COPD: What to look out for and how to deal with condition

COPD is a common lung disease causing obstruction to airflow and breathing problems.

It is sometimes called emphysema or chronic bronchitis.

In people with COPD, the airways and lungs get damaged.

Symptoms include a cough sometimes with phlegm, difficulty breathing, wheezing and tiredness.

People with COPD are at a higher risk for recurrent lung infections including flu or pneumonia, lung cancer, heart failure, an irregular heart beat called atrial fibrillation, weak muscles, brittle bones, malnutrition, depression and anxiety.

With a massive surge in the number of patients becoming unwell with respiratory diseases in the autumn and winter, I’d like to reach out to all patients in our community to empower them with information on what they need to know about COPD and how to stay healthy.

COPD is usually caused by breathing in harmful substances over a long period of time, in particular cigarette smoke.

Cigarette smoking is the most common risk factor for COPD in high-income countries, such as the UK.

The likelihood of developing COPD increases the more you smoke and the longer you’ve smoked.

However, up to 65 per cent of COPD cases worldwide are not linked to smoking.

Factors in early life, such as low birth weight and childhood respiratory infections as well as indoor and outdoor pollution, are being increasingly recognised as risk factors for COPD in later life.

COPD can also be caused by working in jobs with lots of dust, fumes or chemicals.

A rare genetic condition called AAT (Alpha-1 antitrypsin) deficiency may cause COPD.

COPD is common and mainly affects middle-aged to elderly patients.

In the UK, COPD has been reported to affect approximately three million people with just under two million of these being unaware of their condition and hence undiagnosed.

It affects men more than women.

COPD is a serious medical condition that accounts for approximately 1.4 million GP consultations per year and between 2022 and 2023 was the second most common cause of emergency hospital admissions in England.

COPD accounts for more than 30,000 deaths each year in the UK.

It can be easily diagnosed by your GP who will assess your symptoms and arrange a breathing test called spirometry.

I would urge all patients to see their GP if they have persistent symptoms of COPD, particularly if you’re aged over 35 years and smoke or used to smoke.

COPD is incurable but there are lots of effective treatments to improve your symptoms, slow down the progression of the disease and reduce the likelihood of developing complications.

Treatments include inhalers, nebulisers and medications to make breathing easier, pulmonary rehabilitation which is a specialised programme of exercise and education to improve lung function, nutritional supplementation and — in a very small number of people — surgical operations, such as lung volume reduction surgery, may have a role to improve exercise capacity and quality of life.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people with, or at risk of, COPD get a yearly flu vaccine and should also get pneumococcal vaccines — once as an adult before 65 years old and twice at 65 years or older.

Patients with COPD are also likely to benefit from Covid-19 booster vaccines and in some cases vaccinations against Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Haemophilus Influenzae Type B (HiB).

The most effective treatment for COPD is smoking cessation which is important as over six million people in the UK continue to smoke.

This month the NHS has rolled out a ‘stop-smoking’ pill called Varenicline.

It works by reducing cravings for nicotine and blocking its effect on the brain while also helping with withdrawal symptoms, such as feeling irritable or having difficulty sleeping.

Varenicline has been shown to work as well as vapes to help people stop smoking and is more effective than nicotine-replacement gum or patches.

When used alongside behavioural interventions, such as counselling, Varenicline has been shown to help around one in four people to stop smoking for at least six months.

I would urge all patients who smoke in our community to seek advice from their GP to help them quit and improve their health.

Our columnist Dr Jason Seewoodhary is a former Worcestershire GP.