themselves openly and are usually unnoticeable. As the condition progresses first from a ‘phlegmy’ cough or breathlessness most people cannot tell their general practitioner, but treatment shou...

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...pes and the function of quantitative imaging in assessment and reclassification of COPD. The combined study of COPD and emphysema is projected to give insights into systemic co-morbidities i.e. abnormities in body composition and osteoporosis.

Recent article has been published from the Mayo Clinic that mindfulness has decreased the number of hospital admissions and also decreased the number of stays a patient may have as an inpatient. About seventy percent of the cost of COPD is related to hospitalization, and typically common within order adults. Mindfulness has origins in 2,500-year-old Buddhist traditions. The idea of mindfulness is to become aware of every moment you make, and to pay attention to everything you are sensing and feeling. It has shown over in hundred scientific studies that the way we think can have a significant effect in our physical conditions.