How to Tell if You Have COPD

Doug: I'm Doug from San Diego, California. I’d like to know what the early symptoms of COPD are and if caught early, how can it be treated?

Robert Wise: Doug, you've asked a question which is very important with respect to public health. It turns out that many people with early COPD; perhaps the majority of people with early COPD have little or no symptoms. There are about 12 million people in the United States who have COPD who do not know that they have it.

The important thing that you should know is that a very simple breathing test spirometry can detect COPD in its early asymptomatic stages.

What can be done about early asymptomatic COPD? The important thing that you should understand is that if somebody has early COPD and they smoke, they need to quit smoking. They're many, many treatments that we have that can help people quit smoking, so it's important to have early detection and early treatment to prevent the disease from progressing.


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