Category: Emphysema

Some 2 million Americans have emphysema. It’s a terrible disease of slow suffocation, overwhelmingly caused by decades of smoking. Everyone knows that smoking causes the vast majority of the nation’s 160,000 annual lung cancer deaths. Most people know that smoking contributes to many of the 740,000 deaths from heart disease. But few know that emphysema and its sister condition, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are the nation’s fourth leading cause of death, killing 106,000 Americans each year.

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Emphysema is usually caused by years of smoking, and is due to damage to the air sacs (alveoli) in the lungs. People with emphysema experience shortness of breath because their bodies are not getting enough oxygen, and often have a chronic cough.

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