PREVIEW
The patient is a 45-year-old man with 82-year-old lungs. He is overweight and hypertensive, and he smokes. If things do not change, he may soon be among the 110,000 people who will die from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) this year. What can you do to change the outcome? In this article, Dr Petty presents a strategy for helping patients quit smoking and for saving lung function by slowing the progression and preventing the crippling consequences of COPD.