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COPD Awareness Month November 2017

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, is a chronic lung disease that makes it hard to breathe. The disease is increasingly common, affecting millions of Americans, and is the third leading cause of death in the U.S.

The good news is COPD is often preventable and treatable.

Get Some Lung Disease Education

The American Lung Association is committed to supporting those affected by COPD and offer information, resources and tools to help you understand COPD, manage treatment and lifestyle changes and how to take action today!

What You Need to Know:

If trouble breathing is keeping you from doing what you used to, it could be COPD.

About 12 million Americans may be living with undiagnosed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). If you’re having trouble breathing, it’s a good idea to talk with your doctor about how you’re feeling. It could be COPD.

COPD can cause breathing symptoms like shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing, and more. COPD can be mistaken for a sign of aging or asthma. But COPD is something different–a chronic, progressive condition that can get worse over time.

The first step is getting the right diagnosis. Then you can get the right treatment, so you can breathe easier.

Lung Diseases-Sorting It All Out:

If you want to look up lung diseases and their symptoms, etc. this should help you find what you might be looking for
Lung disease look up by name or search by letter etc. from Lung Org

Here is a COPD Risk Screener from The COPD Foundation to help you decide if you need to seek a doctor’s attention for possible COPD testing and treatment.

People with HIV are at Increased Risk of Debilitating Lung Disease and this site gives a breakdown of how the aging population living with HIV is disproportionately impacted by lung diseases and cancers. Mostly this is due to people with HIV/AIDS living longer, and the fact that more people who are HIV+ smoke, and have other contributing lifestyle factors which put them in a high risk catagory for COPD, and cancer in general.

And here are the COPD signs & symptoms as well as what to expect from COPD.

After diagnosis of COPD each patient will have a treatment plan including drugs tailored to their COPD as well as other lung diseases encountered at the time of COPD diagnosis.
Healthline offers a list of drugs used in COPD treatment.

There are many drugs to treat lung diseases, and WebMD /COPD and Lung Disease is a site with an up to date list, as well as more on respiratory health, lung disease treatments and advances in medical interventions.

Here are 11 Breathing Tips for People With COPD to breathe better with COPD.

Lily&Q’s say…Many of us used to be cigarette smokers and thought that would be what killed us.
Then came HIV/AIDS and some of us used that diagnosis as an excuse to smoke even more!
After all, we were supposed to be dying, so who cared anyway?
Now that a few decades have gone by and we’re not dead yet, of HIV at least, we decided to give up smoking knowing either it would help to increase our life expectancy, or we got sick of the prices on cigs going up and up, and our paychecks NOT following!
In truth though, the lung diseases that haunt many of us now are COPD related, and usually diagnosed together with emphysema, or have chronic asthma or bronchitis as a contributing factor.
PCP or any other lung illnesses due to not having an immune system because of HIV, could make getting screened for COPD a possibility someday, too.
Shout OUT to ALL CURRENT Cig Smokers: Remember, “The Great American Smoke-Out” is Thursday, November 16 this year…Consider throwing that last pack of Camels or whatever, away, and convince yourself you will be just fine without them! Really, you will!
You’ll ALSO live longer, healthier and have more dollars in your pocket. Plus your clothes won’t smell like 3 packs anymore, even after you wash them!
It’s true sayeth the Lily, who has personal experience of this, and is luckily COPD FREE! One thing I DON’T have for a change, YIPPEE!
Get Thee Away AIDS and COPD…As it just may be OLD AGE that finally does me in! Amen to that.