Do you suffer from a persistent cough? Ever felt breathless walking up a flight of stairs? Well if you have, it might be time to find out why, with recent research showing an estimated 3.7million people in the UK have a serious lung condition called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, though with only 900,000 diagnosed cases that means 2.8 million people have the condition without realising it.

While coughs and breathlessness can be minor and signs of other less serious conditions, they are two of the main symptoms of COPD – an umbrella term for chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

Many people have still not heard of COPD, but it is the UK’s 5th biggest killer, contributing to more deaths in women than breast cancer and more deaths in men than prostate cancer. However, if diagnosed early it can be easily treated and managed.

To find out if you are at risk and what you need to do if you are, watch our Web TV show where Dame Helena Shovelton Chief Executive of the British Lung Foundation will be explaining COPD and how it affects people living with the condition. Our presenter will also be having a quick and simple lung test while on air to show you first hand what is involved.

We also take to the streets to test members of the public and talk to a British Lung Foundation supporter who is living with COPD   about their experiences living with the condition.

Dame Helena Shovelton joins us live online at www.studiotalk.tv on Wednesday 17th November at 3pm to discuss the causes and symptoms of COPD.

For more information visit www.lunguk.org

H: Mark Ryes, host
A: Dame Helena Shovelton, Chief executive, British Lung Foundation
B: Pearl Smith, COPD sufferer
C: Molly, nurse

H: 60% of people in the UK have never heard of it but COPD – or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder – is the nation’s 5th biggest killer, and today marking world COPD day we find out more about it on the Health & Wellbeing Show

Titles

H: Hello there and welcome to the program, I’m Mark Ryes. Today we’re going to address some of the questions surrounding the serious lung condition COPD – who’s at risk, how widespread is it, what are the main symptoms and where you can get more information. Joining me today is Dame Helena Shovelton, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, and Pearl Smith who’s been living with COPD for the past 3 years. Welcome to you both

A: Thank you

B: Thank you

H: And coming up on the show today – I’ll be giving you my own test of the lungs; my own lungs will be getting an MOT live on the show. Keeping an eye on your winter cough. And all your questions will be answered live. Now, when I say live, please don’t forget that this is a live show, so if you have any questions or comments for your guests, please use the box on your screen with your name as well, and click send. We’ll do our best to tackle them over the course of the next 15 minutes or so. And if you’re Tweeting whilst you’re watching the show, please use the # tag studiotalk – all one word - and we’ll try to give you a mention. We’d love to hear from you. So first of all, Dame Helena, there has been quite a lot of research done for World COPD showing actually that the occurrence of COPD is much wider than first thought?

A: Yes it’s very worrying. It’s already known that there are a very large number of people, over 3 million – 3.7 to be exact who are at risk of COPD, and are out there with it, undiagnosed. We thought that when we did this survey we would find out some different things, instead of which, somewhat to our surprise and frankly to my personal horror, the indication from this piece of research is that there are an extra 700,000 people. That’s not good news

H: Before was just not known about?

A: Well that – according to this, from people that we have surveyed, when they’re talking about their symptoms, this is where it’s taken us in this piece of research. That’s very worrying. It was terrible in the first place, now it’s really horrendous

H: And so this is why we’re here doing this information

A: Absolutely

H: To try and get an idea of what the symptoms are and what you need to do about it. Pearl let me bring you into the discussion at this point. You were diagnosed three years ago. So what kind of symptoms did you have? What made you go to your GP in the first place?

B: Well I think I’m quite lucky in one respect because my father had emphysema which is a form of COPD, and I’d looked after him, and a couple of family members have also had emphysema / COPD. So I was quite well-informed about it, and obviously when I started getting breathless, and I had a continuous cough, and I was bringing up phlegm. I went to my GP and asked for a COPD check

H: And so when that happened, what was your initial reaction after your GP had done the test then?

B: Well when he did the test and he said you’ve got COPD, emphysema, I went home and I was shocked to start with but then I thought my dad’s had it, why shouldn’t I? I mean I come from a mining village which industrial – had a lot of industrial buildings and what have you, so it was no great surprise

H: And I think it’s important to point out Helena that it’s not just smokers

A: No

H: Smokers are at a higher risk but it’s not just smokers

A: No, it’s certainly not. People that work in very dusty surroundings can get COPD. In the past a lot of miners did. People nowadays who are in, say, the milling industry or working in bakeries, things like that, where the flour is such fine particles it can cause problems. And of course there are people who have inherited a problem, not just like Pearl, but also inherited a particular gene that’s bought them to the point whereby they will get COPD. They may never smoke, they may never do any of the other things that are at risk, but they may get COPD

