Some teachers leave you with formulas and lab reports. Others leave you with something that follows you into the harder seasons of life, long after you’ve forgotten the periodic table. When I was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), I found myself reaching back to lessons I…
Discussion
People who don’t have any experience with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often imagine the oxygen tubing we use as the easy part. It’s a soft little line that trails behind us like a polite shadow. But those of us who depend on it know better. The tubing is…
Discussion
There are moments in life with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that divide everything into the before and the after. Some are dramatic, such as the first hospitalization or the first time you realize that stairs have become mountains. But others arrive quietly, almost shyly, yet still manage to…
Discussion
AERO-007 — a combination of two classes of bronchodilators delivered via a standard jet nebulizer — led to rapid and clinically meaningful improvements in lung function among adults with moderate-to-severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). That’s according to data from the Phase 2a portion of a Phase 1/2a…
Discussion
When I learned that pilot Chuck Yeager grew up with his family name spelled Jeager, something in me paused. The story goes that when he joined the military, no one could understand how to spell it. He kept repeating himself, trying to explain the German “J” that sounds…
Discussion
Some symptoms arrive with fanfare — a cough that won’t settle, a flare that tightens the chest, a night when the oxygen just doesn’t feel like enough. But others slip in quietly. Lately, I’ve been having days when my temperature rises just a little above normal. Not a true fever,…
COPD is a chronic inflammatory disease of the lungs, in which the airways become blocked, causing cough with mucus, wheezing, and shortness of breath.
The causes of COPD are not fully understood. However, long-term exposure to lung irritants is known to damage the lungs and the airways.
Some people may also experience exacerbations, or episodes of sudden disease worsening, that may persist for several days.
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