Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a mix of two diseases which are chronic bronchitis and emphysema. In the case of chronic bronchitis, the lungs airways that carry air to the lungs are swollen and make a lot of mucus. The inflammation in the airways thus makes it harder to breathe.

In a regular person the small air sac in the lungs act like balloons. As the air goes into and out of the lungs, they get smaller and bigger to move air through your lungs although in the case of emphysema, these air sacs are damaged and lose their stretch. Due to this a lower amount of air can pass through and therefore you feel short of breath.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is known to get worse overtime and there is no way to undo the damage to your lungs although you could take steps to prevent further damage and to feel better.

COPD is normally said to be always caused by smoking. After a long period of time the tobacco smoke starts to irritate the airways and destroy stretchy fibers in your lungs. Other things such as dust, air pollution or breathing chemical fumes could put you at risk of getting COPD. Second hand smoke is also known to be bad.

It generally takes a lot of years for the lungs to damage and start showing symptoms therefore COPD is more common in people who are older than 60. It is also known that you will be more likely to get COPD if you had lung infections as a child. Patients who get emphysema during their thirties and forties may have a condition that runs in the family and this is called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency although this is rare.

The symptoms that are most famously known are chronic cough, mucus that comes out when you cough and shortness of breath that gets worse when you exercise.

It is considered that as COPD gets worse your problem of shortness of breath will not only be limited to exercise and other tough activities, but you will have shortness of breath even while doing simple tasks of getting dressed cooking a meal, etc. People are often known to get thinner and weaker during this disease.

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