does asthma cause COPD?
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Answers:
What Is COPD?
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a lung disease in which the lungs are damaged, making it hard to breathe. In COPD, the airways—the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs—are partly obstructed, making it difficult to get air in and out.
Cigarette smoking is the most common cause of COPD. Most people with COPD are smokers or former smokers. Breathing in other kinds of lung irritants, like pollution, dust, or chemicals, over a long period of time may also cause or contribute to COPD.
The airways branch out like an upside-down tree, and at the end of each branch are many small, balloon-like air sacs. In healthy people, each airway is clear and open. The air sacs are small and dainty, and both the airways and air sacs are elastic and springy. When you breathe in, each air sac fills up with air like a small balloon; when you breathe out, the balloon deflates and the air goes out. (See the How the Lungs Work section for details.) In COPD, the airways and air sacs lose their shape and become floppy. Less air gets in and less air goes out because:
The airways and air sacs lose their elasticity (like an old rubber band).
The walls between many of the air sacs are destroyed.
The walls of the airways become thick and inflamed (swollen).
Cells in the airways make more mucus (sputum) than usual, which tends to clog the airways.
COPD develops slowly, and it may be many years before you notice symptoms like feeling short of breath. Most of the time, COPD is diagnosed in middle-aged or older people.
COPD is a major cause of death and illness, and it is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States and throughout the world.
There is no cure for COPD. The damage to your airways and lungs cannot be reversed, but there are things you can do to feel better and slow the damage.
COPD is not contagious—you cannot catch it from someone else.Chronic obstructive airway disease
Chronic obstructive lung disease
In the United States, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) includes:
Emphysema
Chronic bronchitis
In the emphysema type of COPD, the walls between many of the air sacs are destroyed, leading to a few large air sacs instead of many tiny ones (see the How the Lungs Work section). Consequently, the lung looks like a sponge with many large bubbles or holes in it, instead of a sponge with very tiny holes. The large air sacs have less surface area for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide than healthy air sacs. Poor exchange of the oxygen and carbon dioxide causes shortness of breath.
In chronic bronchitis, the airways have become inflamed and thickened, and there is an increase in the number and size of mucus-producing cells. This results in excessive mucus production, which in turn contributes to cough and difficulty getting air in and out of the lungs.
Most people with COPD have both chronic bronchitis and emphysema
Most people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are smokers or were smokers in the past. People with a family history of COPD are more likely to get the disease if they smoke. The chance of developing COPD is also greater in people who have spent many years in contact with lung irritants, such as:
Air pollution
Chemical fumes, vapors, and dusts usually linked to certain jobs
A person who has had frequent and severe lung infections, especially during childhood, may have a greater chance of developing lung damage that can lead to COPD. Fortunately, this is much less common today with antibiotic treatments.
Most people with COPD are at least 40 years old or around middle age when symptoms start. It is unusual, but possible, for people younger than 40 years of age to have COPD.
The signs and symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) include:
Cough
Sputum (mucus) production
Shortness of breath, especially with exercise
Wheezing (a whistling or squeaky sound when you breathe)
Chest tightness
A cough that doesn't go away and coughing up lots of mucus are common signs of COPD. These often occur years before the flow of air in and out of the lungs is reduced. However, not everyone with a cough and sputum production goes on to develop COPD, and not everyone with COPD has a cough.
The severity of the symptoms depends on how much of the lung has been destroyed. If you continue to smoke, the lung destruction is faster than if you stop smoking
Asthma (Az-muh) is a chronic disease that affects your airways. The airways are the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. If you have asthma, the inside walls of your airways are inflamed (swollen). The inflammation (IN-fla-MAY-shun) makes the airways very sensitive, and they tend to react strongly to things that you are allergic to or find irritating. When the airways react, they get narrower, and less air flows through to your lung tissue. This causes symptoms like wheezing (a whistling sound when you breathe), coughing, chest tightness, and trouble breathing, especially at night and in the early morning.
Asthma cannot be cured, but most people with asthma can control it so that they have few and infrequent symptoms and can live active lives.
When your asthma symptoms become worse than usual, it is called an asthma episode or attack. During an asthma attack, muscles around the airways tighten up, making the airways narrower so less air flows through. Inflammation increases, and the airways become more swollen and even narrower. Cells in the airways may also make more mucus than usual. This extra mucus also narrows the airways. These changes make it harder to breathe.
the United States, about 20 million people have asthma; nearly 5 million of them are children.
Asthma is closely linked to allergies. Most, but not all, people with asthma have allergies. Children with a family history of allergy and asthma are more likely to have asthma.
Although asthma affects people of all ages, it most often starts in childhood. More boys have asthma than girls, but in adulthood, more women have asthma than men.
Although asthma affects people of all races, African Americans are more likely than Caucasians to be hospitalized for asthma attacks and to die from asthma
Common asthma symptoms include:
Coughing. Coughing from asthma is often worse at night or early in the morning, making it hard to sleep.
Wheezing. Wheezing is a whistling or squeaky sound when you breathe.
Chest tightness. This can feel like something is squeezing or sitting on your chest.
Shortness of breath. Some people say they can't catch their breath, or they feel breathless or out of breath. You may feel like you can't get enough air in or out of your lungs.
Faster breathing or noisy breathing.
Not all people have these symptoms, and symptoms may vary from one asthma attack to another. Symptoms can differ in how severe they are: Sometimes symptoms can be mildly annoying, other times they can be serious enough to make you stop what you are doing, and sometimes symptoms can be so serious that they are life threatening.
Symptoms also differ in how often they occur. Some people with asthma have symptoms only once every few months, others have symptoms every week, and still other people have symptoms every day. With proper treatment, however, most people with asthma can expect to have few or no symptoms.
Until recently, most people who had COPD were grouped together and considered to have one disease. We now know that several different diseases cause this difficulty in releasing air from the lungs. Asthmatic bronchitis, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema are three of the major diseases that are grouped together as COPD.
Other Answers:
what is COPD? I have asthma and never heard of that.
COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) is an umbrella diagnosis that includes 3 major disease process of the lungs. These respiratory illnesses are:
Chronic Bronchitis
Emphysema
Asthma
So, COPD is the main name of the illness, and each of these illnesses are the TYPES of COPD that exist. So, No, Asthma doesn't CAUSE COPD.. it IS COPD.
Here is a website that discusses in more depth what COPD is.
http://www.medicinenet.com/chronic_obstructive_pulmonary_disease_copd/article.htm
Asthma and COPD are two diferrent condition. COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) as the term implies it is obstructive. While asthma is considered as restrictive.
Source(s):
http://healingwell.healthology.com/healingwell/16513.htm
YES YES YES YES YES YES
I dont no but i have asthma
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