Breathing

When breathing goes wrong: Bronchitis, emphysema, Bronchiectasis, and related diseases

The course of chronic obstructive airways disease: Tests and exercise

Stopping smoking

Treating chronic obstructive airways disease

When you need oxygen

Your 'home team'

People, organizations, and going places

Claim what you are entitled to

Prescriptions for chronic obstructive airways disease

Useful addresses

Glossary

Index

Introduction

This book is for everyone who coughs regularly. You may think it is normal or natural to cough, say, first thing in the morning or when you have broken into a short run or had to walk faster than usual, but it isn't. You may think it is normal to cough through the winter, and to improve in the spring and summer, but it isn't. You may think that a cough to 'clear the tubes' after a cigarette is natural, but it isn't.

Having a cough regularly—one that persists even when you do not have a cold or 'catarrh' — is a sign of something going wrong inside your chest. Usually that something is chronic bronchitis, often it can be emphysema, and sometimes it can be asthma. Rarely, today, it may be tuberculosis, and, very occasionally, it can be an early sign of something much worse, like lung cancer.

So, a chronic cough should not be taken lightly. If you are bothered by a cough, even if it is only for a few weeks in the year or a few minutes every morning, then you need to do something about it. Doctors can only do so much in terms of treatment and advice. The effort must be made by you, even if it means a complete change of lifestyle and abandoning lifelong habits. Take the plunge now and the improvement that you make in your health should last you into a fit and active old age. Let the chance pass by, however, and from your mid forties onwards, our 'bad chest' will make you increasingly chair-bound.

The same goes for the other 'chesty' problem that goes hand in hand with the cough — breathlessness.

Do you quickly run out of puff when you break into a run, say, when you have to cross the street in a hurry? Are you a bit breathless when you walk up a slight slope or even on the level? When you walk upstairs, do you have to rest on the landing or hold on to the banisters for a while half-way up?

A fit 50 year old can run 6 miles in an hour on the flat at a steady pace without being too puffed. Could you hope to approach this speed for even half this time or do you forget the last time you ever broke into more than a gentle stroll?

If these problems strike a chord, then this book is for you. It explains how you breathe, how the lungs work, what can

wrong with them, and why. It concentrates on the two commonest chesty conditions: bronchitis and emphysema. Doctors now refer to them jointly as Chronic Obstructive Airway Disease, but, as this term overlaps with conditions such as asthma, cystic fibrosis, and work-related chest disease and the way we try to ease them all is the same, these other problems are given some space here, too.

The main message is that something can always be done for a 'bad chest', provided we obey the rules. The best way of obeying the rules is to understand why they have been set. So, although the medical treatments for Chronic Obstructive Airways Disease are presented in full, it is vital — if you are going to give your lungs any chance to improve — to follow the guidance in the chapters on smoking and exercise. We can fight damaged airways, and help the lungs to repair themselves, with cleaner air, medicines, and physiotherapy and even, at times, with surgery, but there is no chance of success if they are constantly filled with smoke and you remain a couch potato!

So, read on and help your doctor to help you to a healthier future.

About the author

DR Tom Smith spent six years in general practice and seven years in medical research before taking up writing full-time in 1977. He writes regularly for medical journals and magazines and has a weekly column in the Bradford Telegraph and Argus.. He is the author of Heart Attacks: Prevent and Survive, Living with High Blood Pressure, Living with Angina, Coping with Stomach Ulcers, Coping with Strokes, Coping Successfully with Your Hiatus Hernia and Living with Alzheimer 's Disease (all Sheldon Press). He broadcasts regularly for BBC Radio Scotland. He is married with two children and four grandchildren.