H: So keep watching because you may be at risk even if you’ve not been a smoker. Well one very well known COPD patient is Coronation Street’s Liz Dawn, known to millions of course as Vera Duckworth. She was diagnosed with COPD about two years ago and is now living with and coping with the condition. Last year she told us how she found out she had a serious lung disease, and how she’s coping with it

Video Footage

Liz Dawn: “I was pleased you know that the British Lung Foundation asked me to be an ambassador because I’ve had bad breathing for like the last 10 years. But like other people I thought I had asthma, so I only had this little inhaler that weren’t doing me any good. Bad breathing is the worst thing anybody could ever have. So many people don’t realise they’ve got COPD. Most people say emphysema, you know, they’ve never heard of COPD. When you’ve got COPD it affects everything in your life, I’ve been in hospital twice with pneumonia, I only have to get a cold and it’s like worry time. But I just wish that I could have got this medication I’m on before, because it’s made so much difference. If you’ve been a smoker for years, you’re likely to get bad lungs

H: Well that was Liz Dawn and coming up in part two of the show I’ll be showing you a simple lung function test that your GP can carry out to check the health and condition of your lungs, and we’ll be taking your questions live as well. So if you’ve just joined us on today’s edition of Health & Wellbeing, we’re talking about a new study commissioned for the British Lung Foundation about COPD. Now we have Dame Helena and Pearl with us. Why do you think, Dame Helena, that so few people have heard of COPD in the first place?

A: Well I don’t think the name helps; it’s not cool, snappy or sexy is it? You know on the way through. And people don’t know what chronic means, although they use it as a sort of word to describe their lives sometimes, and obstructive is a difficult word, and pulmonary is something else. So I think the doctors have presented us with a challenge in terms of the name

H: Because it does stand for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

A: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease yes absolutely

H: Yes it is quite a mouthful

A: And I think people have heard of emphysema, often and they’ve heard of chronic bronchitis, and it’s really an umbrella term that covers the whole of that range

H: So what are the symptoms that we ought to be looking out for? Actually Pearl probably best to ask you having had the symptoms and being a sufferer

B: Breathlessness, persistent coughing

H: Let’s just talk about breathlessness, I mean when I run up a flight of stairs, I’m breathless – is that what we ought to be looking for? Is that the kind of thing – just in every day –?

B: No, no – every day –

H: Life?

B: Carrying simple shopping bags

H: Sure

B: Washing baskets, trying to play with your children or your grandchildren. If you get out of breath you can’t play with them. I mean I’m 53 years old. I can’t play with my grandchildren as much as I would like to, because I get out of breath

H: Ok so breathlessness then

A: A sort of example would be if you were quite young, say 30 or something like that – feels a very long time ago to me, so I’m sorry –

H: And me don’t worry!

A: And if you were walking up a hill with somebody else of a similar age and they weren’t breathless and you were – why?

H: Ok

A: It’s the sort of question you ought to be asking

H: Sure

A: So it’s a comparison with others of a similar age

H: So breathlessness is a top one

A: Is a key issue

B: Wheezing, if you’re very wheezy

H: Sure

B: Chest – lots of chest infections, and coughing. Persistent coughing

H: So coughing and phlegm –

B: Yes

H: Because a lot of people have confused it with the smokers’ cough, haven’t they? Or they call it a smoker’s cough

B: Yes

A: Well they seem to think a smoker’s cough is just fine, which is quite interesting to me since everybody else knows smoking is a quite dangerous occupation, so why if you cough as a result would it be fine? So it’s counterintuitive but actually basically if you look at this, if you’ve got a smoker’s cough, and it’s persistent and they’ve been smoking a while then they ought to get tested

H: The good news is there’s a very simple test

A: Absolutely

H: Very simple test and I took this test earlier on today, and here’s how it went

H: So Molly is the nurse here and Molly is going to do a spirometry test on me to talk about lung capacity and whatever else. Right so what do I need to do first?

C: Right Mark I just want to ask you a few questions first ok?

H: Ok

C: Ok just sort of very, very brief

H: Like a medical history?

C: Yes. So it’s –really I want to know about your environment and what work you’ve done and your family history. So is there anybody in the family who’s got lung disease of any kind?

H: My mum has got emphysema after smoking for many years

C: Right. Siblings, any siblings?

H: Yes but no disease there at all

C: No disease there. And where do you live? Have you lived in a big city?

H: In towns and cities yes

C: So possibly a polluted atmosphere

H: And I was a smoker for 17 years

C: We’ll come to that

H: I haven’t smoked for two years, but I was a smoker for 17 years

C: Well done. And how many cigarettes did you smoke a day?

H: Just over 20 probably

C: Right, right. Ok. Have you always worked n television?

