Signs, Symptoms and Treatments for Emphysema

Emphysema is defined as a chronic, progressive disease affecting the lungs. Emphysema causes the tissues that make up the physical shape and function of the lungs to deteriorate. It is categorized as one of the chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (CPOD). Persons suffering from emphysema experience the destruction of the lung tissues of the alveoli, which are small air sacs in the lungs. When a person with emphysema inhales, the alveoli are unable to fully fill with air, causing decreased lung expansion and shortness of breath. When normal breathing takes place, air inhaled through the mouth is drawn to the bronchi and into the alveoli, which are the tiny sacs surrounded by capillaries. The alveoli absorb oxygen and carry it to the blood.

Emphysema can be broken into primary and secondary classifications called panaciar and centricinar emphysema. Panaciar emphysema occurs when the entire respiratory acinus is expanded. This form is more common in the lower lobes, specifically the basal segments and the anterior margins of the lungs. Centriacinar emphysema occurs when the respiratory bronchiole expands. With this form of emphysema, the alveoli are unchanged. The centriacinar form is usually found in the upper lobes of the lungs.

The most common symptoms of emphysema include shortness of breath on exertion and chest expansion. Persons suffering from the disease are unable to attain the proper amount of oxygen the body needs. They are also unable to release the carbon dioxide from their blood. Shortness of breath not only occurs during physical activity and exertion, but also during relaxation. Rapid breathing to gain oxygen is also a symptom, as well as difficulty coughing and decreased sputum. Patients may also experience weight loss and increased chest diameter referred to as 'barrel chest.'

Smoking tobacco is the most common cause of emphysema, but it can also be caused by other etiologies, alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, old age, air pollution and exposure to hazardous chemicals, and even second hand smoke.

Emphysema is typically diagnosed with a pulmonary function test. After diagnosis, doctors administer the proper treatment. Treatment for emphysema includes: anticholinergenics, bronchodilators, steroid medication, effective body positioning and supplemental oxygen as needed.

Supplemental oxygen provides a non-surgical treatment for patients. Patients usually require 20+ hours of supplemental oxygen a day. This treatment has been shown to prolong life without the need of intensive medications or surgery.

When surgery is needed, doctors perform lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS). There are several methods for performing LVRS. The most common method involved placing tiny valves in passages leading to the diseased areas of the lungs. The only true 'cure' for emphysema is lung transplant, though few patients are physically strong enough to survive the procedure.

The best and most effective way to avoid emphysema is to live a healthy lifestyle and to avoid tobacco smoke and other carcinogens that can damage the lungs.

Sleeping Positions and Exercise for Back Pain Relief

One of my friends on Facebook suggests – and I quote "Make your core strong - today we are a sitting society and not good for back - need to exercise and sleep with cushion between the legs."

This is good advice and certainly alleviates the problem and exercise is always good.

This is the same advice given me by my Chiropractor some eight or nine years ago, which I took, to great benefit. Except that as the years went on the benefits slipped away as the condition worsened. I was also made aware by the Chiropractor that this might happen.

We are indeed largely a sitting society but what about all those active people, all the sporty and manual labor citizens that suffer from back pain.  I'm referring to Non-specific Lower Back Pain here and not of that due to injury or birth defects.

The statistics given in the Article "The Back Pain Pandemic" was on all walks ok life, not just sitting workers. This includes very active people, as I am and have been through this eight or nine year period of my life. I was in fact more active then than I am now, as I spent very little time sitting down while working and I was a keen hiker and attended gym for a certain length of time.

It has been for the past 15 months that I spend more than half my time at the computer marketing my book to help others in the position I was in. Yet I don't suffer from back pain. I am as back pain free today as I was the day the pain disappeared almost 16 months ago.

I'm using this, not to knock what my friend says or the Chiropractor, but because this is something that a lot of folks come up against and thus makes a good topic for an article.

These actions are not a cure for back pain, but a means to an end. Just consider that once you start with these actions, you would have to perform them for the rest of your life unless you totally handle the condition. You would have to sleep with the pillow between the legs (knees) – sleeping on the side – and under the knees when sleeping on your back and you would also have to keep up a stringent exercise routine so you don't get the pain back. It's just not natural.

The pain in the back is always attributed to some incident or actions in the persons' life. I first attributed my condition to a motorcycle accident that I had at the age of 24. The back pain only really started giving me serious trouble two or three years after the accident. The problem with this theory is that I was showing signs of back problems at the tender age of 8.

I have been Back Pain Free for almost 16 months now and my last visit to the Chiropractor was in the first week on the Beyond The Back Pain Program – as I advise people to do when going onto the program. It's not that my back hasn't gone out since then - it has - but it always goes back in again while performing normal actions of daily life and I'm not left with sore muscles afterwards.

Why is this?

It's because the cells and tissue are in good shape since the program, so the body's energies can flow freely and the muscles et al can do what they are supposed to do.

Taking the above advice is fine but if you repair the body on a cellular level, the energies will normalize and those things will no longer be necessary.

As the pain disappears on the program so the  back became stronger, with exercise. I also have a simple stretch and exercise routine to help manipulate the back when it does go out.