What is COPD? How to manage it? What are the precautions to be taken? What are the signs and symptoms? What is the cause of this disease? How to treat it? How can homeopathy help you? All of this answered, in this post and of course our doctors always there to help you. Just fill in your details in the form down below and we will answer all your questions for FREE!
What COPD is?
• COPD or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is defined as a group of diseases of lungs which are responsible for difficult breathing.
• Two commonest diseases of lungs which are responsible for this breathing difficulty and which form chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are Bronchitis and Emphysema.
• The chronic obstructive pulmonary disease occurs in different stages i.e.
mild,
moderate,
severe and very severe.
What are the causative factors of COPD?
• COPD occurrence is more in women than men.
• People of higher age groups especially old people are more affected by COPD.
• Individuals who belong to the genetic history of lung diseases show the high occurrence of COPD in later ages.
• Exposure to smoking directing or indirectly for the long term.
• People who are already suffering from lung diseases like asthma.
What are the sign and symptoms of COPD?
• Tightness feeling in the chest.
• Too much formation of mucus in the chest at night and expelled in the morning.
• During exertion of the body there is difficulty in breathing, lead to shortness of breath.
• The patient suffers from recurrent attacks of infection of lungs.
• Weight loss in later stages of infection.
• A long-lasting cough is present.
What are the stages of COPD?
Stage 1 (mild symptom stage)
• History of chronic cough with much mucus.
• Pulmonary function test shows more than 80% value indicates lungs are normal at this stage.
Stage 2 (moderate symptom stage)
• Breath is short during physical exertion.
• A chronic complaint of coughing with associated mucus.
• Pulmonary function test results show between 50-80%. Lungs are functioning at not normal levels.
Stage 3 (severe symptom stage)
• Shortness of breath is increased.
• Due to a decrease in intake of oxygen by blood through lungs leading to fatigue of body and reduce in physical work capacity.
• Repeated and recurrent attacks of breathless and lot of cough and mucus.
• Pulmonary functions test results in low levels i.e. 30-50%.
Stage 4 (very severe stage)
• At this stage, there is the severity of shortness of breath.
• The patient is not comfortable with performing regular routine works.
• Weight loss is increased.
• There is the occurrence of edema in extremities especially legs and arms.
• Emergency flaring up of symptoms occur at this stage and patient needs hospitalization.
• Pulmonary function test is very low levels showing the result of respiratory failure i.e. less than 30%.
How to Diagnose COPD?
• History of symptoms of the patient helps a lot in making disease picture.
• Amount of mucus coming daily help to know the severity of the disease.
• Sputum examination in cases of infection.
• X-ray chest.
• CT scan of chest helps to detect the severity of the stage of the disease.
• Pulmonary function tests
• Arterial blood gas analysis also helps a lot.
What are the complications of COPD?
• Lung cancer.
• Respiratory failure leading to death.
• Heart diseases risk increased.
• Depression is also a leading complication of COPD.
• Hypertension can occur in chronic cases.
• Pneumonia.
• Pneumothorax.
• Cor pulmonale.
• Severe weight loss in chronic cases, malnutrition.
• Osteoporosis.
How to treat COPD?
• Stoppage of the habit of smoking is very important to stop the progress of the disease.
Antibiotics are very helpful to curb the infection.
• There is the different type of therapies
-Pulmonary rehabilitation program
-Oxygen therapy
• Surgeries
-Lung transplant.
-Lung volume reduction surgery.
What are the indicated medicines of COPD?
• Ammoniacum gummi
• Arsenicum album
• Antimonium sulphuratum
• Sulphur
For more information, you can visit MayoClinic and eMedlinePlus.
