Types of Lung Diseases That Prevail and How to Distinguish Them

Did you know around 35 million Americans are struggling with one kind of lung ailment or the other? Did you know that lung infections are assumed to be one of the most vital reasons for infant mortality in America? Perhaps you also did not know that ailments linked to lungs claim one in seven lives every year. Well, it is an upsetting statistics, isn’t it? But what does a lung ailment mean? Surely, lung disease refers to any type of disorder in which the functions of respiratory system get affected and compromised and this weakening manifest in numerous ways, such as, uneasy breathing, irritating cough, short of breath, pain or discomfort in the chest, incapability of taking up physical work and likes. The medical science splits all types of lung diseases into two extensive groupings: Obstructive lung diseases and Restrictive lung diseases.

In obstructive lung diseases, the airways get tapering or congested and the upshot is a reduction in respired air flow. The ailments like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), emphysema, asthma and bronchiectasis are instigated by such obstructions of lungs. Restrictive Lung Diseases lead to either loss of lung tissue or reduction in the lung’s aptitude to expand. It might also decline lung’s aptitude to transfer oxygen or carbon dioxide into the blood. The murderer disease of lung cancer is a type of restrictive lung disease. Pulmonary fibrosis and pneumonia are also triggered by the same lung disorder. These days, one can opt for stem cell treatment for interstitial lung disease to cure the ailment.