H: Yes pretty much

C: Ok that’s lovely, that’s all I need to know. Now if you just look at that little list of things

H: Ah now we’ve got a card here. Do I have unstable angina or recent heart attack – no. Surgery – no. A stroke or known cerebral or abdominal aneurism? No. Coughing up blood? No. Collapsed lung – no. So I answered no to all the questions

C: Well that’s a huge relief; we can then get on with the test

H: Good

C: I’ve just got to ask you a few questions about – and then I put the details into the machine and then it works out what your predicted levels are

H: Ok and I’ll be blowing into this?

C: You will, in a moment. So you’re male

H: Yes, definitely absolutely

C: Caucasian?

H: Yes definitely

C: Your height?

H: 5 ft 7

C: 5 ft 7

H: You’ve got a chart there

C: I have because I’m not very good at –

H: 170cm

C: Yes that’s right

H: Not very tall. So this all goes into the machine

C: That’s lovely

H: And weight goes in there as well

C: Ok now I’m going to ask you to do two different kinds of blow. The first one is just a gentle blow but when you do this blow, can you just pinch your nose so the air doesn’t escape?

H: Yes absolutely

C: So if you take a big breath in

H: Yes

C: Seal your lips around the mouthpiece and just gently push the air out

H: Gently -

C: And keep pushing the air out till you can’t do any more

H: So big breath

C: Big breath in. Keep pushing the air out, keep going, keep going, well done. Keep going. As long as you can. Ok? That’s fine, that’s lovely

H: Gosh that takes it out of you doesn’t it, blimey! Ok so that’s number one

C: That’s number one. Now normally we would do this test three times but we’re a bit short of time

H: Yes fine

C: So that’s the relaxed manoeuvre so we go on now to a forced manoeuvre

H: Didn’t feel that relaxed but it’s easy to do. And so this is a forced one, we were talking about this earlier; this is taking as much breath as you can and then push it out as hard as you can for as long as you can?

C: That’s right and you keep blowing it out till you can’t blow any more

H: Right and I don’t need to hold my nose for this one?

C: No

H: Right fine, ready. Here we go

C: Blow. Keep going, keep going. Well done, keep going, keep going, keep going. Well done

H: Oh blimey

C: You’re nearly the colour of my jacket!

H: That really does change your colour doesn’t it?

C: We normally would do this three times but we will do it once more for the –

H: Okey dokey

C: For the purpose of this

H: Quite light-headed already. Ok

C: Big breath in and blow. Well done – keep blowing, keep blowing, keep blowing. Well done. Excellent

H: Blimey

C: That’s fine

H: That’s as much as I could do. It’s quite interesting the spirometry machine, the spirometer because it actually prints out the results for you so your GP can print out the results, so the nurse at your practice can print out the results which is what you’re doing, Molly, right now. Now because I was a smoker we don’t expect it to be 100% of being normal, that’s fair enough

C: Can I just ask you, do you have a cough?

H: No not at the moment

C: And do you get breathless when you rush up the stairs?

H: A little bit yes

C: You do. Right

H: I can tell they’re not good questions are they

C: The truth will be revealed. Well actually see the machine worked out your predictive values

H: Sure

C: And you – actually it’s not bad at all. The ratio is over 81%

H: Right

C: Which means you’re normal and you don’t have – have very, very few symptoms so we’d think that there probably isn’t any underlying disease there at the moment

H: But if I had any symptoms I would need to go and check it out with my GP

C: If you had any symptoms and the result was over 80% of your predictive value, you would have to have it checked out, yes

H: Excellent

C: Really I mean you got away lightly with that one Mark

H: Molly thank you very much indeed. So it’s an easy test, as you see

H: So that was the test that I took earlier on today, so all generally ok with me, but I have to say if you’re worried about going to see your GP about this test, the test – there’s no pain, there’s no needles, there’s no nothing – there’s nothing to worry about in this test. You saw how easy it was, it’s literally blowing into a tube. So if you’re worried that you have any of the symptoms that we’ve been talking about, then a simple appointment with your GP practice will actually be able to put your mind at rest hopefully. And coming up in part three of the program, we’ll be answering the questions that you’ve been sending in

Break

H: So joining us here in the studio, Dame Helena who is right at the top of the British Lung Foundation and Pearl of course a sufferer of COPD. Had quite a few questions coming in just from viewers that have been watching the program – I think this is a really obvious one from Jane to start with. “I sometimes feel a little breathless when going up steep hills and stairs. I’ve noticed it more in the last year or two, but I thought I was just unfit” she says “(I’m the wrong side of 40)” – aren’t we all Jane? “Should I get a lung test or would my GP think I’m being paranoid?” Now a lot of people think “am I disturbing my GP?”

