COPD is also primed with women
If you are a smoker and you feel a constant feeling of suffocation, most likely to be a victim of COPD, lung disease that affects one million Spanish. What seemed like something more typical of male smokers, in fact, affects as much as women.
The full name of the disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It is associated with snuff consumption, in fact this is responsible for almost 90% of cases, the remaining 10% may be due to pollution or genetic predisposition.
As you probably know, is characterized by obstruction of the lower airways (bronchi, alveoli and bronchioles) in a slow, progressive and irreversible. The flow of air reaching the lungs is reduced dramatically and breathing becomes impossible. Any small effort produces a feeling of choking on it is very difficult to live.
The first symptom of the disease is usually a cough. Something that until recently was associated only with men. So far, the prototype of COPD patient was a man, smoker (or ex-smoker) and old age. According unveiled the latest European Health Survey, a day in Spain is practically the same number of women with COPD (1.057 million) and men (1,247,574).
Experts say the reasons for this lie in the social habits change experienced in the 70 and 80, when the number of smokers increased dramatically.
The report also revealed that the age of patients is declining, and that women are far more vulnerable than men to smoke, consume the same amount of cigarettes during the same period a man, caused lung damage in women is much higher.