Lungs, Medicine, Philosophy
Life in an Iron Lung Is a Test of Tolerance
Reading a recent tribute to the life of Paul Alexander brought back horrible memories for me. Paul Alexander was only six years of age when he developed polio. The result? He spent the rest of his life enclosed in an iron lung. I too had polio in my final year at the Harvard Medical School. If my fate had been life in an iron lung, I would have begged someone to kill me. It’s not just memories of polio that trouble me. It’s also some people’s long-festering misinterpretation of my stand on vaccines, including some editors who got my message totally wrong. The polio vaccine hadn’t been invented when Alexander and I contracted the disease in the 1940s. Given the consequences for...Read More
Lungs
Coughing Again? Could it be COPD?
Ask any singer what they detest the most and they will say, “People who cough at concerts.” So how do you tell if your annoying cough is due to getting older or being a little out of shape? Is it a common cold? Or could it be a life-threating condition, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)? It’s estimated that one in four people globally over the age of 35 will develop COPD. Worldwide, it’s the third leading cause of death. It’s worrying that the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute reports that over 15 million Americans have been diagnosed with COPD and another 12 million don’t know they have the disease. What causes COPD? It’s almost entirely due to smoking. Older women...Read More
Eyes, Ears, Nose & Throat, Infection, Lungs
All Stuffed Up for the Holidays
There’s a lot of “stuff” this time of year – the stuffing in the turkey, for example, or all the meaningless commercial stuff we buy for the holidays that ends up in landfills. The holidays are a good time to look around and assess what is good stuff and what is bad. It might disappoint some readers to learn that this week the “stuff” we are choosing to look at is the mucus in your nose. There can be quite a volume of this sticky, or runny, or plugged up stuff at this time of year. A very stuffed up nose can be symptom of trouble. Our thoughts are with the many anxious families dealing with young children battling respiratory syncytial...Read More
Cardiovascular, Infection, Lungs, Neurology
Who Has Lost the Logic in the Vaccine Debate?
Why would any logical person choose to face severe medical complications of COVID if they could be avoided? Most of us have weighed the issues and decided to follow vaccine recommendations. But some flatly refuse. Why? No issue is crying out louder for resolution than this vaccine debate. Now governments are set to mandate COVID vaccines to force hesitant citizens to comply. It’s been done before time and again – for childhood immunizations, for example. That’s one way to go about it. But a look at the medical evidence should help compel sensible people to opt in. A growing stack of studies shows that vaccinated people are much less likely to die from COVID than the unvaccinated. Do not people desire to stay...Read More
Lungs, Neurology
Do We All Need Respiratory Masks?
Will the so-called progress of civilization eventually destroy us? Indigenous Peoples, hundreds of years ago, did not devastate nature the way we do today. Oceans are loaded with plastics and soil with dangerous contaminants. Now, is the air we breathe gradually destroying our brains? A report published in Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences has grim news. We’ve known for decades that breathing in dirty air damages lungs. But research now reveals that long-term exposure to particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide is linked to decreased brain function. The lungs are a vital gateway to the body. Their surface area is the size of a tennis court and during a 24-hour period we breathe in 10,000 liters of air. The World...Read More
Lungs
Popcorn Disease: A New Way to Injure the Lungs
“What’s your secret for good health and longevity?” I have been asked repeatedly on radio, TV, and in interviews. My reply is simple. “You must learn early in life to practice a sound lifestyle and continue it forever.” This should be easy. Yet we are not learning from history. The Canadian Medical Association Journal has reported the case of a 17-year-old boy, who has been seriously injured from smoking e-cigarettes. Several cases of lung injury have been reported recently in North America. But this particular patient should get more headlines than others due to its unique cause. The CMAJ reports that the vaping injury was similar to, “Popcorn Lung”. This is a condition seen in workers exposed to the chemical flavouring,...Read More
Cancer, Infection, Lungs
Do You Want to Know What’s in Your Ducts?
Do you have dirty ducts? When did you last look? And while regular cleaning of your ducts may be important for your homeowners insurance policy, what might your ducts have to do with your health? Highly respected authorities on household air quality have studied the relationship between cleaning air ducts and your health. Years ago, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) investigated whether cleaning air ducts leads to healthier air quality in homes, and they concluded it didn’t. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted tests that showed, whether air ducts are clean or dirty, virtually the same concentration of dust can be found in the air. This is because dust and dirt tend to stick to the vents and filters, not...Read More
Lungs, Medicine, Vitamins
Hillary Clinton: Did She Receive the Best RX?
