Taran: My name is Taran. I'm from Chicago, Illinois. And I just want to know, what is COPD stand for and what is it do to the body?
Paul Scanlon: That's good question Taran. COPD is an acronym meaning in alphabet suit. It stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Some people in the past have called it Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease or COLD, COLD. But COPD is the term that most people use nowadays.
COPD is a chronic condition affecting the lungs that includes both emphysema and chronic bronchitis, both of which are caused mostly by cigarette smoking, and both affect the lung by causing slowing of air flow. So that when you try to breathe deeply, it's it hard to breathe out. It's also tends to be hard to breathe in because you can tend to breathe a higher lung volumes.
The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease has been around for a long time. It's become more, well known in recent years because it's increasing among the major killers in the United States. COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. And it is of all the top five causes of death in the United States. It's the only one that's increasing. It is now a killing as many American women as American men. In the year 2000, there were just under 120,000 Americans who died of the COPD.
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