Emphysema
Emphysema
Emphysema is a condition where the tiny air sacs in your lungs get damaged and lose their stretchiness.
Here's what happens:
Damage to the Air Sac Walls: The inner walls of the air sacs weaken and eventually break down. Instead of many tiny, efficient air sacs, you end up with fewer, larger, and less elastic air spaces.
Loss of Elasticity: Healthy air sacs are like new balloons – they inflate easily and then spring back to push air out. With emphysema, they become more like old, saggy balloons. They don't empty as well when you exhale.
Trapped Air: Because the damaged air sacs don't work properly and have lost their springiness, old air gets trapped in them. This makes it harder for fresh, oxygen-rich air to get in.
The result? It becomes difficult to get enough oxygen into your body and to get carbon dioxide out. This is why a major symptom of emphysema is shortness of breath.
Key things to know about emphysema:
It's a type of COPD: Emphysema is one of the main conditions that fall under the umbrella term Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Many people with COPD have both emphysema and chronic bronchitis (which is inflammation and narrowing of the breathing tubes).
Main Cause: The most common cause of emphysema by far is long-term exposure to irritants that damage the lungs. Cigarette smoking is the leading culprit. Other irritants can include secondhand smoke, air pollution, and chemical fumes or dust in certain workplaces.
It's Progressive: The lung damage from emphysema is permanent and tends to get worse over time, especially if exposure to lung irritants continues.
Symptoms: The most common symptom is shortness of breath, which usually starts gradually and gets worse over years. Other symptoms can include a chronic cough (sometimes mistaken for "smoker's cough"), wheezing, and chest tightness.
In simple terms, emphysema can be a serious lung disease where the delicate air sacs responsible for oxygen exchange are destroyed, making it increasingly hard to breathe.
