The Other Lung Disease

摘要

It Used To Take Bernard Regeth, 76, 15 minutes to harness his two horses. "Now," says the retired mechanic from River Falls, Wis., "it takes I a good hour. I put the collar on, and I have to sit down and rest. I put the harness on, and I have to sit down and rest. I buckle the harness, and I have to sit down and rest." If he exerts himself too much at a routine task like sweeping the kitchen floor, he feels as if he's suffocating. "I have to completely sit down and take a puff off of one of my puffers until it goes away." Regeth suffers from a disease most people never think about. Most haven't even heard of it, at least by the official name used by doctors, researchers and advocacy groups like the American Lung Association. A person might worry about getting heart disease or cancer or Alzheimer's, but who sits around fretting about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)?