The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is continuing to mobilize its members to raise awareness of COPD and help prevent the risk factors that cause it. 210 million people have COPD worldwide, causing the death of at least 2.9 million people each year. It is the sixth major cause of death and disability in…
Try to imagine what it might feel like to take every breath through a straw. For many people with lung diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, they don’t have to imagine because that’s what breathing can feel like on many days, especially days when air pollution levels are high. With COPD it often…
Smoking is to blame for about 14 million major medical conditions among American adults yearly, a new study shows. That number is higher than the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) last estimate, in the year 2000, which found that American adults suffered from 12.7 million smoking-attributable conditions. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)…
There is a correlation between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) development, with a more pronounced association in women, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers found. In study results published in International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, researchers examined the data of 26,546 women and 19,015 men…
Young kids who were exposed to Bisphenol A (BPA) before birth are more likely than others to have a wheeze before age five, according to a new study that found no connection to BPA exposure after birth. Many plastic and aluminum consumer products contain BPA, and most Americans have detectable BPA concentrations in their urine,…
Exercise may seem daunting to your patients, but has many proven benefits for people with COPD. It will improve their ability to do more without feeling breathless and help them to rediscover activities they could no longer do. Exercise can bring specific benefits to people with lung disease, as well as general improvements to health…
More than a quarter of patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) and a history of smoking also have air flow limitation compatible with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Japanese study data show. Strikingly, the vast majority (87.7%) of patients found to have such airflow limitation had not previously been diagnosed with COPD, report Katsuya Onishi (Onishi…
Obesity increases the risk and progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), even for people who’ve never smoked before. A team of American and German researchers measured the waists, hips, body mass index (BMI), and physical activity of newly diagnosed COPD cases in the U.S., and published the clear link they found in the Canadian…