• Lung Diseases (National Lung, Heart, and Blood Disorders Institute, NIH)
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) conducts and supports research that expands our understanding of lung biology and how lung diseases start and progress, as well as studies and clinical trials that lead to new and improved ways to diagnose, treat, and prevent lung diseases.
---All health topics covered by NHLBI (a huge list, in alphabetical order)
• Lung Infections, Illustrated (Lung Cancer Center)
• Lung Infections (Lung Cancer Center) A lung infection (pulmonary infection) occurs when microbes like bacteria, viruses, or fungi enter the lungs, causing inflammation and fluid accumulation, such as in pneumonia or bronchitis.
The most common causes are viral (including COVID-19 and influenza) or bacterial, though fungi can also be responsible.
Common symptoms include a persistent cough (producing yellow, green, or rusty mucus), chest pain, fever, shortness of breath, and fatigue.
Common types of lung infection:
Pneumonia (infection of the air sacs, or alveoli)
Acute Bronchitis (inflammation of the airways, or bronchial tubes)
Walking Pneumonia (a mild form of pneumonia).
SERIOUS LUNG DISEASE:
• Lung disease (Cleveland Clinic)
Lung disease is a general term for health conditions that affect your airways or lung tissue.
Common lung diseases include asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), pulmonary fibrosis, pneumonia, and lung cancer.
Cardiovascular diseases that affect your lungs — like pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary embolism — are also sometimes considered lung diseases.
Lung disease can cause symptoms like shortness of breath and chronic cough.
Treatment depends on the type of lung disease you have.
Most lung diseases are long-term (chronic).
You may be born with one (like cystic fibrosis) or you might develop one later in life (like COPD).
A few lung diseases, such as infections, are short-term and can be cured.
Types of lung disease (examples) include:
---Asthma, a condition that causes inflammation and narrows your airways
---Bronchiectasis, a condition where your airways widen and form pouches
---Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, including emphysema), airway damage that makes it hard to breathe
---Cystic fibrosis, a pancreatic disease that affects your lungs
---Emphysema
---Infections like pneumonia and tuberculosis
---Pulmonary fibrosis and other types of interstitial lung disease, conditions that damage your lung tissue and can get worse over time
---Lung cancers, like non-small cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer, and mesothelioma
---Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), a disease that causes cysts in your lungs.
• Rare Lung Diseases (Cleveland Clinic)
Click on this link: Cleveland Clinic (not discussed on this blog post)
Often called orphan lung diseases.
• Management and Treatments for Lung Diseases (Cleveland Clinic)
Brief descriptions of:
Corticosteroids
Inhaled medications (bronchodilators)
Oxygen therapy
Smoking cessation programs
Anti-fibrotic and cytotoxic drugs (medications that can slow down lung scarring caused by certain types of lung disease)
Biologic drugs (medications like rituximab that are sometimes used to treat autoimmune diseases and other causes of lung disease)
Clinical trials (tests of new treatments to see if they are effective)
Positive airway pressure (a BiPAP machine to help you breathe)
Pulmonary rehabilitation (an exercise and education program to strengthen your lungs and help you manage certain lung diseases).
Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide, responsible for over 480,000 deaths annually in the U.S. alone.
It causes roughly 90% of lung cancer deaths and 80% of COPD deaths.
Cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, with at least 69 known to cause cancer, affecting nearly every organ in the body.
Nicotine is highly addictive, reaching the brain within 10 seconds of the first puff.
Smoking damages airways, decreases immune system efficiency, and harms fertility in both men and women.
It causes accelerated aging of the skin, stained teeth, and severe gum disease
Cigarettes are the most littered item on Earth.
Tobacco kills up to half of its users who don't quit
Second hand smoke causes accelerated aging of the skin, stained teeth, and severe gum disease
• The Dirty Dozen: 12 Myths That Undermine Tobacco Control
1. People have free choice whether or not to smoke
2. Everyone knows how bad smoking is.
3. Just a few cigarettes a day can't hurt.
4. "Light" cigarettes are less harmful.
5. It's easy to stop smoking. If people want to quit, they will.
6. Cessation medications don't work.
7. Once a smoker, always a smoker.
8. Smokers may die earlier, but all they lose are a couple of bad years at the end of life.
9. Environmental smoke may be a nuisance, but it isn't deadly.
10. Tobacco is good for the economy.
11. We've already solved the tobacco problem.
12. The tobacco industry no longer markets to kids or undermines public health efforts.