Bloating with COPD.

[beejaykay]

Hello, I,m new to all this. I smoked all my life.I am now 77 and this horrific condition has only really surfaced in the last year or so,becoming worse in the last 6 months. We are all aware of the warnings given by governments and other bodies about the danger of smoking and cancer.I was never aware of the danger of smoking and COPD.Nor was I aware of the danger of Intermittent Claudication brought about solely by smoking. Thank you Government.beejaykay.

[2greys]

I echo those sentiments 100%. Smoking has totally destroyed my old age plans. I feel that I have been betrayed too. The first I knew about copd was after I was given my diagnosis and looked it up on the web. Yet the people that are supposed to represent us in Government are all too eager to let the tobacco companies continue to destroy lives for the sake of taxes.

More people die from tobacco smoking related issues than heroin abuse. How crazy is that? I for one will never ever vote in an election again, they have shown me that they do not care about us. They even deny us the essential life saving medicines.

[Ca3489]

Hi beejaykay. Like yourself hadn't even heard of COPD until diagnosed. I was never a pack a day smoker and had not smoked for years. What a shock at the begining of this year! I cannot remember ever seeing a health warning about COPD. I always thought that when you gave up smoking your chances of smoking related diseases became less as time went on. This is what the government promotes. So what a suprise when having a check up for a small wheeze after my daily run to be eventually diagnosed with COPD, bronchiectasis and multiple lung nodules. Asymptomatic at the moment, so still wake up every morning and think omg!!! Carolx

[angie26 in reply to Ca3489]

Me too exactly, never knew about COPD, stopped smoking years ago and was told it would be a new beginning , my body would heal!! I have never had so many illnesses before!

[Johnem]

Same here, never heard of COPD until it was diagnosed approx 10 yrs ago when my asthma condition changed.

Apart from a short campaign in 2015, the Govt has done nothing that I know of to make smokers aware of it either. Mention it to anyone and most have no idea what it is.

2015........

Public Health England (PHE) is today (29 December 2015) highlighting the debilitating nature of serious lung diseases for which smoking is the biggest preventable risk factor, after the latest GP figures revealed that more than 1 million people are living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

HSCIC figures show COPD led to over 113,000 emergency hospital admissions in England in 2013 and 2014.

Alongside the impact on quality on life, approximately 25,000 people die each year from COPD in England: twice the European average. Around 86% of these deaths are caused by smoking.

Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer comments:

COPD is a serious lung disease and is not particularly well known. Yet it contributes to the deaths of almost 25,000 people a year. Nearly 90% of these COPD deaths are linked to smoking. COPD can also be a severely debilitating disease, dramatically affecting people’s breathing and leading to years of suffering. The single best thing a smoker can do to reduce their chances of developing this devastating disease and prolong their life, is to stop smoking.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This is just England without data from the rest of the UK.

I am not enough of a hypocrite to state that this info would have made me stop smoking when younger, as young people tend to live life for the moment, but when I stopped 20 yrs ago at age 60, it was definitely for health reasons, but not for the one which is beating me down, COPD, the one that I had never heard of.

[Hidden]

In all honesty, to heap blame on governments of all and any persuasions seems ridiculous to me. Not since the 1950s have we lived in ignorance of the dangers of smoking, and even without having it spelled out, who really has to be told that inhaling smoke for years is not at all healthy?! Those of us who smoked and enjoyed it for many years cannot in all conscience start complaining when the bill comes in.

Just my opinion.

[seyre]

Sadly we didn.t know the dangers in our younger years but also cigarettes were then made of tobacco! I believe all the sh't that goes into cigarettes now is the major cause of the problems.

[Helen6]

Oh come on. If the worry of cancer didn't stop you smoking do you really think you would have paid attention to COPD? The dangers of smoking have been widely known for all my lifetime and is the reason that I have never smoked. I know the reasons that people choose to smoke are many and varied and I would not condemn anyone for their choices but blaming the Government doesn't sit well with me.

[paulven in reply to Helen6]

We complain about a Nanny State and then want to blame the government when a lifestyle choice has consequences