Each day in my practice at West Park Healthcare Centre, I am reminded of how COPD — a disease once exclusively found among men — is affecting women in increasing numbers.
In the last 15 years the number of women who are now suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has skyrocketed. Today half of my patients are women — and their numbers continue to grow.
What is it like to suffer from COPD? It’s as if you can never catch your breath. It’s a lung condition characterized by increasing and debilitating breathlessness and includes terms such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. The truth is that the vast majority of my patients today have COPD because of years of smoking. As smoking rates among women have continued to rise — so has the number of women suffering from COPD.
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