COPD Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

COPD - Essay Example Smoking is the most responsible for the COPD in human beings. 15 percent of smokers have been found to suffer from COPD, along with associated respiratory problems. Passive smoking has also been found to affect small children with respiratory problems, and infections. Lung diseases are often caused by air pollution that in many cases develops into COPD. Occupational pollutants like cadmium and silica create the risks of COPD, particularly in individuals who have the chances of intake of these pollutants. Deficiency of alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) is another major cause of COPD that reflects a hereditary problem in many individuals (Schiffman & Shiel, 2013). The process of the disease of COPD consists of three conditions within an individual. These are chronic bronchitis, chronic asthma, and emphysema. The flow of air gets obstructed and hence unable to pass through the airflows often making such obstruction permanent. If patients suffering from asthma are not treated, then such patients tend to have a rigid element of obstruction of the airways leading to COPD. In COPD the limitation in the flow of air is progressive in nature. Moreover it leads to irregular inflammatory reaction of the lungs to lethal particles or harmful gases. The abnormal responses of the inflammations occur â€Å"throughout the proximal and peripheral airways, lung parenchyma, and pulmonary vasculature† (O’Connell Smeltzer et al, 2010, p.602). Since the inflammation is chronic in nature and there is a tendency of the body to repair the process, hence the airways reflect alterations and narrowing in their features. As a result of this disease, there a re changes in the components of the lungs as well (O’Connell Smeltzer et al, 2010, p.602). Certain common treatments are available for COPD patients. With intentions to avert further worsening of the conditions of the lungs, to lessen the symptoms and their effects, and to improve the conditions