Mayo Clinic doctors named 5 early symptoms of a disease that leaves holes in the lungs

How does emphysema manifest?

This disease has many causes, but the most common are smoking, inhalation of polluted air, dust, gases, and genetic factors. Initially, a person can be diagnosed with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), which following some time, with existing complications, can develop into emphysema.

According to experts, the following symptoms will help to suspect an insidious pathology:

1. shortness of breath, which occurs even at rest or with minor physical exertion;

2. a strange cough that seems to “tear the throat”;

3. emerging sputum;

4. you often began to get sick with various infectious diseases: SARS, influenza, literally “do not get out of the snot”;

5. wheezing appeared in the chest.

Symptoms of emphysema develop slowly and insidiously. The type and severity of manifestations depend on the stage of the disease.

Important detail: due to shortness of breath and discomfort in the chest some mistake emphysema for a heart attack. If the cardiologist did not find anything, then you should contact a pulmonologist.

How to independently distinguish pulmonary shortness of breath from cardiac, you can read HERE.