Diagnosis & Prevention
5 Things You Need to Know about Pulmonary Fibrosis
Pulmonary fibrosis is no ordinary disease and it gravely affects the lungs. Pulmonary means lungs and fibrosis refers to scar tissue. This disease is a serious lung disease which causes scarring in the lungs. Beyond scarring which itself presents a huge cause of concern, pulmonary fibrosis leads to several other problems which include breathing problems and the process of getting oxygen into the blood. Diseases which do not come with an immediate onset of certain symptoms are hard to detect. You may develop pulmonary fibrosis and not display any symptoms for a while. Here are a few other things you need to know about the disease. What is pulmonary fibrosis? Pulmonary fibrosis leads to the thickening, scarring, and stiffening of the lacy walls of the air sacs in the lungs. The walls are generally thin and lacy and the disease clearly impacts its condition. The stiffening of the lungs leads to several repercussions. The efficiency of the lungs is impacted and its ability to get oxygen into the bloodstream is hampered. It becomes difficult to expand the lungs and breathing is tough. Extra energy is required to breathe. This leads to a shortness of breath as the demand for additional energy takes its toll on the body.