What is COPD?
Experts' Guide to Better Breathing
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COPD includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Most COPD patients have both.

•  In Chronic Bronchitis, airflow may be limited by narrowed airways that get tight, swollen, and filled with mucus. These changes limit airflow into and out of the lungs.

•  In Emphysema, the tiny air sacs (alveoli) in your lungs are damaged. Like old balloons, they get overstretched. They break down. Old air gets trapped in the air sacs. So there's no room for new air to get in.

COPD can affect your life as early as your 40s. Millions of people have COPD, both men and women.

How does COPD progress?
A leading cause of disability and death, COPD starts with breathlessness that gets worse over time. COPD gradually causes patients to become less and less active.

If you have mild COPD, you may:

• Experience breathlessness only during high-energy activities (like exercise)
• Cough occasionally

If you have moderate COPD, you may:

• Become breathless during daily activities (like climbing stairs)
• Experience breathlessness that makes you less active
• Cough more often as the disease progresses

If you have severe COPD, you may:

• Be constantly breathless at rest
• Need oxygen (if more severe)
• Become incapacitated and unable to perform simple activities
• Cough even more frequently (often with mucus or phlegm)

COPD is a unique illness.
The most common cause of COPD is known and preventable.
Learn what makes COPD different.