One of the first obvious symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is shortness of breath. In this Health Science Channel video from August 2015, we found out more about how COPD affects the lungs and how patients struggle to breathe with the condition.
The video explains that patients with COPD such as emphysema or chronic bronchitis can live with the disease for decades before realizing something is wrong. By then, the lungs will have suffered considerable and irreversible damage. The majority of COPD patients either smoke or have smoked; between 10 and 20 percent of smokers will develop COPD.
Seventy-two-year-old Marvin Tibbits explains what it feels like to be unable to live an active life because of severe shortness of breath. He says it feels like he’s drowning when he’s trying to breathe.
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