Lung Diseases and Disorders

When you breathe, your lungs take in oxygen from the air and delivers it to the bloodstream to ensure your organs and body tissues receive what they need to survive. The cells in your body need oxygen to work and to reproduce. During a normal day, the average adult breathes more than 20,000 time per day. Millions of Americans have lung disease, and it is the number 3 killer in the United States today.

COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) is a chronic lung disease which leads to obstructed airflow, making it difficult to breathe. Emphysema and chronic bronchitis are the most common conditions that lead to COPD. With COPD, it becomes increasingly difficult to get vital oxygen into your lungs, and move toxic carbon dioxide out of your lungs leaving a lasting effect that cannot be reversed. The use of bronchodilators and corticosteroids can help to reduce symptoms and minimize further damage to the lungs.

Asthma is a chronic lung disease which causes the airway to become inflamed making it difficult to breathe. Physical activity and exposure to environmental triggers such as chemical irritants and allergens can provoke an asthma attack, sometimes severe enough to require emergency treatment to prevent mortality. The uses of short-acting medications can quickly reduce the inflammation in the airway to make breathing less difficult and long-acting medications can reduce your risk of an asthma attack.

Sleep Apnea is not uncommon, and can potentially be a dangerous condition. While most people are alerted to sleep apnea by a partner’s complaints of snoring, it is much greater than the nuisance of sleep disruption. Sleep apnea can cause daytime fatigue, headaches and interrupt your concentration, but it can lead to hypertension, heart attack, stroke, and other detrimental health problems. Sleep apnea can be obstructive, when the soft tissues in the neck collapse due to muscle relaxation during sleep; central, when there is a miscommunication between your brain and diaphragm, the muscle that controls breathing; or complex, when you have both obstructive and central sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is generally treated with CPAP, BiPAP or AutoPAP devices.

Pulmonary Hypertension differs from hypertension in that it is specific to an abnormally increased pressure in the vessels between the lung and the heart. This results in the vessels becoming damaged, hardened and/or narrowed and which creates more work on the heart to be able to pump blood through your lungs. There are five types of pulmonary hypertension, and the treatment is dependent on which type one has. Diagnosing pulmonary hypertension requires that other diseases such as COPD and sleep apnea are ruled out.

Risk factors include, but are not limited to: 

  • Age

  • Genetics

  • Active or Passive Smoking

  • Air pollutants

  • Allergens

  • Exposure to occupational agents

  • Recurrent respiratory infections in childhood

  • Other chronic diseases

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