Common diseases in autumn and winter: COPD

Common diseases in autumn and winter: COPD

----Kong Yu and Chang Tianying from the Comprehensive ICU of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University

With the arrival of late autumn, the weather is getting colder and the temperature difference between day and night is gradually increasing. It is the peak season for respiratory diseases. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common chronic disease characterized by chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema with airflow obstruction, which can further develop into cor pulmonale and respiratory failure. The global incidence rate of people over 40 years old has reached 9% to 10%, and the number of COPD patients in my country has reached nearly 100 million. People who smoke for a long time and are exposed to toxic gases are susceptible.

Causes of COPD:

1. External factors: Smoking is the most important risk factor. Others include inhalation of indoor and outdoor dust and chemicals, air pollution, respiratory infections, etc.

2. Internal factors: related to genetic factors, increased airway reactivity, and poor lung development or growth due to various reasons during pregnancy, neonatal period, infancy or childhood.

Symptoms of COPD:

1. Main symptoms: chronic cough, sputum, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, wheezing and chest tightness. These symptoms usually appear gradually, with chronic cough often being the first symptom to appear. Most people do not pay attention to them until the symptoms become serious.

2. Clinical diagnosis: mainly includes pulmonary function test, chest X-ray, chest CT, arterial blood gas analysis, etc., which can determine the severity of the disease, lung complications, etc.

Prevention of COPD:

1. Quitting smoking: The key measure to prevent the occurrence and progression of COPD is to quit smoking. Without quitting smoking, it is difficult to achieve good results with drug treatment alone.

2. Avoid air pollution: Avoid burning biomass fuels in poorly ventilated spaces, such as burning wood for cooking, lighting a fire indoors for heating, passive smoking, etc. You can use an air purifier indoors.

3. Avoid occupational exposure: Reduce the inhalation of occupational dust and chemicals. For people who are exposed to occupational dust, such as those working in coal mines, metal mines, cotton textile industry, chemical industry and certain mechanical processing industries, labor protection should be done well.

4. Strengthen exercise: Only with good lung function can patients have better mobility and a good quality of life. Therefore, respiratory function exercise is very important. Patients can exercise their lung function by doing breathing exercises, deep and slow abdominal resistance breathing exercises, singing, whistling, playing the flute, etc.

5. Enhance cold tolerance: Reduced cold tolerance can lead to repeated upper respiratory tract infections in COPD patients, so cold tolerance is also very important for COPD patients. Patients can exercise their cold tolerance by doing appropriate outdoor activities every day.