When you have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), it’s important to control its effects, whether they're everyday symptoms or more intense flare-ups. COPD can leave lasting damage on your lungs if unmanaged, so it's important to know how to spot when symptoms are getting worse for both short-term relief and long-term health.
COPD can also impact other parts of your life. When your lungs and airways don't work properly, it can put limits on the normal daily activities you used to carry out with ease. It can also make you more likely to get certain other illnesses down the line and affect your overall quality of life, especially if symptoms worsen.
To help guide management of the disease day-to-day, explore the risks of COPD and ways the physical effects can change other parts of your life.
How COPD Can Lead to Lung Damage
COPD already weakens your lungs and blocks your airways, and when you have flare-ups, it's often a sign that the disease is getting worse. Temporary flare-ups cause inflammation and further trap air in your lungs. When that happens a lot or COPD symptoms go unmanaged, it can lead to permanent lung damage or even lung failure.
That's why it's so important to know what the symptoms look like. Typically, flare-ups feel worse than what you deal with day to day. Some things to watch for include:
- More coughing
- Your mucus or phlegm changes in color, thickness, or amount
- Trouble sleeping
- Your shortness of breath is worse
- You have a hard time taking a deep breath
- Wheezing or noisy breathing
- More fatigue
Complications and Long-Term Outcomes of COPD
COPD can also raise your chances of having other health issues, which could in turn make the disease worse. COPD puts you at higher odds of having:
- Respiratory infections like the flu and colds
- Heart disease
- Obesity
- Peripheral artery disease
- Lung cancer
Number of Deaths From COPD
COPD is the sixth overall leading cause of death and the fifth disease-related cause of death, mostly among people ages 65 and older.
While more women die from the disease, when men have COPD, they are more likely to die from it. The number of deaths among men is 36.8 per 100,000 people, while for women it's 31.5.
Among racial groups, white people have the highest number of deaths from COPD at 39.2, followed by Black and Hispanic people.
How COPD Affects Quality of Life
Living with COPD, from symptom management to treatment, can impact your daily routine and quality of life in many ways, especially if your lungs get worse and it becomes harder to breathe.
Mental health. It's not uncommon for COPD to cause fear, anxiety, depression, and stress, especially as your symptoms get worse. As a first step, it may be helpful to talk to someone about how you're feeling. You could reach out to family and friends, join a support group, or ask your doctor or professional counselor for help.
Movement. Trouble breathing can sometimes keep you from doing everyday things. COPD can also simply make normal tasks harder, like bathing or dressing. The more effort they take, the more you may feel out of breath or tired. Because of this, people with COPD often need help with these tasks, which can make them feel like a burden on other people.
Energy. Most people say COPD symptoms -- especially cough and phlegm -- are worst in the mornings, which can throw off their energy levels for the rest of the day. Dealing with flare-ups can be exhausting and bothersome too. All of this can impact the amount of energy you have and affect your desire to be a part of social activities. COPD can also worsen sleep quality, which drains you even further, makes symptoms worse, and can impact your mental health too.
COPD and People of Color
Studies have shown that White people have a greater chance of having COPD. But many things affect this, including where you live, your income, and your access to care. Researchers are learning more about how COPD affects Black people.
For people of color, managing the symptoms of COPD is especially challenging, starting with getting the right diagnosis. Because their lungs differ in structure, African Americans score differently on the fixed-ratio spirometry test, the standard test used to diagnose COPD. Many Black people with COPD have never smoked, which may make a health care provider less likely to test for it. This results in missed diagnoses, which makes it harder for people in this group to get help in creating a treatment plan to ease symptoms and head off long-term damage.
Many things need to happen to make sure Black Americans who have COPD get the right treatment. Research studies need to include more Black participants to develop accurate data. Doctors need to be aware of how COPD affects this community and need to use tests in addition to fixed-ratio spirometry to make a definite diagnosis.
For Black Americans, it’s important to find a doctor they trust, with knowledge of their health needs. Studies have found that when people see a doctor of a similar cultural background, they’re more likely to be involved in their care and have better health outcomes. You can find a directory to start your search through organizations such as blackdoctor.org.
Show Sources
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SOURCES:
American Lung Association: "Prevent COPD Exacerbations or Flare Ups," "Conserving Energy and Managing Your Daily Activities," "Trends in COPD Mortality by Sex and Race/Ethnicity," "COPD Trends Brief: Mortality."
Respiratory Research: "Understanding the impact of symptoms on the burden of COPD."
Lung India: "Health-related quality of life of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients: Results from a community based cross-sectional study in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India."
International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: "Acute exacerbation of COPD: is it the "stroke of the lungs," “Does COPD risk vary by ethnicity? A retrospective cross-sectional study.”
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute: "COPD -- Living With."
BMC Cancer: "Effect of COPD on symptoms, quality of life and prognosis in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer."
Mayo Clinic: "COPD."
StatPearls: “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.”
Temple Health: "How to Prevent COPD Flare-Ups."
Journal of General Internal Medicine: “Use of the Spirometric “Fixed-Ratio” Underdiagnoses COPD in African-Americans in a Longitudinal Cohort Study.”
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine: “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in America’s Black Population.”
BlackDoctor.org: “Find a Culturally Sensitive Doctor.”
Stanford University: “More Racial Diversity Among Physicians Would Lead to Better Health Among Black Men, Research Shows.”
JAMA Network: “Black Representation in the Primary Care Physician Workforce and Its Association With Population Life Expectancy and Mortality Rates in the US.”
