Can you live 10 or 20 years with COPD? The exact length of time you can live with COPD depends on your age, health, and symptoms. Especially if your COPD is diagnosed early, if you have mild stage COPD, and your disease is well managed and controlled, you may be able to live for 10 or even 20 years after diagnosis.
Approximately 80 percent of the patients with mild emphysema lived more than four years after the diagnosis. 60 to 70 percent of patients with moderate emphysema were alive after four years. 50 percent of patients with severe emphysema were alive after four years.
If you're young and otherwise healthy, you could have severe lung damage and still be at stage 2. On the other hand, if you're older, especially over age 65, moderate breathing problems can seriously interfere with basic daily tasks like dressing, cooking, or climbing stairs.
"It's not a death sentence by any means. 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 or diabetes.
Emphysema and COPD can't be cured, but treatments can help relieve symptoms and slow the progression of the disease.
Prognosis. There is no cure for emphysema. But the condition can be controlled. People with mild emphysema who quit smoking have a normal life expectancy.
How Serious Is Your Emphysema? Stage 1 is also called mild emphysema. But that doesn't mean your disease is mild. You could have significant lung damage before you even notice the breathing problems of stage 1, especially if you're relatively young and otherwise healthy.
It takes several years to progress to the final stages of COPD or emphysema, but lifestyle factors play a role. Quitting smoking can significantly improve the outlook. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute , COPD can progress quickly in people with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency who also smoke.
Studies suggest that those with stage one or two (mild and moderate) COPD who smoke lose a few years of life expectancy at the age of 65. For those with stages three or four (severe and very severe) COPD, they lose from six to nine years of life expectancy due to smoking.
The main symptom of emphysema is shortness of breath, which usually begins gradually. You may start avoiding activities that cause you to be short of breath, so the symptom doesn't become a problem until it starts interfering with daily tasks. Emphysema eventually causes shortness of breath even while you're at rest.
You can't reverse emphysema damage, and it'll gradually get worse. However, you can manage the symptoms with treatment and slow down the effects of emphysema.
Especially if your COPD is diagnosed early, if you have mild stage COPD, and your disease is well managed and controlled, you may be able to live for 10 or even 20 years after diagnosis.
Stage 2 COPD life expectancy is 2.2 years.
Emphysema continues to progress even after people stop smoking. However, quitting smoking helps reduce symptoms and improve quality of life and life expectancy.
There is no cure for emphysema, although it is treatable. Appropriate management can reduce symptoms, improve your quality of life and help you stay out of hospital. influenza vaccination (yearly) and pneumococcal vaccination to protect against certain types of respiratory infection.
According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute , COPD most often occurs in people more than 40 years of age who smoke or have done so earlier in life. Other risk factors, such as long-term exposure to chemicals, may also play a role.
Emphysema gets worse over time. You cannot undo the damage to your lungs. Over time, you may find that: You get short of breath even when you do things like get dressed or fix a meal.
COPD is a lifelong illness. But it's hard to predict how quickly someone may progress from mild to severe COPD. Some people can live with mild or moderate COPD for decades. Other people may be diagnosed with more advanced COPD and progress to very severe disease much faster.
Further, by stretching muscles that are not regularly used, including the breathing muscles, everyday activities such as walking will become easier and lung function will improve. While exercise may seem overwhelming at first, even walking at a very slow pace will benefit your overall quality of life.
Stage 2 (moderate) COPD: You may experience persistent coughing and phlegm (often worse in the morning), increased shortness of breath, tiredness, sleep problems, or wheezing. About one in five people have exacerbations that worsen their symptoms and cause the color of their phlegm to change.
Emphysema is a type of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). COPD is a group of lung diseases that make it hard to breathe and get worse over time.
Emphysema is life-threatening and currently has no cure. Initial treatments include medications such as bronchodilators, inhaled steroids and antibiotics. Pulmonary rehabilitation, nutrition therapy and supplemental oxygen are other approaches.