Chronic obstructive lung diseases
Is an irreversible disease in which the walls between the alveoli (tiny air sacs) in your lungs are destroyed. The condition causes individual alveoli to merge with the neighboring air sacs, leaving fewer, larger air sacs with less surface area. Less surface area means the air sacs are less efficient at exchanging carbon dioxide for life-giving oxygen. The sacs also become less elastic, so they can’t completely deflate to force carbon dioxide out of your lungs. As a result of this damage, breathing – especially exhaling-become difficult.
Long-term cigarette smoking is by far the most common cause of emphysema, but air pollution and workplace exposure to fumes and dust can also contribute to it. Your risk also rises with a family history of chronic obstructive lung disease, which is emphysema that occurs with chronic bronchitis. In 2 out of 1000 people, an inherited deficiency in the protein alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT) causes the disease. While emphysema usually is diagnosed after age 50, the inherited form can surface 20 years earlier.
Emphysema is 22 percent more common in men than in women, but the numbers are changing as more women smoke. If you have emphysema , you have a higher risk of other medical problems, including repeated lung infections, pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the arteries in the lungs), and heart failure.
To diagnose emphysema, your doctor will use a stethoscope to listen to your breathing and may tap on your chest in various places. A hollow sound indicates emphysema. She may also take an X ray of your chest. In a test called spirometry of air you can exhale is measured. A blood test may be performed to determine the amount of oxygen in your blood, which helps your doctor understand how much oxygen in you’re taking in through your damage lungs.
How is it treated
Emphysema is incurable. But if you smoke-and most people with emphysema do-quitting is your most important treatment.
Your doctor may also recommend one or more the following treatments.
OXYGEN
Inhaling supplemental oxygen eases breathing and improves the function of your heart. The oxygen comes in portable tanks, and you inhale it through a plastic tube with special openings that fit into your nostrils. While some people with emphysema use oxygen only at night, it’s more effective when taken 24 hours a day. But it can seriously limit your mobility. Never smoke while using supplemental oxygen, and keep the tank away from open flames.
DRUGS
Inhaled corticosteroid drugs such as beclomethasone (Beelovent) help heal the lining of your breathing passages. For people with the inherited form of emphysema an alpha-1 proteinase inhibitor (prolastin) may be given intravenously once a week to raise the blood level of AAT. Antibiotics are used to treat chronic lung infection such as bronchitis or pneumonia. Bronchodilators such as albuterol (Proventil, Ventolin) relax the muscles of your airways, which helps open breathing passages. You inhale these drugs through your mouth or nose, and they start to work in minutes.
SURGERY
Lung reduction surgery (still experiments) cuts away diseased lung sections, giving healthy parts more room to expand. It is usually reserved for severe cases.
Your Prevention Plan
~Diet- eat your antioxidants
~Exercise- shake a leg
~Medical Option – build your defenses
~Supplements-consider N-acetyl cysteine (NAC)
~Give yourself a C
~Lifestyle – stop smoking
~Watch what you breathe
