Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a lung condition that causes long-term breathing problems due to blocked airflow. If you're diagnosed with COPD, see a doctor as soon as possible. If you start wheezing or coughing up yellow mucus, seek medical help immediately. So, what else should you know about COPD?
Symptoms
Chronic cough: more obvious in the morning. As the disease progresses, it may be accompanied by a lifelong cough.
Expectoration: commonly seen in the morning, the cough usually coughs a small amount of sputum, mostly white sticky sputum, if accompanied by infection can be purulent sputum, cough when there is blood in the sputum.
Dyspnea: Patients often cough, expectoration on the basis of gradually increased dyspnea. At first, only when working, going upstairs or climbing a mountain, I felt that the breath was not enough. As the disease progressed, I felt that the breath was not enough when I was active on the ground, and even when I was at rest. When COPD is acute, shortness of breath will worsen, and respiratory failure can occur in severe cases.
Wheezing and chest tightness: Wheezing usually occurs during an exacerbation or acute attack, and chest tightness usually occurs after labor.
Systemic symptoms: In the late stage of the disease, patients will have a loss of appetite and weight loss.
Causes
Several processes can lead to airway narrowing and lead to COPD. Part of the lung may be destroyed, mucus blocks the airways, and the lining of the airways becomes inflamed and swollen.
1.COPD develops gradually over time, often as a result of a combination of risk factors:
2.Tobacco exposure: active smoking or passive exposure to second-hand smoke;
3.Occupational exposure to dust, fumes or chemicals;
4.Household air pollution: Biomass fuels (wood, animal dung, crop residues) or coal are often used for cooking and heating in low - and middle-income countries, resulting in higher smoke exposure levels;
5.Recurrent respiratory tract infection, especially in infants and young children (from birth to 3 years old);
6.A rare genetic disorder, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, can cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at a young age.
What are the aggravating factors of COPD?
The most important cause is infection (including bacterial and viral infection), accounting for about 70%-80% of the causes.
Non-infectious causes include smoking, self-withdrawal from medication, air pollution, increased allergens, and climate (temperature, humidity, etc.), of which continued smoking is the most important.
The causes of some patients were unknown, accounting for about 1/3.
Prevention
COPD is preventable. Daily preventive measures are as follows:
1. The most important preventive measure is to stop or reduce smoking.
2. Remove and improve the toxic and harmful environment, pay attention to listen to weather and air quality forecasts, avoid strenuous outdoor activities in times of serious air pollution, and reduce activities in crowded public places during the epidemic season of infectious respiratory diseases such as influenza, so as to reduce the entry of toxic substances and pathogens into the respiratory tract;
3. Strengthen physical exercise, active walking 6000 steps every day, weekly exercise (such as jogging, swimming, etc.) at least 150 minutes, improve the quality of the human body, enhance the ability to adapt to changes in the external environment;
4. Eat more foods rich in vitamin A and vitamin C, such as carrots, protein, animal liver and fresh vegetables and fruits, to improve the repair and resistance of respiratory mucosa;
5. Influenza and pneumonia vaccines can be regularly vaccinated to enhance the body's immunity against upper respiratory tract infections.
How to prevent sudden exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in the cold season?
First of all, we should quit smoking, pay attention to cold and warm to avoid cold, appropriate respiratory function exercises (such as abdominal breathing, belly bulge when inspiratory), improve the muscle strength and tolerance of respiratory muscles, regular vaccination (such as influenza vaccine, pneumococcal vaccine, etc.) to improve immunity, and eat milk, eggs and other high-protein foods to improve the nutritional status of the whole body.
Family Therapy
Patients with COPD can benefit from exercise and home oxygen therapy in daily life.
How can people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease perform general exercise?
1. Outdoor exercise should be carried out in a place with good air and smooth ground, and indoor exercise should be ventilated by opening Windows.
The intensity and time of exercise will be determined according to their own situation, the principle is not to make themselves overworked, you can choose to walk, jogging and other ways, at least 6 to 8 weeks, it is best to adhere to sports.
2. It may lead to the occurrence or aggravation of hypoxemia during exercise. For such patients, if they feel breathing difficulty, chest tightness and discomfort or blood oxygen saturation ≤ 88% during exercise, oxygen can be inhaled.
How to use home oxygen therapy in patients with COPD?
Based on other underlying diseases, symptoms and signs, mental status, and lung function, talk to your doctor about a home oxygen therapy plan, including the source of oxygen, oxygen concentration, and oxygen duration.
Common sources of oxygen are:
Steel compressed oxygen cylinder: the advantages are cheap, easy to buy, the disadvantages are bulky, storage of less oxygen, the need for repeated filling;
Oxygen concentrators: it is more convenient for family oxygen therapy without oxygen storage equipment. The disadvantage is that it needs electricity, has noise, needs regular maintenance, is expensive, and is not convenient to move;
Liquid oxygen: the advantage is more oxygen storage, the disadvantage is expensive.
Oxygen supply device:
A nasal cannula or nasal plug to give oxygen: cheap, simple, convenient, does not affect eating and drinking water, cough, expectoration, but often affected by the depth of breathing, breathing times and whether there is mouth breathing and so on;
Mask oxygen inhalation: the effect of oxygen inhalation is better than the nasal catheter, but it is inconvenient to use. It is necessary to remove the mask when eating and drinking, coughing and expectoration;
Oxygen administration: The controlled oxygen therapy strategy is generally adopted, in the initial (1 to 3 days of treatment) to give a low concentration of oxygen, oxygen concentration of 1 to 2 L/min, and then gradually increase the oxygen concentration or maintain the initial concentration.
How can COPD patients quit smoking?
The common drugs and therapies for smoking cessation in our country are: nicotine spray/inhaler/gum/plaster, and amfeolone tablets, but the most critical to the success of smoking cessation is: the cognition of the degree of smoking harm, the determination, goal and perseverance of smoking cessation, and other drugs or therapies only play an assistant role.
Successful smoking cessation was defined as cessation of smoking for 2 years after quitting.
Medical treatment
1. Bronchodilators: similar to drug therapy in the stable phase, including β2-adrenergic receptor agonists (such as salbutamol, terbutaline, etc.), cholinergic receptor inhibitors (such as ipratropium bromide), and theophylline (theophylline or aminophylline), but the use of long-acting bronchodilators (such as tiotropium bromide, indacaterol, etc.) is not recommended in the acute phase;
2. Expectorant drugs: suitable for phlegm not easy to cough, such as ambroxol hydrochloride, acetylcysteine, the effect is better, the common adverse reactions are nausea, abdominal pain, etc;
3. Glucocorticoids: oral prednisone or methylprednisolone, the incidence of adverse reactions is low, but it also increases the risk of pneumonia and oral candida infection;
4. Antibiotics: it is suitable for patients with respiratory tract infections who have aggravated dyspnea, increased sputum volume, and cough purulent sputum. Drugs such as cefuroxime, ceftriaxone, etc., and common adverse reactions are nausea and diarrhea.
Final Thoughts
Although COPD cannot be completely cured, through early prevention, reasonable treatment and a healthy lifestyle, the disease can be effectively controlled and the quality of life of patients can be improved. Increasing public awareness of COPD is essential to reduce morbidity and mortality. Only by focusing on both prevention and treatment can we truly defeat this "silent killer".
