Ever smoked?

HEALTH INFORMATION FROM DPP

Then you need

to know about
Chronic
Obstructive
Pulmonary
Disease

www.dpp.org.uk
What you need to know
about Chronic Obstructive
Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
Ever run out of puff halfway up the stairs? Found yourself
wheezing when you really meant to laugh? Coughed up
phlegm when you don't even have a cold?

If you smoke, ever have, or you are around smoke a lot,

chances are you can answer ‘yes’. Chances are you also know
these are not healthy signs.

But what you probably didn't know is that they could be

early signs of COPD – which is short for Chronic Obstructive
Pulmonary Disease.

If COPD is news to you, you’re not alone. Very few of us are

familiar with this increasingly common lung disease even
though it kills more than 20 times as many people as asthma.
Smoking is the main cause, but 1 in 5 people with COPD get
it without ever having smoked.

This booklet will explain about the condition, describe the

symptoms and offer sources of support to help you reduce
your risk by cutting out smoking and getting the help
you need.
What is COPD?
COPD is not a single disease, but a group of conditions (including chronic
bronchitis and emphysema) that damage the lungs, blocking the passage of air
in and out, and making it difficult to breathe.

COPD decreases the lungs’ ability to take in oxygen and remove carbon dioxide
when we breathe. As the disease gets worse, small airways within the walls of
the lungs become less elastic. Finally, the airways collapse, and become clogged
with mucus. Although air continues to reach the lungs when you breathe in, it
becomes trapped, making it difficult and uncomfortable to breathe out.

FACT: Up to three
million people in the
UK are estimated to
healthy
have COPD at any airway
one time.

airway
with COPD

Who gets COPD? Are you at risk?

It’s simple. If you smoke, you are at risk. But even if you don’t, you may be affected.

Smoking is the major cause of COPD, and four out of five cases are smoking
related. Genetic factors can affect the way that smoke and other factors such
as air pollution can damage the lungs.

FACT: Female smokers are nearly 13 times more likely to die

from COPD as women who have never smoked. Male smokers
are nearly 12 times more likely to die from COPD as men who
have never smoked.

“I gave up smoking because I was worried about cancer. I hadn’t

even heard of COPD and didn’t know I was at risk. It would have
encouraged me to give up earlier if I had known.”
Jason North, ex-smoker, aged 35
Spotting the symptoms
Smokers often overlook COPD symptoms thinking ‘smoker’s cough’ and general
breathlessness are just par for the course – the ‘natural’ side-effects of smoking,
or ‘normal’ signs of getting older. In many cases, however, they could be the
earliest signs of COPD.

Common symptoms of COPD include:

• ‘wet’ cough, usually accompanied by a lot of phlegm
• tightness in the chest
• shortness of breath (particularly in cold weather and in the mornings)
• wheezing with mild exertions, like climbing stairs
• frequent clearing of the throat
• chest infections with phlegm becoming yellow or green.

A cough can occur quite a long time before breathlessness occurs.

The breathlessness of COPD can cause panic. Some people describe it as like
‘drowning on land’.

FACT: COPD causes one-fifth of the UK's annual

smoking-related deaths.

How is COPD diagnosed?

If you have any of the symptoms listed earlier, seek advice from a health
professional as soon as possible. Your condition may not be caused by COPD, so
you will need to be properly assessed by a GP, practice nurse or occupational
health nurse (if you work and have an occupational health service). If COPD is
suspected, they will need to check your lung function using a spirometer, which
tests how much ‘puff’ you have in your lungs.

Practice nurses and occupational health nurses usually carry out the spirometry
test, and all you have to do is blow into a machine which measures your
breathing over a specified time.

Other tests may be required to rule out other causes of COPD-like symptoms.
These include chest X-rays and blood tests, and are most likely to be required to
confirm a COPD diagnosis made as a result of a spirometry test.

Don’t be shy; smokers sometimes feel guilty or embarrassed about seeking help
for a condition they think they might have ‘brought upon themselves’ by
smoking, but doctors would much rather they get help early and there is a lot
your surgery can do to help you manage the condition.
Take action now
It’s important that you don’t put off getting tested. COPD is a progressive
disease. This means it gets worse over time. It also means that the sooner you
give up smoking and get help, the more you increase your chances of reducing
the effect of the disease on your life.

There is no cure for COPD and it can lead to death in some cases. The good
news is it can be looked after effectively, especially if caught early.

No matter what age you are, if you’ve ever smoked and have been experiencing
breathlessness or a cough with phlegm for a few weeks, seek medical advice.
Even smokers in their early twenties with a ‘smoker’s cough’ could be
experiencing the early stages of COPD, although it could have other causes.

