Many people may not be familiar with the medical term “chronic obstructive pulmonary disease” (COPD), but in fact, COPD is closely related to the commonly mentioned “chronic bronchitis”, “emphysema” and “pulmonary heart disease”. It is closely related to “chronic bronchitis”, “emphysema” and “pulmonary heart disease”.
At present, slow-onset lung has become an alarming global health problem, and its prevalence and death rate are still on the rise. There are about 270 million patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease worldwide. At present, there are about 25 million people suffering from slow obstructive pulmonary disease in China. The annual number of deaths due to slow-onset lung in China reaches 1 million, and slow-onset lung is the third and fourth leading cause of death among urban residents in China, while it is the leading cause of death in rural areas.
Why is the morbidity and mortality rate of slow obstructive pulmonary disease so high? What can be done to effectively control slow obstructive pulmonary disease?
80% of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are delayed
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common respiratory disease caused by long-term inhalation of large amounts of harmful particles, smoke or gases, resulting in an abnormal inflammatory response in the lungs, resulting in bronchial stenosis and obstruction and reduced elasticity and retraction of the lung tissue, leading to airflow limitation, which cannot be completely restored to normal and can be progressively aggravated.
The early symptoms are mainly cough, sputum and wheezing, with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease often occurring in winter and spring. As the disease progresses, the patient may gradually develop decreased respiratory function, chest tightness, shortness of breath and wheezing after activity. Over time, the disease can develop into chronic pulmonary heart disease and even respiratory failure.
Long-term massive inhalation of pharynx, inhalation of dust, smoke, such as rural areas with wood burning kang, urban occupational exposure to dust, smoke or harmful gases, as well as long-term recurrent respiratory tract infections, malnutrition, etc. are all high-risk factors for the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The course of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is generally slow, ranging from as little as 3 to 5 years to as much as 10 to 20 years. Now if we can prevent and treat early, adhere to scientific treatment and scientific medicine, we can fully control the disease effectively, slow down the progress of the disease, so that the patient’s quality of life mentioned to improve. However, unfortunately, there is not enough awareness of slow obstructive pulmonary disease in the society, and the scientific awareness rate of slow obstructive pulmonary disease among the public is still quite low. Patients often go to the hospital only when their symptoms are severe, and at that time, the condition of slow obstructive pulmonary disease is often in the middle or late stage. From the situation of the outpatient clinic, about 80% of the patients are delayed because of the lack of timely treatment.
Three factors “drag” serious patients slow obstructive pulmonary
First, the patient himself did not see the doctor in time. There are many reasons for not seeing a doctor in time, some of them are the lack of awareness of slow lung disease, because the early symptoms of slow lung is mainly cough, sputum, many people do not take it seriously, middle-aged and elderly people cough, cough, or shortness of breath, also think that it is not a big problem, can not be timely medical treatment.
Some patients, such as those who are unemployed in cities and farmers in poor areas, tend to tolerate the disease as long as they can and do not see it, unlike those who have cancer and borrow money to come to the hospital. Other patients think that this disease can not die for a while, in the treatment of “three days to fish, two days to sunbathe”, only when the condition is aggravated to go to the hospital, once the condition remission to stop treatment.
The second is that some medical personnel due to the level of awareness of slow lung disease is not enough, even so far still in one or two decades ago the level of medical knowledge, the treatment of slow lung disease is often less scientific, less standardized.
Nowadays, although slow obstructive pulmonary disease is a disease that cannot be “cured”, but due to the progress of contemporary medicine, timely and scientific treatment of slow obstructive pulmonary disease can be completely controlled. However, some doctors, the modern pathogenesis of this common disease, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, treatment and laboratory tests and other basic concepts are still relatively vague, so the need for the treatment of this disease, the importance of the poor understanding, can not provide patients with a set of reasonable scientific treatment plan, often wait until the slow lung disease is very serious before the patient is transferred to a large hospital to treatment.
Thirdly, fake doctors and fake drugs harm patients. The so-called “special drugs” and “cure drugs” prescribed by those charlatans are actually some drugs from unknown sources and not approved by the state, which often add some western medicine ingredients (such as glucocorticoids, asthma medicine), and the dosage is often Sometimes they may be effective at the beginning, but ineffective after a long time, and may produce serious side effects, and patients often spend a lot of money and delay the disease.
Scientific treatment and medication can effectively control the progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is completely preventable, and people can reduce the occurrence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as long as they consciously stay away from the risk factors of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Even if one has been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, it is not a terrible thing. Although chronic obstructive pulmonary disease cannot be cured at present, as long as one adheres to scientific treatment under the guidance of doctors, one can completely control the progress of the disease, improve the symptoms of the disease and improve the quality of life.
The main aspects of controlling the progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are as follows
1. Be alert to early symptoms and seek timely medical consultation for early diagnosis. Those who have symptoms of cough and shortness of breath should go to hospital for examination in time. Smoking and long-term exposure to dust, fumes and harmful gases should be given high attention, and regular checkups should be conducted at the hospital. Pulmonary function test in hospital is the most effective way to clarify the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
2, to go to the regular hospital to receive standardized examination and treatment, do not believe in small advertisements. At present, there are many kinds of drugs that can be used in regular hospitals for the standardized treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and most of them are within the scope of medical insurance. Commonly used drugs include anticholinergics, beta2 agonists, theophyllines and inhaled glucocorticoids. These medications can reduce symptoms and increase activity tolerance. Medication methods include oral and inhalation, and inhalation therapy includes pressure dosing inhalation, dry powder dosing inhalation and solution nebulization inhalation. The main one is nebulized inhalation. Inhalation therapy allows the drug to enter the respiratory tract directly and exert local therapeutic effects. The effect is more rapid than oral, the effect is direct, and the systemic adverse reactions are less.
3, to adhere to the long-term use of drugs. Stable period should also adhere to the medication. Some patients may be worried about drug addiction, but in fact, the drugs for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are not addictive, and only persistent use of drugs can achieve the purpose of controlling the disease. Doctors often choose the medication according to the actual situation of the patient, such as using bronchodilators as needed for mild chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; moderate and severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease requires long-term regular application of a bronchial or combined use of several diastolic agents, and if necessary, the addition of inhaled glucocorticoid therapy; very severe patients, in addition to the use of the above drugs, but also to treat the various complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, some patients need to make long-term home oxygen therapy. If the acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is combined with infection, antibiotic treatment should be given appropriately.