Not ME!
With smoking comes many health risks but one of the most serious is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease(COPD), a lung disease that over time, makes it hard to breathe. Now before you shake your head and say, “Oh, those poor people! Thank God I don’t have lung disease!” THINK AGAIN!
HALF of this very Community that does have COPD doesn’t know it!
How could this happen? COPD is missed or misunderstood by Primary Care Physicians 40% of the time! Often, more than half of lung capacity is lost before a diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is made. Partly because the condition's patient profile has changed -- it's no longer considered a disease of old men -- and partly because it is fraught with other misconceptions, COPD remains overlooked.
More than 12 million people are diagnosed with COPD, but at least 12 million more unknowingly have it. It's absolutely not on anybody's front burner. The primary care physician is focusing on two or three other chronic conditions, and they don't get around to questions of COPD even when they know about your smoking history!
Why? Doctors still ask why they should test for a disease they can't help. They need to know this is not hopeless, and if diagnosed earlier patients return to work and to normal activities. This is worth identifying. Treating this condition can give patients and families the same satisfaction and hope that treating other chronic diseases can, especially if it’s found earlier when treatments make more difference.
Also, It's a slow and surreptitious process within the lung tissue. At first, few patients notice the subtle changes -- the shallow, uneven breathing; the trapped air; the uncomfortable suffocation. Even when they do, they rationalize: "I'm getting older," they say, or "I need to lose some weight." I used to say, “Oh, I’m out of breath because I’m going too fast for my own good!” No way it could be my precious sickerettes!!!!
Without intervention, the devastation continues -- sometimes a result of cigarette smoke and inhaled toxins, sometimes for no known reason. 90% of folks with COPD have never smoked! Over time, the alveoli appear almost moth-eaten, unable to do their jobs. The silhouette of the heart shrinks because of hyperinflated lungs, the diaphragm flattens and the bronchi become floppy and narrow. Other symptoms -- the chronic cough, the mucus, the shortness of breath, the difficulty blowing air out, waking up with headaches every morning, the inability to do physical activities -- become more pronounced.
Two of the biggest reasons COPD gets missed in the primary care setting are that most physicians believe it can be diagnosed clinically without Spirometry and that it primarily affects men older than 65. Wrong sex and wrong age! I’ve know folks with Stage IV COPD in their 20s! Spirometry is essential because by the time the patient and the physician suspect COPD by symptoms a lot of damage is already done! Of newly diagnosed COPD patients less than 2% had testing. My own COPD was discovered on a chest X Ray when the clinician was looking for pneumonia! And yes, I could have been diagnosed years before had I had the test!
Today, Spirometry Tests are very inexpensive. They're small, about the size of a smart phone; they are easy to use; they are noninvasive; and you get the results immediately! These newer machines generate a computer report, and your Doctor can read it easily.
Don't expect your Doctor to think of giving you a Spirometry Test! Advocate for yourself and Demand It! My wish for you is that you are in the 80% of our Community who are free of COPD. But if you are diagnosed, the sooner the better and you will have a lot more treatment options that can give you the Quality of Life and Lifespan that you deserve!
Never say Never! Find out!
