There is no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to predicting the length of life for someone with COPD. Much depends on your age, health, lifestyle, and how severe the disease was when you were diagnosed, as well as what steps you’ve taken to lessen the damage afterward.
“COPD it’s a disease with many moving parts,” says Albert A. Rizzo, MD, medical director of the American Lung Association. “It’s by no means a death sentence. Many people will live into their 70s, 80s, or 90s with COPD.”
But that’s more likely, he says, if your case is mild and you don’t have other health problems like heart disease either diabetes. Some people die earlier as a result of complications such as pneumonia or respiratory failure.
COPD severity and life expectancy
Doctors use a classification system called the Global Initiative on Obstructive Lung Disease (or GOLD) to determine how severe your condition is. COPD is. It is based on the amount of air you can forcefully exhale in 1 second after blowing into a plastic tube called a spirometer. You’ll also hear this called a forced expiratory volume (FEV1) test.
Classifications are based on results from an adult of the same age, gender, and ethnicity but without COPD. So if your airflow was 80% of the airflow of someone who does not have COPD, you would be in GOLD or Stage 1. There are four stages:
In general, the higher your number in the GOLD system, the more likely it is that you will have problems with COPD or even die from it.
symptoms and severity
Has difficulty breathing? Have you been hospitalized for COPD flare-ups, which doctors call exacerbations? Doctors look at his symptoms and put him into one of four categories, AD. The most severe would be GOLD D (high severity of symptoms and high exacerbation risk).
smoking plays a role
Of smoking It is the main cause of COPD. One study found a small decrease in life expectancy (about 1 year) for people with COPD who had never smoked. But there was a much larger reduction for current and former smokers. For 65-year-old men who smoke, the drop in life expectancy is:
- Stage 1: 0.3 years
- Stage 2: 2.2 years
- Stage 3: 5.8 years
- Stage 4: 5.8 years
This is in addition to the 3.5 years of life that all smokers, whether they have COPD or not, lose to the habit.
The same study also found that women who were current smokers and in Stage 2 lost about 5 years of their lives in Stage 3 and 9 years of their lives in Stage 4.
The BODE index
Another system that doctors use to measure life expectancy with COPD is the BODE index, which stands for:
- Body mass: Are obese either over weight?
- Air flow obstruction: How much air can you forcefully exhale from your lungs in 1 second (the FEV1 test).
- Dyspnoea: It’s difficult breathe?
- Exercise capacity: How far can you walk in 6 minutes?
The higher your BODE score, the higher your risk of death from COPD. This test is considered more accurate than just the FEV1 score.
Can medication help?
At this time there are no medicines that cure COPD. “We are still looking drugs that can slow down the disease process itself and reverse inflammation in the airways,” says Rizzo. But there are bronchodilators (drugs that are usually taken through inhalers) which can open the airways and improve shortness of breath.
Corticosteroids can help control flare-ups. That’s important because more COPD hospitalizations are linked to a higher chance of death.
If you are constantly low on oxygen, your doctor might prescribe supplemental oxygen. You will get a device that you can take with you anywhere to help you breathe.
And you must have access to care in the first place. Rizzo says more studies are looking at COPD in terms of gender, age, and socioeconomic status. Someone with COPD who does not have access to health care and he has not sure you are more likely to have complications and die early, even if your diagnosis is the same as someone at a higher income level.
Early diagnosis can make a difference
An early diagnosis can also greatly improve your life expectancy. “Probably half of people with COPD had the disease for several years before being diagnosed,” says Rizzo. “They didn’t tell their doctor because they thought the cough and shortness of breath were related to being over weightout of shape, and still smoking.”
Also, doctors have to correctly diagnose COPD by ordering the right tests, he says.
Rizzo also points to ongoing studies to find out why some people are more likely to have COPD than others. A study launched this year by the National Institutes of Health and supported by the American Lung Association will look at lung function in people ages 25 to 35 (lung function peaks in the mid-20s) and find out what changes during course of his life. “We want to note when an individual develops findings of COPD, what may have triggered it, and what we can learn from that to improve survival,” she says.
Make lifestyle changes
While there is no medication to treat COPD, there are many lifestyle changes you can make to slow the progression of the disease and improve your chances of living a longer life. Can:
Once you’ve been diagnosed with COPD, follow your doctor’s advice to quit smoking, exercise, and take your prescribed medications. “And most importantly, stay active,” says Rizzo. “Walking is the best exercise for the lungs, so walk regularly.”