Medical

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

What is COPD?

COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,is a long-term lung disease that refers to both chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

What causes COPD?

COPD is most often caused by smoking. Most people with COPD are long-term smokers, and research shows that smoking cigarettes increases the risk of getting COPD:

Out of every 100 long-term smokers,about 15 to 20 get COPD with symptoms. That means that about 80 to 85 out of 100 do not get COPD with symptoms.
Some studies show that up to half of long-term smokers older than age 60 get COPD.
Smoking both tobacco and marijuana increases the risk of COPD more than smoking either one.

COPD is often a mix of two diseases:chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Both of these diseases are caused by smoking. Although you can have either chronic bronchitis or emphysema, people more often have a mixture of both diseases.

Lung Transplant

A pulmonary transplant (or lung transplant) is a surgical procedure in which a diseased lung is removed and replaced with a healthy lung from a donor. A lung transplant will often be recommended if a person has advanced lung disease that is unresponsive to other treatments and/or when a person's life expectancy is likely less than 2-3 years. A lung transplant is considered for those suffering from the following conditions:

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) – this encompasses lung diseases which interfere with regular breathing.
Cystic fibrosis – a hereditary disorder that causes dysregulation in sweat and mucus production, which worsens over time and is fatal.
Pulmonary hypertension – elevated blood pressure in the vessels responsible for blood flow from the heart to the lungs
Pulmonary fibrosis – scarring of the lungs

Types of Pulmonary Transplant

There are three types of lung transplant:

Should you worry about microplastics?

Little is known about the effects on humans—but limiting exposure to them seems prudent

Resource : The Economist

Ever since Austrian scientists first began looking for them in people in 2018, microplastics have turned up in the blood, lungs, kidneys, liver, heart and even the brain. They have also been detected in the placenta and breast milk.

It is no mystery how these tiny particles, which can range from 5mm across to less than 2 microns (µm), get into human bodies. They are ubiquitous in the air, food and water. They accumulate from degrading plastic waste and the wear and tear of everyday products such as car tyres, paints and synthetic fabrics.

Premature mortality trends in 183 countries

Background

Cancer is a leading cause of mortality worldwide. By 2040, over 30 million new cancers are predicted, with the greatest cancer burden in low-income countries. In 2015, the UN passed the Sustainable Development Goal 3.4 (SDG 3.4) to tackle the rising burden of non-communicable diseases, which calls for a reduction by a third in premature mortality from non-communicable diseases, including cancer, by 2030. However, there is a paucity of data on premature mortality rates by cancer type. In this study, we examine annual rates of change for cancer-specific premature mortality and classify whether countries are on track to reach SDG 3.4 targets.

Methods

This is a retrospective, cross-sectional, population-based study investigating premature mortality trends from 2000–19 using the WHO Global Health Estimates data. All cancers combined and thirteen individual cancers in 183 countries were examined by WHO region, World Bank income level, and sex. The risk of premature mortality was calculated for ages 30–69 years, independent of other competing causes of death, using standard life table methods. The primary objective was to compute average annual rate of change in premature mortality from 2000 to 2019. Secondary objectives assessed whether this annual rate of change would be sufficient to reach SDG 3.4. targets for premature mortality by 2030.

Asthma

Asthma is a chronic disease characterized by recurrent attacks of breathlessness and wheezing, which vary in severity and frequency from person to person. Symptoms may occur several times in a day or week in affected individuals, and for some people become worse during physical activity or at night.

The fundamental causes of asthma are not completely understood. The strongest risk factors for developing asthma are a combination of genetic predisposition with environmental exposure to inhaled substances and particles that may provoke allergic reactions or irritate the airways, such as:

Sidebar