Copd

[rubyred777]

I was wondering exactly what is bronchiectasis? I see quite a few members have it.

~ RUBY ~

[Hidden]

hi

yeah i have it too...its the widening of the airways which sounds like it should be good but it stops mucus from moving which means it gets stuck and cause infection but i dont know what causes it im still waiting on that one

[Daffodil51 in reply to Hidden]

Hi Mandy my understanding of bronch as explained by my consultant is that it can be caused, as in my case, by damage from Pneumonia. Then with each successive infection the widening gets wider - so a bit of a vicious circle.

Hope that helps

[RibvanRey]

If you think of the airways within the lungs as tunnels, bronchiectasis is the widening of the airways, is often explained as being like caverns being created. These caverns enable pools of mucus to form which invites infections to breed. I particularly like the sketch used at this site patient.co.uk/health/bronch...

[stone-UK]

Hi

Have a read of,

bronchiectasishelp.org.uk./...

[RibvanRey in reply to stone-UK]

Thank you Stone.

[bwp91]

The best description I've every heard ( from the BLF professor) is that it's like a road with potholes in it. The potholes are bulges in the bronchi which collect muck (sputum) and of course infrction in it which easily gets stuck. And it's a vicious circle, just like potholes, in that they get worse when not repaired. Where's COPD can be compared to a dual carriage way that is forced to go down to one lane so that there are bottle necks - you can't get as much breath in other words because your tubes are blocked. Ive probably notputthis very scientifically but it helps me to understand. Of course the 'potholes' can't be repaired so it's a question of taking antibiotics to try to get rid of infections, chest clearance exercises to get the muck up as far as possible and keeping as fit as possible with a good diet and the dreaded exercise.