Bronchial Diseases and Oxidative Stress: Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
March 22, 2021
Bronchial Diseases and Oxidative Stress: Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
In this article, I would like to talk about the relationship between bronchial diseases and oxidative stress.
Asthma is a bronchial disease that has been discussed several times on this site, and this time we will also discuss chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and oxidative stress, which is an increasing bronchial disease.
Asthma and Oxidative Stress
Asthma is classified as an allergic disease.
When the mucous membrane of the airways, or bronchial mucosa, becomes extremely susceptible to irritation, the slightest stimulus causes the bronchial tubes to narrow and an asthma attack to occur. In chronic asthma, the mucous membranes of the bronchial tubes are always easily irritated and an attack can occur at any time.
Asthma attacks can be very painful, and if the attack is prolonged, it can cause breathing difficulties.
The factor (cause) that triggers an attack is irritation to the mucous membranes of the bronchial tubes, and these irritants include dust, pollen, dead mites, etc. Just like hay fever, each person reacts differently to different things. However, since they are always around, asthmatics are always worried about when an attack will occur.
The base of asthma sufferers is still the rusting of the body, or oxidative stress. When local oxidative stress is high, asthma attacks are extremely likely to occur. In fact, there are patients who say that simply by lowering oxidative stress, they no longer have asthma attacks at all.
Asthma is currently being studied as a disease related to oxidative stress at the Department of Antioxidant Research, Joint Research Division, Gifu University.
What is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)?
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a bronchial disease that has been on the rise in recent years.
It used to be called emphysema or chronic bronchitis. In this disease, the function of the alveoli in the lungs breaks down and oxygen cannot be taken in, resulting in chronic breathing difficulties.
Chronic asthma is a mild attack of asthma that causes a whooshing sound when breathing and a cough that does not stop. It also causes shortness of breath and colored sputum production after slight movement.
The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that this disease may become the third leading cause of death by 2030.
The major cause of COPD is smoking. One of the causes is taking in dirty air from air pollution, and more than 80% of patients are smokers.
Since tobacco smoke contains substances that are harmful to the body, inhaling large amounts of it for a long period of time can damage the function of the lungs.
Please refer to this site for more information on the dangers of smoking.
In addition to asthma, COPD, which is mainly caused by smoking, is also an oxidative stress-related disease with a spike in oxidative stress markers in the blood.
COPD is thought to be caused by tobacco and soot, which carry substances that cause oxidative stress in the lungs.
Therefore, it is thought that by suppressing oxidative stress in patients with COPD, the progression of the disease can be controlled to some extent.
Finally.
In this article, I introduced asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but oxidative stress is also a major factor in bronchial-related diseases. Therefore, reducing oxidative stress can be expected to alleviate the symptoms and delay the progression of the disease. In addition, preventing oxidative stress can also lead to prevention, so please try to live a lifestyle that does not increase oxidative stress.