Finding out that you or a loved one has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which affects Black at disproportionate rates, can be alarming and may leave you with a lot of questions.
Though COPD has no cure, it’s a condition that can be managed with the right treatments and medications, according to the American Lung Association (ALA).
Here’s what you need to know about COPD, including what it is, its causes, symptoms, stages and risk factors, plus the many treatment options available to those living with the condition.
What is COPD?
COPD is a group of progressive, chronic diseases that constrict airflow in and out of the lungs so that less oxygen moves through the body.
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“It’s three different illnesses, all of which create the same fundamental problem, which is you can’t blow out as fast as you should,” explains Dr. Scott Eisman, a pulmonary disease and critical care medicine specialist at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas in California.
“And those three illnesses are asthma and chronic bronchitis and emphysema — and they’re all different,” he notes.
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Causes and risk factors
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the cause of most cases of COPD is smoking. However, as many as 25 percent of people in the United States with the disease have never smoked cigarettes.
“If you talk about chronic bronchitis and emphysema, the most common cause is cigarette smoking,” Eisman shares. However, he explains that asthma-related COPD could have various causes, such as environmental toxins or certain preexisting conditions such as gastroesophageal reflux disease.
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Scripps Health states that chronic lung infections that damage lung tissues and some cases of chronic asthma where lung tissues fail to relax after an asthma attack can also cause COPD.
The risk factors for developing COPD outlined by the ALA include:
