Respiratory Diseases: What are they? Types, Smoking, Chronic Pulmonary Diseases and Treatment

They can be classified in many different ways, including by the organ or tissue involved, by the type and pattern of associated signs and symptoms, or by the cause of the disease.

Respiratory disease is a medical term that encompasses pathological conditions that affect the organs and tissues that enable gas exchange in higher organisms and includes infections of the upper respiratory tract, trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, alveoli, pleura, and pleural cavity, and nerves and muscles of respiration.

Respiratory diseases range from mild and self-limiting, such as the common cold, to life-threatening entities such as bacterial pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, acute asthma, and lung cancer.

The study of respiratory disease is known as pulmonology. A doctor specializing in respiratory diseases is known as a pulmonologist, a specialist in chest medicine, a specialist in respiratory medicine, a respirologist, or a specialist in thoracic medicine.

As it is today, there are more than 20 different varieties of chronic lung diseases that affect millions of people around the world. As one of the most common medical conditions globally, the disease is caused mainly by smoking, lung infections, and genetic makeup.

The lungs are among some of the most important organs within your body, and because of that, the effects of chronic lung disease on your health and quality of life in progress can be downright devastating.

By lowering your energy levels, affecting your ability to breathe, reducing your mobility, and ultimately shortening your life expectancy, chronic lung disease, particularly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is now the third leading cause of death in the United States.

 

Although there are treatments available to treat the symptoms of chronic lung disease and respiratory diseases, such as stem cell therapy, medications, inhalers, and the use of supplemental oxygen therapy to treat your condition, it is essential first to understand it.

Lung diseases

  • Acute bronchitis.
  • Acute respiratory distress syndrome.
  • Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
  • Asbestosis.
  • Asthma.
  • Bronchiectasis
  • Bronchiolitis
  • Bronchiolitis obliterans with organized pneumonia.
  • Displasia broncopulmonar.
  • Biosinosis.
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
  • Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.
  • Coccidioidomycosis.
  • To.
  • Cryptogenic Organizing Pneumonia.
  • Cystic fibrosis.
  • Deep vein thrombosis/blood clots.
  • Emphysema.
  • Pulmonary Syndrome by Hantavirus.
  • Histoplasmosis.
  • Metapneumovirus humano.
  • Pneumonitis due to hypersensitivity.
  • Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
  • Influenza.
  • Lung cancer.
  • Linfangioleiomiomatosis.
  • Mesothelioma.
  • Respiratory Syndrome of the Middle East.
  • Non-tuberculous mycobacteria.
  • Pertussis.
  • Pneumoconiosis
  • Pneumonia.
  • Primary ciliary dyskinesia.
  • Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.
  • Pulmonary fibrosis.
  • Pulmonary hypertension.
  • Virus Sincitial Respiratorio.
  • Sarcoidosis.
  • Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
  • Short of breath.
  • Silicosis.
  • Sleep apnea.
  • Syndrome of sudden infant death.
  • Tuberculosis.

Guilty Common: SMOKING

Cigarette smoking is a cause or exacerbator of all respiratory diseases on this list. It is the leading cause of preventable diseases and deaths and produces 443,000 deaths per year, of which 49,000 are caused by secondhand smoke.

According to the National Cancer Institute, 90% of men and 80% of women who died of lung cancer were smokers. Many of the above respiratory conditions require oxygen systems in the home, especially those who smoke or have smoked.

What are Chronic Lung Diseases?

In short, chronic lung diseases are diseases that have developed due to poor respiratory or environmental conditions.

These conditions can be cigarette smoke entering the lungs (as a result of smoking or secondhand smoke), poor working conditions (such as construction or mining), or exposure to areas of airborne particles. (who live near the desert or high pollution areas).

These irritants in the smoke or air enter the lungs and gradually cause problems within them that inhibit their healthy functioning. As the lungs continue to be irritated, your airways become inflamed as an immune response to fight foreign objects.

This inflammation leads to narrowing and constricting of the lungs’ airways, making breathing difficult. As air moves from the mouth or nostrils to the lungs, the most significant difficulty of obstructive lung disease is the process of expelling CO2.

This backup results in higher levels of CO2 in the body that can ultimately be harmful to the heart and lungs.

However, when investigating respiratory diseases and the primary types of chronic lung disease, it is best to start with the most important ones:

Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic COPD is an obstructive and progressive lung disease that varies from mild to severe.

Characterized mainly by its obstruction of airflow to the lungs, this eventually creates a feeling of shortness of breath in the patient, making breathing even more difficult.

Although COPD is the main form of chronic lung disease, it is a disease based on two primary conditions: emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Emphysema

As indicated above, emphysema is one of the two main conditions of COPD. The term “emphysema” describes the process of gradual decomposition of the pulmonary alveoli.

It is this destruction within the lungs that makes breathing difficult. As these destroyed air sacs are responsible for bringing oxygen into the bloodstream, their defeat can mean less oxygen is released.

Ultimately, less oxygen is released through the body, increases difficulty breathing, and increases fatigue.

Chronic Bronchitis

As the second primary component of COPD, chronic bronchitis is the physiological condition that describes the symptoms of excessive cough due to the accumulation of mucus within the respiratory tract.

This condition occurs when the trachea or trachea becomes inflamed and the large and small bronchi. The source of this inflammation, typically irritation or infection, causes mucus production along the lining of the airways, creating a painful and “wet” cough among sufferers of the disease.

Interstitial lung disease

Interstitial lung disease is a generic term that covers more than 100 different lung disorders related to the absorption of oxygen in the lungs.

As the expression of the symptoms of these secondary respiratory diseases can vary widely, what unites these ranges of conditions are their symptoms: difficulty breathing and moving from one place to another and chronic shortness of breath.

Almost specific for interstitial lung diseases is evidence of scarring within the lungs due to a uniformly dry and annoying cough.

Pulmonary fibrosis

Perhaps the most distinctive and common form of interstitial lung disease, pulmonary fibrosis, is a disease that manifests itself primarily through the healing of the lungs.

This healing process and subsequent hardening cause the lung passages to thicken and harden, restricting your lung’s ability to pass oxygen through its walls.

As this oxygen does not reach the bloodstream, those suffering from pulmonary fibrosis often experience shortness of breath, regardless of prolonged rest periods.

Bronchiectasis

Bronchiectasis is a condition of the lungs where damage to the airways causes them to widen and heal. When this happens, your airways slowly lose their ability to eliminate mucus.

Due to the accumulation of mucus, the airways become blocked and open to bacteria and viral infections. These lung infections can be potentially dangerous for the elderly and those with other relevant health comorbidities.

Pneumoconiosis

An occupational lung disease by nature, the word “pneumoconiosis” comes from the Greek language and means ” dusty lungs. “

This is typically the result of inhaling mineral dust (such as in mining or construction industries). This dust leads to scars inside the lungs that cause the lungs’ airways to harden and increase inflammation internally.

These combined conditions result in restricted breathing and increased shortness of breath, and respiratory fatigue episodes.

Treatment of lung diseases

Respiratory diseases, such as chronic lung disease, are not diseases that are easy to live with. It is exhausting, frustrating, and downright discouraging when you feel that your quality of life is slowly slipping away from you.

However, the change may be possible through treatment.

Some behavioral changes can significantly affect the pronouncement of symptoms within those with COPD, emphysema, and pulmonary fibrosis.

However, when lifestyle changes do not improve your quality of life as you expect, it may be time to consider stem cell therapy.

Instead of addressing the symptoms of lung disease, stem cell therapy can directly affect the progression of the disease and can improve the quality of life.