How Does COPD Affect Your Lungs?

Normally, the airways and air sacs in your lungs are elastic (stretchy). When you breathe in, air flows in through the airways to the air sacs. The air sacs fill up with air, like a small balloon. When you breathe out, the air sacs deflate, and the air flows easily out through the airways. If you have COPD, less air flows in and out of your airways because of one or more of these problems:

• The airways and air sacs in your lungs become less elastic.
• The walls between many of the air sacs are destroyed.
• The walls of the airways become thick and inflamed, which causes narrowing and makes it more difficult to empty the lungs when breathing out.
• The airways make more and thicker mucus. The mucus can cause some of the airways to become plugged.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's COPD article contains a good video about COPD basics, called "What Is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease?", found in the "What Is" section.

Beneficiaries in our COPD DM program will receive easy–to–understand literature with pictures that show the lung changes caused by COPD.

Learn more and begin the enrollment process now.

Source: From COPD Summary, by the U.S. National Library of Medicine