A review of existing data shows that people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have no help with some well-known inhalers to improve their life spans.

Contrarily, they may increase the risk of pneumonia (one of the biggest killers in the US) in these patients.

However, without doctor’s recommendation, patients with COPD must not avoid using these inhalers as these devices prove beneficial in a number of cases, said Dr. M. Bradley Drummond, the lead author of the review.

Dr. Drummond, who is a fellow at the pulmonary and critical care medicine division at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, says: “Aside from well-known benefits, there are some possible risks and the review is about balancing them.”

The study has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Nov.26 issue.

Frequent wheezing, coughing and breathlessness are some common symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the disease is the fourth leading cause of death in the US following heart disease, cancer and stroke. Though some treatments can prove helpful to ease the symptoms, there isn’t any specific cure for it.

According to Dr Drummond, “Smoking is one of the leading causes of the disease as it’s almost 90% cases relate to smoking. Abnormal inflammation can occur in the lungs due to smoke that destroys the ends of the airways and the body hardly extracts the oxygen from the air near them.”

If patients want to boost their life spans, they need quitting smoking and inhaling fresh air.