Everyday health Note · 4 min read

Breathless and coughing for months? Ask about COPD

In India, cooking smoke matters as much as cigarettes. A simple breathing test, spirometry, confirms it, and treatment helps her breathe easier

The Pushpa team · 3 sources

Pushpa notes39

Breathless on the stairs3 months

Coughing for 3 weeks+Ask for spirometry

Room to breathe

Getting out of breath on the stairs, a cough that never quite goes, more chest infections each winter. It's easy to put down to age. It may be COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a long-term lung condition the WHO calls the third leading cause of death worldwide

9.2%

of Indians over 60 had obstructive lung disease on a breathing test in LASI, which advises reading measured figures with caution

Not only smokers

The WHO says that in low and middle-income countries, smoking accounts for 30–40% of COPD cases, and household air pollution is a major risk. Years of cooking over wood, dung, crop waste or coal, common for many of our mothers and grandmothers, can damage the lungs as much as cigarettes

Signs

Breathlessness, especially doing things that used to be easy
A cough that lasts, sometimes with phlegm
Frequent chest infections
Feeling tired

The NHS advises seeing a doctor for a cough lasting 3 weeks or more, repeated chest infections, or new breathlessness with everyday activities. A breathing test called spirometry confirms the diagnosis

What helps

Stopping smoking, at any age
Keeping away from smoke and polluted air, including cooking smoke
Vaccines, which the WHO lists as part of care
Medicines and inhalers, and in some cases oxygen or pulmonary rehabilitation

COPD isn't curable, but it can be managed. If she is gasping, choking or can't get words out, call 112

How Pushpa helpsPushpa hears her on the evening call, so new breathlessness or a cough that won't settle is noted night after night and shared with the family