Like Asthma, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is a disease that affects your ability to breathe, and emphysema and chronic bronchitis both fall under this umbrella term. Unlike Asthma, COPD is progressive rather than just chronic, which means it worsens over time, often due to lifestyle factors such as smoking.The symptoms of the condition are the same as Asthma and are due to the same reasons; inflamed airways, excessive mucus and sometimes also damaged alveolar (air sacs in the lungs). We can trace the cause backwards more easily though, as it’s usually down to cigarette smoke in developed countries, and pollution in developing ones.