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Chronic |
Obstructive Pulmonary Disease |
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instead that before tackling COPD, we have to first discuss the anatomy of the lung.
When you take in a breath, the air and its all-important oxygen head down the trachea into large airways or bronchi, which quickly split and re-split into progressively narrower passages called bronchioles. The bronchioles get smaller and smaller and finally end in tiny airsacs or alveoli that make up the bulk of the lung. Alveoli, then, are nothing but very, very thin airsacs, which for some reason has again brought the image of Paris Hilton to my mind.
....From the alveoli, oxygen is transferred through very thin blood vessels into blood cells which then transport the oxygen to the heart and the rest of the body to fuel your vital bodily functions, which include such crucial functions, of course as the ability to play poker online.
....It’s now believed that chronic inflammation underlies most of the significant chronic disease illnesses we suffer from, including such disparate conditions as heart disease, most forms of dementia, and arthritis. Inflammation is also believed now to be the underlying cause of both chronic bronchitis and emphysema, which are now viewed as simply variants of a similar disease process.
....In chronic bronchitis, the main inflammation manifests in the airways, leading to a productive cough |
....For those of you who spend too much time watching TV, which is, of course, nearly all of you (OK, me too, but hey, I only watch educational stuff; OK, OK, hockey, too, but only because I learn so much from watching multi-millionaires chasing a rubber disc around an enclosed ice rink and then whining about the hardships in their lives), I must warn you that although this article is about COPD, initials that will undoubtedly get your full attention because COPD sounds a lot like it’s going to be another of those popular cop shows on the tube (all of which seem to star Kiefer Sutherland), this is not in fact an article about cops or any other government agents.
....No, rather COPD stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, a term that, covers two diseases better known as chronic bronchitis and emphysema, in both of which the most prominent |
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feature is chronic (and progressive) obstruction of normal flow of air through the airways. In other words, someone with either form of COPD finds it progressively more and more difficult to breathe normally because some thing or some process is obstructing the normal flow of air through their airways.
....And make no mistake, folks: although most of you have no idea about what COPD is or what it does (a recent study, for example found that only 15 % of North Americans had ever even heard of COPD, which is about 1/8 of the percentage of North Americans who’ve heard of Paris Hilton, COPD is the 4th leading cause of death in North America.
....Before we discuss COPD in detail, though, we – actually, you - have to do some homework on your anatomy. Actually, as the father of two sons I’ll |
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WHERE PEOPLE COME
FIRST
