Chronic cough may be Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease symptom

Hyderabad: Are you having chronic cough? Do you face breathing problems very often? If yes, then you must get yourself checked for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, which manifests after 40 years of age.

Almost 50 per cent of the patients have no symptoms and consider the regular cough and breathlessness as a process of aging.

Dr Shyam Sunder Raj, senior pulmonologist and critical care specialist said, “If a person is suffering from chronic cough, bringing up sputum and also snoring at night, these are some of the indications that the patient has COPD. The reason we are stressing on early diagnosis is because once the damage to the lungs is done, it is irreversible in nature.”

The medicines only give symptomatic relief, but do not work towards reversing the damage.  Most of the COPD patients have unexplained weight loss, muscle dysfunction and nutritional abnormalities.

Dr Raj said, “Early identification helps to work on strengthening of the immune system by changes in diet, physical exercise, breathing exercise, yoga helps to improve the functioning of the lung.”

In the identified COPD cases, there are 20 per cent who suffer a severe lung attack whereby they are often in need of oxygen and have to be kept on ventilator.

Lung attack cases are very severe and it often proves fatal.