Emphysema belongs to group of diseases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Smoking is the major cause of emphysema and most of the time the damages done to the lungs are irreversible. Emphysema cannot be cured and only some of the symptoms are treated. Medications and oxygen supplements are effective methods of treating emphysema. Emphysema is a chronic disorder affecting the quality of life for long-term.
How it happens?
As a person smokes, nicotine in the cigar reaches the lungs to cause damage to the air sacs or alveoli. As more and more of nicotine damages the air sacs the soft tissues are destroyed forming big spaces inside. Now air gets trapped in this space leading to enlargement of lungs building more pressure inside (pulmonary hypertension). The air sacs called alveoli are continuously damaged in the lungs leading to shortness of breath. Inner walls of these sacs are weakened and subsequently they will rupture forming a big space inside the lungs.
This will reduce the total area of the lungs which would have a direct effect on oxygen consumption. The lungs may not be able to breathe properly since it cannot get oxygenated air as before. To compensate the loss of oxygen the body automatically increases the breathing rate. After some days or weeks, increased rate of breathing is not enough to maintain the required oxygen consumption. Subsequently the lungs get narrowed leading to pulmonary hypertension.
Symptoms :
There are lots of people who may not have any symptoms for years together but still the process of emphysema is slowly happening inside the lungs. It causes shortness of breath and choking. But even at this stage the person will avoid doing certain activities that require more of oxygen and hence he may ignore the symptom. The problem will get noticed when the affected person have difficulty in managing daily tasks. For some people due to loss of oxygenated blood, fingernails will become blue in color. Even their mental stability will get diminished.
Causes :
Smoking is the main cause of emphysema. In addition, air pollution, long time exposure to tobacco smoke (passive smoking) and workplace related smoke like fumes can also cause emphysema. In rare cases emphysema is inherited due to protein deficiency.