COPD Disease

COPD is almost always caused by smoking, or second hand smoke. The tobacco smoke irritates the airways and destroys the fibers in the lungs. Breathing in chemical fumes, dust, or air pollution over a long period of time may also cause it. It usually takes a long time for the lung damage to start causing symptoms, so COPD is most come in people who are older than 60.

COPD is a disease that depletes a person of air. This disease is the fourth top cause of death in the United States. COPD describes several lung diseases including emphysema, chronic bronchitis, refractory asthma, and other forms of bronchiectasis. There is no average case, as every case is different from the next. This disease is long term but treatable.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, commonly known as COPD, is a collection of lung conditions or diseases that, all together, block the flow of air into the lungs. This condition makes it hard for the patient have dyspnea, anoxia, or eventually apnea. COPD usually starts off small and gradually gets worse and worse over time, hints chronic in its name. Because it starts off small there are many people who have this disease but do not know it until it is further along and worse. This disease is very common for both smokers and nonsmokers and is a bigger threat to our health than most people think. < Victor >< MacGill >

Millions of individuals suffer and die from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) each year in our nation. Currently, there is no cure for COPD; therefore, the most beneficial goal for these patients is to provide enhanced quality of life that includes limited admissions to the hospital setting and decreased exacerbations. Management of this disease process through proper patient education and multidisciplinary collaboration improves a COPD patient’s ability to maintain a healthier state of life as well as decrease their chance of a costly hospital readmission (Chamberlain, Lau, Siracuse, 2017).

COPD is an irreversible progressive lung disease that makes it harder for people to breath. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (2015), COPD is the third leading cause of death in the United States.

During the second week of my clinical rotation, I had the privilege of being with the respiratory department, as a result of that my research of the Continuity of Care topic will be based on the topic of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). COPD patients are usually readmitted due to acute exacerbations also known as (AECOPD). (Laverty et al., 2015). In this paper, we explore the COPD discharge care bundles which have been developed by different authors. The care bundle consists of a short list of certain evidence-based practices to be utilized or implemented before discharge for all patients who have been admitted with COPD, based on reviewing national guidelines, evidenced based practices, expert opinion, other relevant literature, peer-reviewed journals and patient consultation. (Hopkinson et al., 2012).

COPD symptoms are often similar symptoms of other lung diseases and conditions, so it's best to consult a doctor as soon as you discover something that may indicate you have early symptoms of COPD. This article is intended only to provide basic and introductory information about COPD symptoms to non-medical readers.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is an umbrella term used to portray dynamic lung sicknesses including emphysema, constant bronchitis, unmanageable (non-reversible) asthma, and a few types of bronchiectasis. This malady is described by expanding shortness of breath (What is COPD?). Many individuals botch their expanded shortness of breath and hacking as an ordinary piece of maturing. In the early phases of the infection, you may not see the side effects (What is COPD?).

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, commonly known as COPD, is a slowly progressive inflammatory respiratory disease that affects the airways in the lungs. This makes it difficult for affected individuals to breath and get enough oxygen into their body. According to health statistics, COPD is the third leading cause of death and disability in the U.S.

Smoking cigarettes is the leading cause of COPD. Most patients diagnosed with COPD are smokers or have smoked in the past. Prolonged exposure to substances that cause lung inflammation or other exasperations, such as air pollution, chemical fumes or dust, can also contribute to a diagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

COPD which stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, is a group of diseases that cause block of airflow, which leads to difficulty in breathing, and these diseases involve chronic bronchitis, emphysema and chronic obstructive airways disease.

Let us first discuss your recent diagnosis of COPD. You may have wondered what COPD is and what caused it. Excellent questions! COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2016). Chronic inflammation obstructs your airflow, resulting in trouble breathing and excess mucus production. So what exactly causes that chronic inflammation? Cigarette smoke and other noxious gases cause this inflammation in your lungs and airway (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2016). Not everyone who smokes gets COPD. Also, not everyone who has COPD smokes. Workplace exposure to noxious gases can also lead to COPD. Additionally, there is a genetic disorder that causes an underproduction of a lung protecting protein (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2016).

COPD is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is an “advanced” heart disease that makes it hard to breathe.” Advanced” means the disease get worse over the time. COPD affect the lungs, the air that you breathe goes down your windpipe into tubes in your lungs called bronchial tubes or airway. This airways and air sacs are elastic, when you breathe in; each air sac fills up with air like a small balloon and when you breathe out, the air sacs collapse and the air goes out. The air you breathe in is oxygen and the air you breathe out is carbon dioxide. In COPD, less air flows in and out of the airways because of one or more of the following reasons:

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) refers to a recurring illness of the respiratory system that makes it difficult to breathe by restricting the flow of air in and out of the lungs. COPD includes chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and other lung conditions.

For this discussion topic, I decided to talk about COPD. COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which causes obstructed airflow from the lungs. Some symptoms of COPD is coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing, chest tightness, having to clear the throat due to excess mucus in the lungs and lack of energy. Test that could be done to help diagnosis COPD would be a pulmonary function test, chest x-ray, CT scan and arterial blood gas analysis. A pulmonary function test is the most common lung test. During this test, the patient will blow into a large tube connected to a spirometer. This machine measures how much air the lungs can hold and how fast the patient can blow out air. The chest x-ray can show emphysema, which is one of