To live with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
When it is more and more difficult to breath.
The three stairs up to my apartment took longer and longer to walk. I had to stop more and more often to just breath. Too little excercice I thought but there was a sound too, a sound like asthma. But the doctor made a thorough test of my and found that I had COPD!
I used to smoke a lot and am now paying the price for this.
COPD is recognized as these disease processes:
1. Often bad chronic cough and phlegm
2. Hard to breathe since airflow is not working
3. The airspaces are narrow along with destruction of alveolar walls
Overview of our lungs
When you learn about this condition you want to do something about it
There is no cure for this lung disorder. But there is quite a lot you can do to continue living well. Stop smoking first of all and after that here are a DVD with lots of practical suggestions and tips.
This is what you inhale when smoking cigarettes
First of all - the smoker must WANT TO QUIT
If You Love Someone Who Smokes contains no medical details, no "techniques" and supports no specific drug solution. But for thousands of smokers, the video gives them the heart and the courage to quit-- for the last time. Once you or your love ones have seen it, you can never forget it.
I quit smoking 1978
By then I smoked about 50 cigarettes per day (and part of the night)
It took about 5 awful days before the poison started to leave my body. A feeling of great freedom took its place.
The year 2011 I was diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
You commit Suicide
and you pay the money for it
"Philip Morris Cos. officials in the Czech Republic have been distributing an economic analysis concluding that . . . smokers' early deaths help offset medical expenses," says The Wall Street Journal. "The report, commissioned by the cigarette maker . . . , totes up smoking's 'positive effects' on national finances, including revenue from excise and other taxes on cigarettes and 'health-care cost savings due to early mortality.'" The article adds: "Weighing the costs and benefits, the report concludes that in 1999 the government had a net gain of 5.82 billion koruna ($147.1 million) from smoking." Outcry against the report was swift. "Tobacco companies used to deny that cigarettes killed people. Now they brag about it," one columnist wrote. Said economist Kenneth Warner: "Is there any other company that would boast about making money for the public treasury by killing its customers? I can't think of one." Philip Morris issued an apology the following week. "We understand that this was not only a terrible mistake, but that it was wrong," said senior vice president Steven C. Parrish. "To say it's totally inappropriate is an understatement."
nhlbi.nih.gov
The Most Deadly Addictive Substance
Cigarettes not only are among the most addictive drugs of abuse but are "by far the most deadly," observes the former director of the Institute for the Study of Smoking Behavior and Policy, Thomas C. Schelling. Quitting is hard, he says in the January 24, 1992, issue of Science magazine. The success rate for quitting for two years or more is 1 in 5 per attempt. Why is it so hard to quit? Schelling lists these reasons: Cigarettes are cheap, quickly available, portable, and storable; they produce no impairment of any faculty; and smoking requires no equipment. "The damage is slow in arriving," he says. "The people who suffer cancer and lung and heart disease from smoking have typically smoked for three decades or more before symptoms appear." Although nicotine is the main addictive substance in cigarette smoke, Schelling also suspects that the taste of tobacco smoke and the mood control produced by smoking may add to the addiction. Why is relapse so common? "Most smokers who have quit are rarely more than 5 minutes from the nearest cigarette, and it takes only the briefest loss of control to consummate the urge to smoke," he says.
Answer and/or learn
How dangerous is smoking?
COPD Pictures Slideshow: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment - very helpful information and photos
COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, is a lung disease that makes it hard to breathe. The first symptoms can be so mild that people mistakenly chalk them up to "getting old." People with COPD may develop chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both. COPD tends to get worse over time, but catching it early, along with good care, can help many people stay active and may slow the disease.
- What is COPD?
22 photos and descriptions of COPD - Lung Disease & Respiratory Health Center
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): Damage to the lungs results in difficulty blowing air out, causing shortness of breath. Smoking is by far the most common cause of COPD.
