Leading health organizations are urging people to get a flu shot if they haven't already done so. Compared to last year's mild flu season, the U.S. has already seen more than three times the number of flu-related deaths. ...
Feb 7, 2023
0
23
Removing the $5 prescription charge for people in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation reduces the number of hospital admissions and the length of stays, a new study shows.
Feb 7, 2023
0
2
Fungal infections cause 1.5M+ deaths each year, and there's no vaccine to prevent them
Jan 31, 2023
0
74
Scientists have long sought to better understand the human body's immune responses that occur during various diseases, including cancer and inflammatory diseases.
Jan 20, 2023
0
71
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who undergo major surgery are more likely to die in the year after surgery and incur higher health care costs than similar patients without COPD, found a new study ...
Jan 17, 2023
0
11
The world's top free divers can hold their breath for minutes at a time, embarking on extended underwater adventures without the aid of scuba equipment.
Jan 9, 2023
0
14
An elderly woman struggles into a community health clinic in rural Texas amid a record-breaking heat wave. She's having a severe asthma attack, wheezing and gasping for air. As medical staff rush over the lights and air conditioning ...
Jan 4, 2023
0
2
Research led by the Centenary Institute, the University of Technology Sydney and Ghent University Hospital, Belgium has identified a new therapeutic approach for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)—the targeting ...
Jan 4, 2023
0
28
The winter storm blowing across much of the country is holding up holiday travel plans as the snow falls and temperatures drop into the below zero digits. The National Weather Service says many parts of the the U.S are affected ...
Dec 27, 2022
0
23
A new paper in Biology Methods & Protocols investigates risk factors and protections against contracting COVID-19, and also for suffering from severe COVID. Researchers have identified several characteristics—including ...
Dec 15, 2022
0
96
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), also known as chronic obstructive lung disease (COLD), chronic obstructive airway disease (COAD), chronic airflow limitation (CAL) and chronic obstructive respiratory disease (CORD), is the co-occurrence of chronic bronchitis and emphysema, a pair of commonly co-existing diseases of the lungs in which the airways become narrowed. This leads to a limitation of the flow of air to and from the lungs, causing shortness of breath (dyspnea). In clinical practice, COPD is defined by its characteristically low airflow on lung function tests. In contrast to asthma, this limitation is poorly reversible and usually gets progressively worse over time. In England, an estimated 842,100 of 50 million people have a diagnosis of COPD.
COPD is caused by noxious particles or gas, most commonly from tobacco smoking, which triggers an abnormal inflammatory response in the lung.
The diagnosis of COPD requires lung function tests. Important management strategies are smoking cessation, vaccinations, rehabilitation, and drug therapy (often using inhalers). Some patients go on to require long-term oxygen therapy or lung transplantation.
Worldwide, COPD ranked as the sixth leading cause of death in 1990. It is projected to be the fourth leading cause of death worldwide by 2030 due to an increase in smoking rates and demographic changes in many countries. COPD is the third leading cause of death in the U.S. and the economic burden of COPD in the U.S. in 2007 was $42.6 billion in health care costs and lost productivity.
This text uses material from Wikipedia licensed under CC BY-SA