November: COPD Awareness Month

Who’s at risk for COPD? For many of us, when we think about Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), we assume an older adult with obvious breathing difficulties. However, many adults with COPD will not notice any symptoms until it is in a more moderate stage.

If you have experienced any of these symptoms, you are at risk for developing COPD:

• Chronic coughing with or without sputum
• Wheezing
• Shortness of breath that becomes worse over time
• An inability to keep up with people of your own age
  

Whether or not you have these symptoms, a history of smoking or long-term exposure to air pollutants such as pollution or second-hand smoke put you at risk for COPD. It’s a good idea to get yourself routinely tested for COPD. Spirometry is a quite simple and noninvasive test used to diagnose the disease. Taking the test involves blowing all the air from your lungs into a mouthpiece connected to a machine called a spirometer.

The machine calculates two numbers–the amount of air you blow out in the first second, and the amount of air you blow out in the next 6 seconds (or more).

It’s very important to get tested, because any symptoms left misdiagnosed, untreated, or even under-treated can get worse much faster than if they were treated properly with medication and therapy. Adults with COPD may be incorrectly diagnosed with asthma. A correct diagnosis allows patients to receive the right treatments and monitoring.

Talk to your doctor about taking a spirometry test, because early screening can identify COPD before any major loss of lung function happens. And if you have questions about any symptoms of breathing difficulties, please call Covenant Allergy and Asthma today!