Lung Disease Emphysema: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment – Emphysema is a condition in which the air sacs in the lungs are gradually destroyed, making the breath shorter. Emphysema is one of the few diseases that is collectively known as Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Smo**king is the main cause of emphysema.
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Emphysema made an air bag consisting of balloon cluster such as the grape bunches into an air bag with gaping holes on the walls. It reduces the surface area of the lungs and, in turn, the amount of oxygen reaching the bloodstream.
Emphysema also slowly destroys the elastic fibers that open up the small airway that leads to the air bag. This allows the airways to collapse when breathing, so the air in the lungs cannot come out.
How common is emphysema?
This lung disease is very common in people who have smo**king habitually. Usually in people with ages 50 to 70 years. If you have a habit of smo**king and risk factors with this disease, discuss with your doctor about your lung health.
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Lung Disease Emphysema symptoms
Emphysema disease can not cause symptoms. When symptoms arise, a perceived complaint may arise gradually, such as:
Short Breath
In the medical world, short breath is also known as dyspnea. This is a typical symptom of emphysema. This condition refers more to the sensation of shortness of breath. This causes a person to have a slower or deeper breathing rate, but is shallow.
Breathe Fast
This condition differs from the dyspnea. Fast Breathing in medical terms known as tachypnea. Besides Dyspnea, rapid breathing is also very common in people with emphysema.
This occurs due to the level of oxygen in the blood too low, which stimulates a person to breathe faster so that oxygen needs are met.
Other symptoms:
- Cough.
- Get tired quickly
- Weight loss.
- Heartbeat.
- Lips and nails become blue
- Depression
The development of emphysema can last for many years. Therefore, significant symptoms are usually newly felt at an age of about 40-60 years.
Causes of emphysema
The main cause of emphysema is the exposure of substances in the air that irritates the lungs over a long period of time. Substances that cause such irritation may include:
- Ciga**rette smoke. Emphysema experienced by many smo**kers, both active and passive, who is exposed to ciga**rette smoke for a long time.
- Air pollution.
- Smoke or dust chemicals.
In addition to exposure to irritating substances, emphysema may also occur due to genetic disorders. An example is alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency, where the deficiency of a protein that serves to protect the elastic structure of the lungs in the body. Nevertheless, this condition is rare.
Who is at risk of emphysema disease?
Usually, the disease is experienced by people who have been smo**king for long periods of time. That is why, these diseases are usually successfully diagnosed or found in middle-aged or elderly. Not only men, women also have the potential to have this disease.
According to a report from the Surgeon General’s Office of the Department of Health and Human Services, smo**kers increase their risk of being exposed to emphysema as much as 13 times greater (HHS, 2004). Not only smo**kers, people who are exposed to ciga**rette smoke, or passive smo**kers are also at risk of developing this disease.
In addition to ciga**rette smoke, air pollution and other chemical exposure, which may be obtained from the working environment also cause a person to risk developing the disease. Certain factory workers are one such example.
In addition to air pollution, and ciga**rette smoke, there are other risk factors, in addition to air quality, which causes one to risk for this disease.
Lung Disease Emphysema treatment
For people with emphysema who smo**ke, the initial step of treatment is to stop smo**king to stop the effects of damage caused by emphysema. Because emphysema cannot be cured, the treatment is done to relieve the symptoms, and slow the progression of the disease. The handling of emphysema is several types, namely:
- Drugs.
- Therapy.
- Surgery.
Contact your doctor immediately if you feel the above symptoms. Proper handling can minimize the effects, so the treatment can be done faster.
Thank you very much for reading Lung Disease Emphysema: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment, hopefully useful.
