Confused and need answers

[1sandie]

I have been labeled with copd and I thought you only got that if you smoked and I have NEVER smoked.I also have sleep apnea and asthma.I was told by a few different Doctors that my asthma is from second hand smoke.
Can anybody help me.It seems my body is getting older before I am.
Thanks Sandie

[debbie58]

I don't know what planet you live on, but c.o.p.d does carry a very heavy stigma.  Even to the point of a lack of research, even though this disease kills more people a year than just about any disease, perhaps with the exception of heart disease!!!!!!!

[frewsh]

you don't get labeled with C.O.P.D. you get diagnosed, its not something you stick a label on, its a seriouse disease

[michaelgc]

COPD actually refers to two different medical conditions, chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema, and can include both or just one of those. To the best of my knowledge, emphysema is only caused by smoking, but chronic bronchitis has other causes also. If you never smoked, I would assume you have chronic bronchitis. This can be caused by the prolonged breathing of various dusts or chemicals, including air pollution.

As for asthma, I have had that since childhood, but have never bothered to research it since it went into remission when I was about 16.

But since you are a non-smoker, both should be fairly easy to treat, as long as you don't live in a highly industrialized (eg heavily polluted) area.

[zodiacqueen]

I am not a doctor, but I think that it's absolutely terrible if you've gotten COPD from second hand smoke.  I really hope that the "second hand" smoker that's been exposing you WILL now have the incentive to quit.  I would personally, feel horrible if my smoking caused someone to get copd!!

[National Jewish Health]

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is quite uncommon, in the absence of cigarette smoking or heavy marijuana smoking or gross, persistent exposure to industrial toxins/pollutants, even for those individuals who have the inherited defect, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.  It is possible that your asthma truly has been precipitated by second hand smoke and, equally possible that your asthma might be of the subtype of asthma, in which the airway obstruction to breathing out has become fixed or irreversible, and the irreversible airway obstruction, mimics that of COPD.

Pulmonary function tests (PFTs), especially with lung volumes and a carbon monoxide (CO) diffusion capacity might enable your doctors to make a more specific diagnosis.  This would be best done and interpreted by a lung specialist, also known as a pulmonologist.