Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD, is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, claiming more than 120,000 American lives every year, according to the American Lung Association, and the number of women dying from the disease has surpassed the mortality rate of men with COPD. Millions more people, however, may have COPD that has not yet been diagnosed.

COPD is made up chronic bronchitis and emphysema and the disease is characterized by an obstruction to a person’s airflow, which interferes with normal breathing. Most cases are caused by smoking. In recent years, the disease has had a greater impact on people in terms of mortality and disability, which has increased the focus on COPD. The good news, however, is that there is now real hope that, through early detection of COPD, the lives of people suffering from this disease can be vastly improved.

At The Center for Preventive Medicine, we help you pick the right program to get a better understanding of your COPD risk. If you are currently a smoker, we also offer smoking cessation counseling. The health benefits of quitting smoking are not limited to delaying the onset of COPD. After only a year of quitting, your risk of heart disease is reduced by half. Ten years after quitting, the lung cancer death rate is about half that of a current smoker. The Center for Preventive Medicine will help you understand if you are at risk for COPD or other lung ailments so you can detect and treat these problems early on to live a better, healthier life.