Once you have symptoms, continuing to smoke and failing to get treatment
leads to increased breathlessness and more chest infections. As the disease
worsens, too little oxygen reaches the lungs, leaving the heart in short supply.
This can make it difficult for the heart to work properly and can lead to
heart failure.

FACT: Most of the 25,000 deaths from COPD flare-ups each

year could have been prevented through early detection.

If you smoke, give up

The single most effective way to prevent COPD – or to stop it getting worse if
you already have it – is not to smoke.

Any damage already done to your airways can't be reversed,

but stopping smoking usually prevents the disease from
progressing.

Remember, it is NEVER too late to stop smoking,

the benefits of quitting increase over time, and
even people with advanced COPD tend to
benefit from giving up.

When you do give up, you might find any

cough gets worse for a while as your airways
recover. Don’t make the mistake of starting
smoking again to ease the cough!
Support to quit
There are at least 12 million people in the UK today who have given up
smoking. Many needed more than one attempt at quitting for good, but each
try taught them more about themselves and their habit, making the next
attempt easier.

There are so many sources of help and support for people trying to give up
that it can be hard to know where to turn first. Here are a few suggestions:

• Any GP, practice nurse, health visitor, occupational health nurse or midwife
(if you’re pregnant) can offer advice and information about stop smoking
services or treatments like nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) that are
available on prescription.
• Pharmacists can provide on-the-spot advice and treatment without the
need to book an appointment.
• The NHS Stop Smoking Service free helpline (0800 169 0 169) is open
between 7am and 11pm every day for information requests and referrals,
with unlimited access to trained advisors giving one-to-one advice and
support from 10am.
Further information is available at www.givingupsmoking.co.uk
• Other helplines and advice sources include Quitline (call free on
0800 00 22 00, www.quit.org.uk or use QUIT’S counselling by email service
[email protected]) and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
www.ash.org.uk

Besides reducing your risk of COPD giving up smoking has many other benefits:

• Your energy levels tend to soar after 3 days off the cigarettes, and breathing
becomes much easier. You could take advantage of this by building up the
amount of exercise you do.
• Your taste buds and sense of smell improve after just two days of being
smoke-free. Make the most of this by making sure your diet is packed with
tasty fruit and veg and plenty of fluids.
• Passive smoking can have a big impact on the health of children. Children
who live with smokers are much more likely to smoke themselves, suffer
asthma attacks and chest infections and have a higher risk of cot death and
meningitis.
• Smoking can cause premature ageing of the skin with smokers in their 40s
often as wrinkly as non-smokers in their 60s.
Getting help to manage
the disease
There is a lot your doctor or nurse can do to help and advise
you to help manage the disease and improve your quality
of life.

• Regular exercise tends to improve breathing and ease

other symptoms. Pulmonary (lung) rehabilitation
programmes can help people with COPD to stay active and
exercise to prevent flare-ups which helps to improve
quality of life.
• If you are overweight any weight loss can help to ease the
symptoms of breathlessness and so improve sleep. Your
doctor or nurse can advise you on healthy weight loss.
• Inhalers are commonly prescribed to reduce breathlessness
and may help prevent flare ups of COPD. Medicines which
thin mucus (mucolytics) can help troublesome coughs.
Other treatments such as steroids, antibiotics and oxygen
can help people with flare ups of COPD or help people
with more severe COPD.
• Surgery can help in a small number of cases.

Remember the earlier you seek help, the more your doctor
or nurse will be able to do. Treatment for COPD is often
carried out at your local GP surgery.
 Further information about COPD

British Lung Foundation:

www.lunguk.org Helpline 08458 50 50 20

The Breathe Easy Network:

Breathe Easy is the support network of the British Lung Foundation
providing information, support and friendship to all people living
with a lung condition, their family, friends and carers.
For further details, and your nearest group, visit:
www.lunguk.org/supporting-you/breathe-easy

Information on a wide range of health topics, including COPD, is

available from the NHS Direct website at www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk; on
NHS Direct Interactive on digital satellite TV (simply press the
interactive button on your remote control), or by calling NHS Direct
on 0845 4647*

*Calls are charged at BT local rates. Calls from mobiles and other networks may vary.
Your service provider may charge a minimum cost per call. For patients’ safety, calls to
NHS Direct are recorded.

This leaflet contains general information produced by DPP: Developing Patient Partnerships which can
be used as the first step to help you decide the best course of action to take when you or your family
are not well. In the absence of any examination it is not possible to reliably diagnose and treat a
medical condition. Diagnosis can only be carried out by a suitably qualified health professional after a
consultation. The advice and guidance in the leaflet is the responsibility of DPP.

© Developing Patient Partnerships, June 2006, Tavistock House, TavistockSquare, London,WC1H 9JP.
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