You may have become numb to hearing that 'smoking kills your lungs' so often. However, it is no exaggeration to say that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, is truly a disease in which the lungs slowly suffocate. Rather than a simple symptom of aging, it is a serious illness where chronic inflammation occurs continuously in the lungs, narrowing the airways and destroying the pulmonary alveolus, turning breathing itself into agony.
Modern medicine largely explains chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in two aspects. One is chronic bronchitis, where chronic inflammation arises in the bronchus, causing excessive secretion of mucus along with severe cough and sputum. The other is emphysema, where the air sacs called pulmonary alveolus lose their elasticity and are destroyed, breaking down as if holes were punctured through a sponge. The pulmonary alveolus plays an essential role in exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide, and when it is damaged, our body becomes unable to breathe properly. The description in Donguibogam that 'the pulmonary lobe tears' can be seen as an astonishingly precise description of this destruction of the pulmonary alveolus and the structural remodeling of the airways.
More than 90% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is caused by smoking. When harmful substances in cigarette smoke enter the lungs, they trigger a continuous inflammatory reaction, breaking down the lung's defense systems. As inflammatory cells become excessively activated, they destroy even normal lung tissue, while airway walls thicken, undergo fibrosis, and narrow. The function of the cilium cleaning bronchial mucus becomes paralyzed, causing sputum to accumulate, which creates an environment where bacteria readily proliferate, repeating a vicious cycle of greater vulnerability to infection. While it begins with mild cough or sputum in the early stages, as the disease progresses, one suffers dyspnea, becoming short of breath even during everyday activities such as climbing stairs or walking. Because damaged lungs are difficult to restore once injured, slowing the progression of the disease and managing symptoms are of paramount importance.
Diagnosis is primarily made through spirometry, which is a pulmonary function test. It measures the amount of inhaled air and the speed of exhaled air to confirm the presence of airway obstruction. Unfortunately, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is not a curable disease, but quality of life can be sufficiently improved through proactive lifestyle improvements including smoking cessation, medication, and pulmonary rehabilitation. The thought of breathing becoming painful is truly distressing. Remember that cigarettes are no longer a matter of personal preference, but a grave hazard eating away at the lungs of yourself and those around you.
