Chronic disease of the airways
When one thinks of chronic diseases of the respiratory tract, three diseases are often the most common: Cystic fibrosis, bronchial asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Cystic fibrosis is a congenital disease that mostly affects boys due to the way it is inherited. There are several forms of cystic fibrosis.
Recently, there has been an approach that one form of cystic fibrosis can be cured, but unfortunately this is not by far the most common form. About one in 3,000 newborns is born with cystic fibrosis. A genetic mutation makes the glandular secretion much thicker, which restricts many physical processes.
Those affected often suffer from serious respiratory diseases, such as pneumonia. In addition to the airways, the pancreas is also particularly affected. Infertility also results from the disease.
The average life expectancy is now around 40 years. Bronchial asthma is often caused by an allergy and leads to mild to severe shortness of breath, depending on its severity. The disease occurs in attacks so that those affected are not permanently restricted.
Once the attack is over, breathing can resume normally. An asthma illness usually occurs in childhood. If the attack cannot be interrupted in time by an asthma inhaler, it can also become life-threatening.
In contrast to cystic fibrosis and asthma, COPD is a disease that does not occur until an advanced age. Colloquially, the disease is also known as smoker’s lung, because it almost always occurs in conjunction with high and long-standing nicotine consumption. In contrast to asthma, the symptoms do not recede and the disease progresses with continued nicotine consumption, so that under certain circumstances there may be a very severe restriction of breathing and thus of resilience.
Of course there are also other chronic respiratory diseases. However, these three diseases are both by far the most common diseases (especially asthma and COPD) and the ones best known to the population. In addition to chronic respiratory diseases, there is also chronic bronchitis and tuberculosis, which often turns into a chronic condition if the therapy is not successful or does not work.
