Your Lungs Become Damaged with COPD.
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With COPD, your lungs do not work as well as they once did. So you find it more and more difficult to breathe. As the disease progresses, your symptoms tend to get worse and more damage occurs in the lungs. This damage is permanent.
Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are COPD.
When you talk about chronic bronchitis or emphysema, it's important to realize that you are really talking about COPD. With COPD, you can have one or both of these conditions. Most patients have both.
Chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and the lungs.
Some people dismiss their breathing problems, saying, "I'm just getting older." But with COPD, it's not a case of your lungs getting older. Your lungs have been changed by chronic bronchitis and emphysema. And most of the changes can't be reversed.
With this virtual lung tour, you can see what chronic bronchitis and emphysema are doing to the lungs of someone with COPD. You'll also see how the disease progresses, starting with a normal set of lungs and going to Stage 4, the most severe stage of COPD.
Chronic bronchitis can cause airways to narrow.
Chronic bronchitis can cause the airways in the lungs to swell and narrow. This creates more resistance, and it becomes harder to push air through.
- Chronic bronchitis fills the airways with mucus and phlegm, which restricts airflow.
- Chronic bronchitis also causes airway inflammation, making airway walls thicker and airway passages narrow.
- In addition to chronic bronchitis, emphysema causes the alveolar attachments, which hold airways open and in place, to begin to break down. This causes the airways to partially collapse while breathing.
SEE THE EFFECTS OF COPD AT EACH STAGE
Air Sacs become broken down.
Emphysema causes a lot of damage inside the alveoli, or air sacs. The major work of the lungs is done here, where gases (oxygen, carbon dioxide) are exchanged by the blood.
- Emphysema causes the air sacs to lose their ability to expand and then quickly return to their original shape. This makes less pressure to push air out of the lungs.
- Emphysema destroys the gas-exchanging surface in the alveoli. This is where oxygen is taken up by the blood cells and where the blood brings carbon dioxide to be exhaled.
SEE THE EFFECTS OF COPD AT EACH STAGE
Air Sacs lose their shape.
Emphysema causes the air sacs to become overstretched and worn out, like old balloons. As they become more and more broken down, they get larger and lose their elastic recoil.
- These changes in the shape of the air sacs limit the flow in the airways.
- The lungs work less efficiently, which makes it harder for them to exhale the "old air." This causes the air to get trapped in the lungs.
SEE THE EFFECTS OF COPD AT EACH STAGE
Getting short of breath is a normal part of aging.
REALITY: While some loss of energy and body strength is normal with age, persistent breathlessness is not. If you're cutting back on daily physical activities because of your breathing and you have a history of smoking, you should speak with your doctor. The reality is, it could be COPD.
