What Causes Emphysema and Chronic Bronchitis? |

If you have emphysema or chronic bronchitis, you know how awful it feels when you get a cold virus. Breathing is difficult enough with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Not only does catching a cold worsen your ability to breathe and be active, but the cold virus increases your chance of getting a more serious respiratory illness.

Both are chronic lung diseases that make it hard to breathe. Both diseases are chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, meaning they are conditions that cause a limitation in airflow and affects breathing.

Emphysema and chronic bronchitis may happen separately or together and are usually the result of smoking. In addition, although it happens rarely, a genetic form of emphysema can occur early in adulthood, even if you never smoked. In your life Chronic bronchitis involves inflammation and enlargement of the lining of the airways that leads to narrowing and obstruction of the airways.

The inflammation also stimulates production of mucus which can cause further obstruction of the airways. Obstruction of the airways, especially with mucus, increases the likelihood of bacterial lung infections. Chronic bronchitis usually is defined clinically as a daily cough with production of mucus for three months in a row. The symptoms of chronic bronchitis are a constant cough and excess phlegm. There is also a higher incidence of throat and lung infections. People with chronic bronchitis are more susceptible to both lung and heart failure.

Tobacco smoke contains many harmful chemicals, and the smoke itself limits our lungs’ natural filtering/cleaning system. Cigarette smoke also contains substances that directly damage the lung tissue. Smoking irritates the bronchial tubes in the lungs which in turn results in the production of more mucus. Smokers’ cough, as it is commonly known, is a sign that the lungs are trying to clean themselves.

Emphysema (also known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a group of lung diseases that are characterized by a reduced ability of the lungs to oxygenate the blood.

Emphysema and chronic bronchitis mostly occur together. Emphysema develops over many years — as the small air sacs within the lungs are slowly destroyed, usually by cigarette smoke. As a result, the surface area necessary to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide becomes inadequate, and patients become more and more short of breath.

Almost half of patients with COPD have anxiety, depression, or another psychiatric disorder, compared with 31% in the general population. Women with COPD are more susceptible to psychological problems than men.

Emphysema is essentially a chronic disease, which generally occurs after the age of 40. It is less frequent in women.

Almost sixteen million Americans suffer from some form of COPD, and emphysema is the fourth-ranking cause of death in the United States after heart disease, cancer and stroke. Which are all smoking related illnesses.