COPD is the fourth-ranking cause of death just behind heart ailments, cancers, and stroke. COPD, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, claimed the lives of more than 112,584 Americans in 1998.
Classic emphysema develops after many years of assault on lung tissues.
The walls between the tiniest air sacs within the lungs break down, and those compart-ments become unnaturally enlarged. Elasticity of the lung tissue is lost, and the lungs become distended, unable to expand and contract normally. As emphysema progresses, the effort needed to breathe increases and, ultimately, each breath becomes a chore. Chronic bronchitis, though less well known than emphysema, is the ninth-ranking chronic condition in our nation. Like emphysema, many who suffer from it are subject to periodic attacks of obstructed breathing, when airways of the lungs become inflamed and clogged with mucus, often in response to environmental irritants.