Sucking Air Through A Straw

This week marks Respiratory Care Awareness Week. Most of us hear a lot about lung cancer but there is another debilitating lung disease impacting millions of Americans...COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). COPD is actually an umbrella term used to describe a host of lung disease such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, non-reversible asthma, and other condition where areas of the bronchial tubes are permanently and abnormally widened and infected. I can remember a family member saying COPD was like trying to suck air through her nostrils with a straw.

Though there are several causes of COPD, including environmental and genetics, a large number of cases of COPD is directly related to smoking tobacco products.

To learn more about COPD visit the COPD Foundations website.

is an umbrella term used to describe progressive lung diseases
including emphysema, chronic bronchitis, refractory (non-reversible)
asthma, and some forms of bronchiectasis - See more at:
http://www.copdfoundation.org/What-is-COPD/Understanding-COPD/What-is-COPD.aspx#sthash.4rWVTSJ4.dpuf