POLL: Do you have COPD?

[Lizistired]

OSA just adds to the mix. Or maybe it is exacerbated by COPD symptoms. Or maybe I had OSA before. Which came first the Chicken or the Egg?
My dad has COPD and I smoked twice what he did for most of my adult life so I see it in my future but wonder what impact lifestyle changes make at this point.
??

[deltadave]

Overlap Syndrome.

[msradar65]

When I worked in ICU every patient I saw with end stage COPD was a smoker or lived with a heavy smoker or smokers. The really sad part is that they still wanted to smoke...there reasoning was they were dying anyway, the damage was done...so they were going to do what ever they wanted to do.

[retrodave15]

I quit smoking in 2011 after 20 years, I am hoping that I did not do to much damage. It was a good thing I quit, as my neurosurgeon will not do a fusion on a smoker.

[MrStein]

I am DX'd with mild/moderate COPD. Smoked cigs for 35 yrs. I got sick. CT showed a lung mass.
I died (during a lung biopsy, lungs were full of pus, literally) on the operating table on Aug 27 and was saved.
Spent 3 days on a ventilator in CVICU. 9 days later I came home.
Biopsy showed bacterial pneumonia, not lung cancer. Close call....
I haven't smoked since. I too witnessed patients on the pulmonology floor sneaking out for a smoke.
Now I am on 2 meds for COPD and DX'd with severe OSA. I am lucky to be alive.

[gomer]

I have an issue with polls in general...

-1- It's titled/asking DO you have COPD"
Problem is there is no valid response for a person w/o COPD, other than I just want to vote anyway. The poll is worded in such a way that the only possible poll outcome would be supportive of smoking causes COPD.

-2- I found such studies programmed/worded to support one and only one specific outcome as intended by the pollsters, including the U S CDC of all agencies. I was asked to participate n a CDC cancer study in 1991 after a doctor screened & cleared me/my case as being fully eligible. After being enrolled in the CDC study a study doctor threw me/my case out of the window because my case did NOT support the intended A = B the study was designed to produce.

-3- MY personal position on polls and studies is they are worse that worthless when they are designed to yield a specific per-determined result.

In this instance the poster put a lot of thought and effort into the POLL but only one one side of the issue and not the OTHER side. The ONLY valid responses are solicited by the options for people WITH COPD, even though its titled basically as a Y/N do you have COPD. This poll is made ONLY for people WITH COPD, plain and simple despite the misleading (either by design or more likely accident) title.

Based on the polls title I would consider a simple Y I have COPD or N I do not have COPD to be much more fitting of the polls title.

In fact I find the last option, I don't have COPD but wanted to vote anyway plain insulting the way its worded, especially considering the title of the poll asking for responses from BOTH people with COPD and w/o COPD......

[imsleepynomore]

I quit smoking when I was 20 I'm 69 now with COPD doutful if the smoking was the cause I did develope a serious respiratory infection from one of my patients10 years ago and that was when I was diagnosed with asthma ,in the passing years I have had bronchitis several times a year. 4 years ago I was diagnosed as COPD . Can't change facts just deal with it.

[Janknitz]

There's nothing on the poll for me. I feared GETTING COPD because I had very poorly controlled asthma. I attribute that to a few things: Genetics--my paternal grandmother had severe asthma and died during an attack; environment--I lived the first 17 years of my life with TWO smokers who averaged 3 packs a day. My mother used to think it was amusing that no matter where I was in a room or car, the smoke from her cigarette was always coming right into my face. (Ha, ha, Mom ). I was essentially a 2nd hand smoker for all those years. I had constant upper respiratory infections that persisted into adulthood, AND many symptoms of asthma that went undiagnosed because I'm not a wheezer, I'm a cougher.

As I have aged, I started to get multiple bouts of bronchitis every year which were not responding to treatments very well. I read up on COPD, and chronic bronchitis and asthma can "remodel" the lungs, leading to COPD. It was pretty scary.

All changed when I changed my diet. I chose a low carb, Primal diet (no grains, no starches, no sugar, no legumes, only real, whole food). And things turned around significantly. Instead of multiple bouts of asthmatic bronchitis each year, I've only had 3 bouts in the last THREE years, all easily treated by hitting them hard with inhaled steroid medications. CPAP helps too, by giving me warm, humidified air which is very soothing to my lungs when I have a bout of bronchitis. I can sleep at night, and with very little coughing. Asthma and chronic bronchitis are autoimmune disorders. A good diet can help enormously. I don't know if it can fix decades of smoking, but it certainly may help.