Your brain on COPD    

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a condition that foremost affects the lungs. But it also could affect the brain, according to a recent study.

Adults with COPD have an 83 percent increased risk for developing nonamnestic mild cognitive impairment, according to research published in the journal JAMA Neurology.

This type of cognitive impairment doesn’t affect memory; however, it can affect other thinking skills including visual perception, the ability to make sound decisions and the ability complete complex tasks. Although the changes aren’t serious enough to interfere with daily life, they may be noticeable to you and those around you.

This isn’t the first study to suggest a relationship between COPD and brain health, and experts still can’t say for sure how the two are connected. COPD could cause higher levels of brain-harming inflammation, or COPD could cause less oxygen to reach the brain. Either way, it’s important for COPD patients and their caregivers to watch for signs of cognitive decline, such as having trouble working with numbers (following a familiar recipe or balancing a checkbook, for example) or difficulty reading.