Studies have shown that the rate of lung function decrease can be reduced if a diagnosis of COPD is made in its early stages and medical treatments. Furthermore, the progression of the disease can be decelerated through lifestyle changes. For example, one study found that stopping smoking after a COPD diagnosis delayed the progression of COPD at all stages, with earlier actions having the most impact.
The exact length of time you can live with COPD depends on your age, health, and symptoms. Especially if your COPD is diagnosed early, mild, and remains well managed and controlled, you may well be able to live for 10 or even 20 years post-diagnosis.
For those with severe stage COPD, the average loss of life expectancy is about eight to nine years. Quitting smoking can have a positive effect on your life expectancy if you are a smoker and have COPD.
For instance, numerous studies suggest that those with GOLD stage 1 or 2 mild and moderate COPD who smoke lose a few years of life expectancy at the age of In addition, it has been backed by studies that those with stages 3 or 4 severe and very severe COPD lose from six to nine years of life expectancy due to smoking.
Notably, this is in addition to the four years of life lost by anyone who smokes. For example, routine blood checks can help monitor inflammation and may help to pick up on potential issues before they worsen. Simple lifestyle changes such as losing weight, eating healthily, and exercising safely , when possible, can also help you to maintain a good quality of life.
For those with severe COPD, treatments such as oxygen therapy, lung volume reduction surgery and lung transplants may also help to increase life expectancy. However, some research has found that for people with mild COPD, the causes of death are often cardiovascular diseases.
In contrast, in cases of severe COPD, research has shown that major causes of death include heart failure, respiratory failure, pulmonary infection, pulmonary embolism, cardiac arrhythmia, and lung cancer.
Impaired gas exchange in COPD can cause symptoms like shortness of breath, coughing, and fatigue. It also leads to hypoxemia and hypercapnia. Pleurisy is inflammation in the pleura of the lungs that can be accompanied by pain.
In some cases, it can evolve into pleural effusion, which is when…. Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Medically reviewed by Stacy Sampson, D. GOLD system. BODE index. Routine blood test. Mortality rates. Read this next. Breathing Exercises to Increase Lung Capacity.
Medically reviewed by Gerhard Whitworth, R. Medically reviewed by Daniel Murrell, M. Measured by a simple test known as spirometry, airway obstruction typically looks at a marker called forced expiratory volume FEV1 , a measure of the percentage of air that can be forcefully exhaled in one second. If there is an obstruction in the airways that slows or prevents this rapid exhalation of air, the percentage decreases. Dyspnea is the physical sensation of shortness of breath or breathlessness.
Healthcare providers make distinctions based on what someone may need to do—how active they are—before they become short of breath. Early on, a person with COPD may only become breathless if they walk five miles. Later on, that same person may note breathlessness with any movement at all. In this measurement, breathlessness is measured on a scale of 0 to Dyspnea evaluation rates a person's perception of their COPD symptoms and translates those perceptions into measurable value.
While FEV1 has been regarded as the best way to predict COPD mortality, the dyspnea level may be more significant when predicting survival. Exercise capacity—how active someone is able to be with the restrictions put forth by their lung disease—may be dramatically reduced by COPD. A standard test called the six-minute walk test is used to obtain the value for the BODE index.
It can provide both an estimate of mortality and a baseline by which people can effect positive lifestyle changes.
After determining the appropriate points for the factors above, they are added together. In considering each of the individual values that go into the total BODE Index score, your clinician can offer ways to improve upon your grading.
Tests like this are good for making general predictions and evaluating statistics, but they do not necessarily give predictive information for individual people.
Someone with a very high score could end up living for decades, and the opposite could be true for someone with a low score. It should not replace the advice of a healthcare professional.
Another major factor contributing to the life expectancy of someone with COPD is lung cancer risk. COPD is considered an independent risk factor for lung cancer, meaning that just having COPD greatly increases your chances of contracting cancer, regardless of whether you ever smoked cigarettes.
The stages of COPD are as follows :. There are two ways to measure end stage COPD. During late-stage COPD, a person tends to experience more severe flare-ups. They may need to stay in the hospital during these flare-ups. Although a person will get a little better between flare-ups, they tend not to return to their previous condition. Some other symptoms a person might notice in late-stage COPD include:.
Although COPD is terminal, people may not always die of the condition directly, or of oxygen deprivation. Some people with COPD have other medical conditions, particularly cardiovascular disease. In fact, within 5 years of diagnosis, COPD is also an independent risk factor for sudden cardiac death. Many treatment options are available to help a person with end stage COPD cope with the pain and discomfort associated with the condition.
Although supplemental oxygen and COPD medications may help, they may not be as helpful as they were in the earlier stages. Some palliative care options include :. Many people with terminal conditions find significant help from hospice care. Hospices provide end-of-life care that focuses on helping the person feel comfortable, easing their discomfort, and supporting them to make peace with death.
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