What is "Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease" or "COPD"?

What is "Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease" or "COPD"?

Richard Sheldon (Medical Advisor to the CA State Respiratory Care Board) gives expert video advice on: What are the most common causes of respiratory failure?; What are the most common symptoms of respiratory failure? and more...

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD is a very common disorder in the United States, and most of the world. Smoking cessation programmes in the United States have started to lessen the impact of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, especially emphysema. However in other countries; in Europe, China, and Japan, smoking is rampant. Everybody's doing it, so chronic obstructive pulmonary disease continues to be a really serious problem, especially emphysema. Emphysema is most commonly caused by smoking. There are forms of emphysema that are inherited. There are some chemical disorders that can occur in the body, such as alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, that can cause a form of emphysema, but those are relatively rare. Smoking is, by and large, the main issue. We need to address the fact that the more you smoke, the higher your chances of developing these very, very debilitating disorders.