How Do You Know It's COPD?

Knowing how to recognize COPD symptoms is crucial to keeping the lung condition from putting your life on hold. Get the facts to answer the question.

What's COPD? It stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the third leading cause of death in the United States. To put it in perspective, someone in the United States dies of COPD death every four minutes. Experts estimate 12 million people have the condition and don't even know it.

COPD is the umbrella term for two lung conditions: emphysema and chronic bronchitis. COPD causes obstruction of airflow through the breathing tubes in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe in and out. COPD awareness is important because the sooner it's diagnosed, the better chance you have of slowing it down. As a chronic condition, it will get worse over time, and there's no cure.

Know the Signs

Many people have never heard of COPD, and its symptoms, such as shortness of breath, are mild at first. This makes it easy toignore telltale signs or simply attribute them to getting older. It's important to understand feeling short of breath while going about your everyday activities is not normal. Discuss any hint of these symptoms with your doctor as soon as you spot any:

A persistent cough
Making an excessive amount of phlegm
Wheezing
Shortness of breath
Inability to take a deep breath

Know the Risk Factors

The following are risk factors for developing COPD:

Smoking. Nine out of 10 deaths caused by COPD occur in people with a history of smoking, making lighting up the No. 1 cause of COPD. If you're a current or past smoker older than 40, you're at risk.
Environmental factors. Exposure to environmental lung irritants such as pollutants, chemicals, fumes, dust, and secondhand smoke all put you at risk for COPD.
Genetics. Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency is an inherited condition that can cause COPD. An estimated 100,000 Americans have it. People with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency can develop COPD even if they've never smoked or have never been exposed to harmful pollutants over an extended time period.
Gender. Several studies show women are more susceptible to the effects of tobacco smoke than men, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Still, more research is needed. In developing countries, exposure to indoor pollutants from cooking and heating fuels is common and significantly increases the risk for COPD, especially in women.

Why an Early COPD Diagnosis Matters

Ignoring symptoms will only allow your COPD to progress. In a survey from the NIH, roughly 40 percent of smokers noticed COPD symptoms but didn't talk with their doctors about them. People often wait until their symptoms become severe, but by then they've often lost about half of their lung function.

If you're afraid testing could be painful and invasive, don't be. Doctors diagnose COPD by performing a simple in-office test called spirometry. During the test, you will be asked to blow hard and fast into a tube connected to a spirometer, a machine that measures total air exhaled and the air exhaled in the first second of testing.

The sooner your doctor makes a COPD diagnosis, the sooner you can start treatment to prevent further loss of lung function. And that will definitely leave you breathing easier.