Emphysema can't be cured. It's progressive, so over time it will get harder and harder for you to catch your breath. But you might not know you have the disease for the first few years unless your doctor tests your breathing.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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. In addition to treatment, you'll breathe easier if you follow tips that prevent respiratory infections.
You can have emphysema for many years without noticing any signs or symptoms. The main symptom of emphysema is shortness of breath, which usually begins gradually.
Since emphysema can't be reversed like other lung conditions, early detection is important. Emphysema symptoms worsen over time, and early detection can slow progression of symptoms and the disease, leading to improved quality of life. It can also help identify causes of the disease so you can limit exposure to them.
The goal of therapy for emphysema is to provide relief of symptoms, prevent complications and slow the progression of the disease. Quitting smoking is also essential for patients with emphysema, since continuing to use tobacco will only further damage the lungs.
There is no way to repair or regrow the damaged lung tissue. The goal of treatment for people with pulmonary emphysema is to live more comfortably, control symptoms, and prevent the disease from getting worse. A key part of treatment is to quit smoking.
In-Home Exercises May Benefit Homebound COPD Patients
A pilot-study of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients who meet the definition of homebound has found that just two months of aerobic conditioning and functional strength training can produce measurable improvements in quality of life.
While lung tissue cells do regenerate, there's no way a smoker can return to having the lungs of a non-smoker. At best, they will carry a few scars from their time smoking, and at worst, they're stuck with certain breathing difficulties for the rest of their lives.
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.
Our estimates indicate that, after 25 years of smoking, at least 25% of smokers without initial disease will have clinically significant COPD and 30–40% will have any COPD.
How Serious Is Your Emphysema? Stage 2 is also called moderate emphysema. But that doesn't always mean that your disease is moderate. If you're young and otherwise healthy, you could have severe lung damage and still be at stage 2.
When a person has stage 1 COPD, their symptoms may be so mild that they do not even realize that they have it. Over time, symptoms can include shortness of breath, chronic cough, and frequent respiratory infections. These will generally become more severe as the condition progresses.
Stage 2 COPD life expectancy is 2.2 years.
When to use oxygen for emphysema. A doctor may recommend that a person begin using oxygen therapy when their blood oxygen saturation falls below 88% or their blood oxygen level falls below 55 millimeters of mercury (mmHg) at rest.
If you have advanced emphysema, your lungs will appear to be much larger than they should be. In early stages of the disease, your chest X-ray may look normal. Your doctor can't diagnose emphysema with an X-ray alone. A CT scan of your chest will show if the air sacs (alveoli) in your lungs have been destroyed.
Symptoms of Moderate Emphysema
In addition to shortness of breath, you may also have: Wheezing. A cough that won't go away. Chest tightness or pain.
Statistically significant correlations between emphysema and CT findings have been shown in numerous studies, but mild morphologic emphysema may be missed by CT, and occasionally CT scans give false-positive findings.