Do famous people always receive superior medical care? If this were a Trivial Pursuit question, the answer would be a big “Yes”. After all, they’re famous and have the money to demand the best medical treatment. But has fame and fortune guaranteed that Clinton has been given the best advice to treat pneumonia? This week I encountered several surprises. The first surprise was that Hillary Clinton, at age 68, hadn’t collapsed earlier from this disease. Or that Donald Trump, age 70 and overweight, hasn’t as yet collapsed from coronary attack. The grueling U.S. election campaign is not designed for seniors, so something medical is bound to happen eventually. It occurred this past week. What else amazed me? Everything I read...Read More
Lungs
A Scientific Way To Stop Killing Yourself with Cigarettes
How can the war in Vietnam now be saving lives? During the Vietnam conflict U.S. soldiers were given free cheap cigarettes, but they were harsh to smoke. To decrease the harshness, soldiers applied glycerine gel to one end of the cigarette which trapped harmful tar. This has pioneered a life-saving idea called "NicoBloc". Every year tobacco kills three million people worldwide. Today 90 percent of lung cancer deaths, 30 percent of all cancers, 80 percent of chronic bronchitis and emphysema and 25 percent of heart disease and stroke are due to tobacco. Given the choice, mouth to mouth resuscitation of Dracula is safer than lighting up a cigarette. If tobacco was introduced to North Americans today, health authorities would ban it as...Read More
Lungs
New Drug To Treat a Desperate Disease
Several months ago I wrote about a tennis partner who was slowly dying of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). We both knew there was no cure for this disease. Nor could I foresee any help for many years. I was wrong on that point. But I was right about my message of hope. I always tell seriously ill patients the story of the man sentenced to death by the King. Because the King was a lover of horses, the man received a reprieve by promising he'd teach the King's horse to fly within one year. His friends laughed at him, but he explained, "Within a year the King may die, I may die or the horse may die. Besides, within a year...Read More
Cancer, Lungs
The Mortality Rate is Staggering for Lung Cancer
My patients always give me the wrong answer when I ask them, "What cancer ills women more than any other malignancy?" Most say, "Breast cancer." But lung cancer kills more women than breast and colon/rectal cancer combined. But there's hope for both sexes. Unfortunately, there's an interesting, recurrent, yet depressing, reaction, particularly for non-smokers, who develop lung cancer. When told that someone has breast cancer there's always a sympathetic ear. But when informed a person has lung cancer, sure as night follows day, the first, quick response is "Was he or she a smoker?" It's a remark that puts an unfair stigma on non-smokers. It happened to the widow of Christopher Reeves (Superman). She developed lung cancer but never smoked. It was...Read More
Lungs
It’s Like Being Trapped under Water
A man sentenced to death by the King was granted a reprieve of one year. He discovered that the King was a lover of horses and promised that within a year he would teach the King's horse to fly. His friends laughed at him. But the man explained, "Within a year the King may die, or the horse may die, or I may die. Besides, who knows? The King's horse may learn to fly." I recently told this story of hope to a friend who was becoming increasingly incapacitated by idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a disease with no known cure. IPF is the most common interstitial lung disease (ILD), a group of diseases affecting the tissue and space around the air...Read More
Lungs, Surgery
Reduction Surgery to Treat Emphysema
"Damn those cigarettes," an angry Johnny Carson repeated over and over as he slowly died from emphysema. Unfortunately, Carson should have said "damn those cigarettes" years ago. The former star of the Tonight Show could have stopped destroying his lungs. But Carson, like so many others, failed to realize that once damage has occurred nothing can restore lung tissue. However, a new surgical operation, lung volume reduction surgery (LVRS), can help to improve the quality of life for some patients suffering from emphysema. Emphysema has always been frustrating to treat. Sir William Osler, one of North America's most famous physicians, was once asked how he treated emphysema. He facetiously replied, "I send them to Egypt." "For the climate?" a young doctor...Read More
Lungs
Cigars – Pat Quinn Sends The Wrong Message
Why do Pat Quinn, Mike Harris and other celebrities do it? I refer to recent photos, one of Mike Harris, former Premier of Ontario, smoking a stogie on the golf course. Another of a multi-millionaire sports celebrity lighting up after winning a championship. The latest is a front page picture in The Toronto Sun of Pat Quinn, coach of the Maple Leaf hockey team, smoking a stogie during the NHL playoffs. This sends the wrong message to young fans. Celebrities are not lighting up for victory. They're lighting up for death. It's time public relations agents told macho males to stop acting like jackasses. What an ironic situation. In the same newspaper on the previous day in the sports section, mention...Read More