A: Well I don’t think it’s a matter of disturbance personally, I think that GPs would be pleased to see people if they were worried about a disease, so I’m sure it’s a good thing to think about that. But she could, however, if she wanted to, make sure she wasn’t troubling her GP unnecessarily, take the breath test that we’ve got on screen on our website lunguk.org and if she took that and it indicated she was at risk, then it would be very sensible to go. If however, she came sailing through that and said no risk at all then maybe she should think that it may be a wasted journey

H: I’m guessing Pearl that you think a visit to the GP is important if you’re worried about it?

B: If you’re really worried yes, but like Dame Helena said we do have a helpline and we have the website as well

H: And the details will be on the screen and we’ll give you that website

B: Yes

H: At the end of the program as well, so don’t worry at all about that.

A: It would depend – sorry to interrupt you – it would depend on all kinds of things, not just getting breathless, you know as we said before it’s a matter of whether she’s coughing and there’s other things, and to whether she’s smoked or she hasn’t smoked – you know all kinds of things – so it’s quite a complicated thing, it’s not just breathlessness

H: Another question has just come in from Greta. Now this is probably a little bit more complicated, and we’re not medics here so we’re not answering –

A: Absolutely not

H: Specific medical questions, but we’re just wondering if you can explain the difference between COPD and asthma.

A: Well it would be much better if it was a medic doing this rather than me, and I’m conscious that if any medics are watching at this moment they’ll probably be holding their head in their hands at the thought that I’m answering this question, so if you could forgive me Greta for just trying to do some very simple things about this

H: Sure

A: I mean asthma is a disease that is often linked to allergy. And it makes your tubes very sensitive, so what they do is to react to things and that makes you very breathless. I mean there are great differences in that on the whole it’s – you quite often start with, in childhood with asthma, so whereas you would never start with COPD in childhood, you wouldn’t get that at that stage. So you know there are differences on the way through and it’s just quite difficult to make sure that people do find out the difference and many GPs have struggled over many years to do a differential diagnosis between the two. But you know if what you’re doing is reacting to suddenly a smell or something you’re in conscious of – you know what I’m trying to say –

B: Yes, yes

A: Pollen or something like that, linked to hay fever, rhinitis, you know all those things, then it’s likely to be – more likely to be – asthma. COPD is a much more slow growing, ongoing sort of thing, whereas asthma can be quite bad quite suddenly

H: I think one of the things that – it’s certainly crossing my mind now – if you’ve been for the test, and Pearl is the one to answer this question, without a shadow of a doubt – is it manageable? Is it treatable, what can be done or are we saying once you’ve got it, you’ve got it?

B: If you catch it early enough, then you can be given simple inhalers which helps

H: And the inhalers like people with asthma take?

B: Yes, yes

H: Ok

B: I mean simple inhalers will help, and then there’s an exercise program what you can do which is simple enough. You can do that and that’ll help

H: So the prognosis is quite good actually if you catch it early enough?

B: If you catch it early enough you help to slow it down

H: Sure. You wanted to jump in there Dame Helena?

A: No no it’s not that, I can only tell you what the doctors have told me, and I hope I’ve remembered it right, ok? Which is that if you were caught while the disease, COPD was at the mildest stage and if at that point you stopped smoking, if it was related to smoking or working in the atmosphere or whatever, then you stood a chance of it not progressing. At that point there’s absolutely no reason – this is why it’s so important to be found early – there’s no reason why it should progress and you would die from it, ok? Whereas if you catch it at a much later stage, you can stop its further development by the use of some of the different treatments and from rehabilitation and things, but you can’t necessarily stop every having it

H: So world COPD tells us it’s a much greater predominance in the UK than we first thought

A: Yes

H: And that’s why it’s important to get it checked. Let’s just run through very quickly what those symptoms are again that we ought to be looking for

B: Breathlessness, coughing, wheezing, chest infections and above all thinking that you’ve got a smoker’s cough – you haven’t and thinking that you’re unfit

H: So stop thinking about smoker’s cough

A: Stop finding an excuse

B: Stop finding an excuse

A: For being breathless, which might not have something to do with smoking

H: And then with a very easy test from your GP we can see –

B: Or you can go onto, on the website, online and do the simple test, and if you answer any of the questions yes then by all means go along to your GP

H: Ladies thank you very much indeed for joining us. Let’s talk about that website because it’s very important – it is a hugely important subject, as you’ve seen, we could carry on talking for ages, but if you would like information about COPD, here is that website – it’s www.lunguk.org, that’s www.lunguk.org. Thank you for joining me today

A: Pleasure

H: And I hope you’ll join us again soon. Bye bye

A: Thank you

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