How to prolong life with emphysema, follow tips reduce attacks

Bronchitis and emphysema are common diseases in the elderly, especially in people who smoke and inhale toxic and harmful gases for a long time. The end-stage manifestation of chronic bronchitis and emphysema in the long term is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, referred to as COPD. COPD is actually one of the four major chronic diseases alongside hypertension, diabetes and coronary heart disease. However, compared with the first three diseases, COPD receives far less attention. Many patients do not receive standardized diagnosis and treatment, and some even Patients do not know that they have the disease and cannot receive diagnosis and treatment for a long time, which delays the best opportunity for treatment. Generally speaking, patients who have been diagnosed with chronic bronchitis and emphysema need to pay attention to the following points.

First, you need to determine whether you already have COPD

If chronic bronchitis is not diagnosed and treated properly, lung function will gradually decline. When it declines to a certain level and is irreversible, it enters the stage of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. At this stage, patients basically will not feel comfortable. The characteristics of COPD are that the symptoms of coughing, sputum and asthma cannot be fully restored to normal. There will be some symptoms more or less at ordinary times. The treatment at this stage is different from that of chronic bronchitis, and inhaled bronchodilators are required to control it.

Requires long-term oxygen therapy

This is something that many patients do not pay much attention to, especially many patients with hypoxia. They do not accept long-term home oxygen therapy for fear of forming dependence. In fact, hypoxia is the same as hunger. When you are hungry, you need to eat, and when you are hypoxic, you should supplement. Oxygen, otherwise all the organs in the body will be soaked in low-oxygen blood, and long-term damage will affect life span and quality of life.

Ensure enough sleep

Patients with chronic bronchitis will suffer from insomnia for a long time. On the one hand, this is related to the fact that patients are prone to coughing, sputum and asthma symptoms at night. On the other hand, the regular carbon dioxide in the body cannot be fully eliminated, which has a certain relationship with the stimulation of brain nerve excitement. Patients are advised to use some anti-asthmatic and expectorant drugs before going to bed to control the disease. At the same time, they can soak their feet and drink some milk before going to bed to allow blood flow from the brain to flow to the gastrointestinal tract and lower limbs, which is conducive to promoting sleep.

Get pneumonia and flu shots

Patients with bronchitis and emphysema are most afraid of colds. If someone around the patient sneezes, the patient may be infected. Once a cold is caught, bronchitis will soon occur. Therefore, the injection of pneumonia vaccine and influenza vaccine can prevent infection and keep the condition stable for patients with bronchitis and emphysema.

Manage other comorbidities

Diseases will interact with each other before, and most patients with chronic bronchitis are people over 40 years old. This group often suffers from diabetes, hypertension, etc., especially diabetes. If blood sugar cannot be controlled well, it may lead to poor immunity. , causing recurrent bronchitis. In addition, if chronic bronchitis does not quit smoking, the possibility of lung cancer is higher than that of bronchitis patients who quit smoking. Therefore, chest CT needs to be reviewed regularly, and problems need to be diagnosed and treated in time.