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What is COPD?

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) is the name for a group of lung conditions that cause breathing difficulties. This includes:

  • emphysema – damage to the air sacs in the lungs
  • chronic bronchitis – long term inflammation of the airways

COPD stands for:

  • chronic – it’s a long term condition and doesn’t go away
  • obstructive – your airways are narrowed so it’s harder to breathe out quickly and air gets trapped in your chest
  • pulmonary - it affects your lungs
  • disorder – it’s a medical condition

COPD happens when the lungs and airways become inflamed, damaged and narrowed.
It usually develops because of long term damage to your lungs and airways from breathing in a harmful substance. For example; cigarette smoke, where the harmful chemicals in smoke damage the lining of the lungs and airways.

It's sometimes caused by long term exposure to harmful fumes, dust or chemicals.

Symptoms of COPD

The main symptoms of COPD are:

  • increasing breathlessness
  • a persistent chesty cough with phlegm
  • frequent chest infections
  • wheezing

You should tell your doctor if you have symptoms such as coughing up blood, unexplained weight loss or worsening breathlessness as this can be a sign of something more serious.

Reduce your risk

The most important thing you can do to reduce your risk of developing COPD is to never smoke or stop now if you do smoke. You can find out about support to help you give up on our stopping smoking webpage.

You should also try to avoid or limit your exposure to:

  • secondhand smoke
  • fumes and dust in the workplace
  • smoke from burning wood, charcoal

The British Lung Foundation has developed a simple online breath test to help you see if you should get your breathing checked out. Feeling short of breath from time to time is healthy and normal but it can sometimes be a sign of something more serious.

It's important that COPD is diagnosed as early as possible so treatment can be used to slow down the deterioration of your lungs.

The difference between COPD and asthma

If you have COPD your airways have become narrowed permanently.

If you have asthma, the narrowing of your airways comes and goes, often as a result of being exposed to a trigger or something that irritates your airways such as pollen. The symptoms are very similar and it's sometimes difficult to distinguish between the 2.

You can find more information about COPD on the NHS website.