VANCOUVER -- COPD or chronic pulmonary obstructive disease is the fourth leading cause of death in Canada. And it's the only leading cause of death currently on the rise. COPD is a progressive disease that includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. It's develops after years of smoking, and affects both men and women. But in women the disease itself is particularly severe. Now researchers want to know why.
Brenda Kereluk was told she had bronchitis. To her, bronchitis was like having the bad flu. It never entered her head that it could be really serious.
It wasn't until Brenda developed severe pneumonia that she realized how sick she was.
Brenda says, "I couldn't walk to Cambie Street without stopping 4 times to catch my breath. You know I was losing oxygen like crazy."
What Brenda had was COPD, a disease directly related to her 49 years of smoking and working in a bar.
Pat Camp, UBC Researcher On Gender and COPD says, "People with COPD can breathe in just fine. It's their exhalation that's difficult."
Longterm exposure to cigarette smoke narrows the airways and collapses the walls of the tiny air sacs in the lungs. In CT scans, these show up as holes. Camp says those are areas of lung destruction. Emphysema is occuring in all dark areas.
Camp says, "they can take a good breath in. If they have a hard time breathing out, then there is lots of stale air in the lungs. So, the next breath doesn't have a place to go."
While more men suffer from COPD than women, the numbers of affected females are rising and it doesn't entirely correspond to increased smoking rates in women. Camp says given the same amount of exposure, women appear to have worse lung function.
Pat is tracking factors that might be involved, like differences in lung structure and hormones.
"After post-menopausal period, women who continue to smoke seem to have more rapid decline than in men of the same age. It's quite possible women's hormonal cycle may affect how they react when exposed to cigarette smoke."
Fiona Topp, Physiotherapist at the Respiratory Rehab Hospital at St. Paul's Hospital, says, "when they feel like they can't breathe, they start to back off on their actvity."
To help men and women with COPD, physiotherapists teach patients how to stay active.
Fiona Tapp says, "what they have to learn is how hard can I push myself and make myself huff and puff, what is safe."
The lessons have paid off. Brenda's now able to walk for much longer distances.
Brenda says, "I'm learning to take my time when I walk. I'm not in a big hurry. You don't have to be negative about it. It's a job to be alive.
Brenda no longer smokes. Giving up the habit anytime is good - it's the best single thing you can do for your health. For women, if they quit before menopause, they don't appear to have the same decline in lung function as women who continue to smoke. In fact there's a slight improvement. The thing is... women generally have a harder time quitting smoking than men.
Monday June 19, 2006
