COPD can affect more than your lungs -- it’s a whole-body disease impacting everything from your blood pressure to your bones. Here are some other health conditions that can happen along with COPD.
High Blood Pressure
As COPD gets worse, it affects your breathing and can also raise your blood pressure, making the right side of your heart work harder to pump blood to your entire body. This extra work can eventually lead to a condition called cor pulmonale, where the right side of your heart struggles to work correctly, causing heart failure.
Weight Loss
COPD will eventually reach what’s called the catabolic stage. At this stage, you lose weight without trying (even if you eat plenty of high-calorie food) because your body is constantly battling inflammation. Weight loss, combined with a loss of muscle mass, makes it harder for you to perform day-to-day activities.
Pulmonary Hypertension
This condition happens when your blood pressure is too high in the vessels of the lungs and right side of the heart. When you live with COPD, your blood pressure goes up, causing low oxygen levels. And when your muscles don't get enough oxygen, they weaken. This makes it hard to be active or even do simple, usual tasks. Breathing also becomes a struggle, and your body always feels tired because it doesn’t get the oxygen it needs.
Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome
With COPD, you have a higher chance of getting diabetes. That’s because your body doesn't handle insulin, which helps control blood sugar, very well. Experts have also linked COPD to a condition called metabolic syndrome. It’s when you have extra fat around your middle and you have diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol at the same time.
Bone Disease
When you have COPD, you’re more likely to develop osteoporosis (weakening of your bones), even in the early stages of the disease. One study found that 75% of people with severe COPD may have osteoporosis and loss of muscle mass, especially women. The bone disease can also lead to spine fractures, affecting your posture and making breathing harder.
Psychiatric Diseases
Having COPD can often make you feel anxious or depressed, partly because you may feel isolated from others. These mood changes are more common in people living with COPD compared to other long-term health issues. Around 20% to 40% of people with COPD may have major depression. That’s why seeing a doctor is crucial when you feel down. Depression can make your COPD symptoms worse and make you sicker overall. Getting the right treatment for both the physical and emotional sides of COPD could help you feel better and live longer.
Lung Cancer
COPD raises your chances of getting lung cancer, making them three to four times higher than a smoker with normal lung function. Lung cancer is quite common in people with COPD, especially in severe cases, and can lead to death. Even if you’ve never smoked but have COPD, you can still get lung cancer, according to a large study involving almost half a million nonsmokers. This higher chance of lung cancer in COPD is mainly tied to ongoing inflammation in the lungs.
Cardiovascular Disease
Heart problems are common in people with COPD and can lead to serious health issues. Studies have found that many people with COPD often have stiff arteries, possibly due to inflammation in the body, making them more prone to heart problems such as heart attacks.
Chronic heart failure is also a common problem for people with COPD. One study found that 20% of people with COPD had undiagnosed heart failure, which can be challenging for doctors to spot because of similar COPD symptoms.
Show Sources
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SOURCES:
Top Doctors United Kingdom: “Part 1: How COPD affects the body.”
Mayo Clinic: “Pulmonary Hypertension,” “Metabolic syndrome.”
PloS Medicine: “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Effects beyond the Lungs.”
