Chronic obstructive bronchitis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has become a real public health problem in the United States. This disease develops insidiously, especially in smokers. When not support early, it can become very debilitating and affect private and professional life. For the company the cost is exorbitant.
Chronic obstructive bronchitis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Chronic obstructive bronchitis is an inflammation of the bronchi characterized by increased bronchial secretions.
These obstructive bronchitis are considered chronic once the periods of coughing and sputum last three consecutive months and / or recur over a period of two years. It annually affects 3.5 million French, and thousands die from its complications.
Unlike acute bronchitis, more banal, chronic obstructive bronchitis owes nothing to infectious agents (viruses, bacteria), but is due in the vast majority of tobacco or other air pollutants having an irritating action on the bronchi.
What are the risks in the medium and long term chronic obstructive bronchitis?
The probability of chronic obstructive bronchitis is relatively low for the overall population (8%) while it is otherwise very high in people smoking more than 20 cigarettes per day (50%).
COPD should be taken very seriously because the bronchi gradually clog and become brittle. This can lead to repeated infections each winter and even evolve into chronic respiratory failure: respiratory discomfort that first appears in the effort continues in the long rest and then becomes very debilitating.
In some cases, chronic obstructive bronchitis may progress to lung cancer.
The exorbitant economic costs of chronic obstructive bronchitis
Chronic obstructive bronchitis has become a public health problem. In the US, its incidence in the population is such that the authorities have encrypted its overall cost, in 2002, taking into account not only the care of the sick, but also indirect costs generated by the inability to work.
A team of US researchers has revealed that people suffer
ing from COPD patients had a diminished work capacity from 4% to 15% (reduced productivity and absenteeism), depending on the degree of severity of the disease. Dece fact, its cost has been estimated at nearly $ 10 billion. And that was 10 years ago!
Chronic cough, COPD: stop tobacco imperative
We are not all equal before the tobacco and some may resist better than others. Meanwhile, tobacco is responsible for COPD in 90% of cases and the risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked per day and duration of consumption.
So the number of cigarettes that are smoked in total during his life is decisive.
A single watchword: finally quit. It can be encouraging to know that breathing capacity quickly returns to normal after stopping smoking if the lungs have not suffered too much.
So do not expect too much to see: the cough in the morning should be a warning sign. A measure of breathing ability will detect your doctor without difficulty down from normal, witnessed the suffering of the lungs.