I smoked for 35 years. I have mild stage copd & mild hyperinflation. I quit smoking 8 months ago. I was feeling a lot better, tho my lungs were still healing, I guess, because i was clearing my throat alot & was coughing up very small amounts of phlegm from time to time. About a month ago, I picked up a cigarette & now my smoking habit is back in full force. I plan to quit again but I was just wondering if this month long smoking spree is enough to cause a higher stage of COPD? Also, Ive been reading some scary stuff about hyperinflation causing heart failure. Does stopping smoking prevent progression of this & keep heart failure from happening? My lung function results are posted on here in a past post. Please advise! (Also, my doc told me that hperinflation IS copd...yet, I've heard some of you say that you have copd but not hyperinflation. Thank you so much for taking time to read and respond to this long post!