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Michael Sands, an effusive Hollywood publicist, has died after a bizarre accident in the deli section of an upscale supermarket in Century City, where he choked to death on a sample of meat. Best known as the brains behind Mr. Blackwell’s annual Worst Dressed List, Sands also was an inveterate self-promoter who claimed to be an undercover CIA operative who may have helped in the capture of Abu Abbas, the terrorist behind the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985. He was 66. “He was eating a beef sample, and since he has narrow airways due to Chronic...

Bitter taste receptors we have in our mouths were found to also exist in our lungs - what researchers discovered about these functioning receptors in the smooth muscle of the bronchus in the lungs may transform future treatment for asthma and obstructive lung diseases, scientists wrote in an article published in Nature Medicine. When bitter taste receptors in the lungs were exposed to certain doses of substances known to activate bitter taste receptors in the tongue, they opened up the airways better than most current medications are able to do. Senior author, Stephen B. Liggett, M.D., a pulmonologist from the...

Iloprost, a drug used regularly to treat high blood pressure in the lungs, significantly improves lung damage in former smokers. The researchers examined lung biopsies of 152 people who had smoked at least 20 pack-years—equivalent to 1-pack a day for 20 years—before & after 6 months of treatment w/either oral iloprost or placebo. None of the 82 current smokers in trial saw significant improvement in the signs of lung disease, but FORMER SMOKERS treated with iloprost showed SIGNIFCANT improvement. “These results are exciting because they show we can actually keep former smokers from developing lung cancer with a drug used...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People who get enough fiber in their diets, particularly from whole grains, may have a lower risk of developing chronic lung disease than those who eat few high-fiber foods, a new study finds. The study, of more than 100,000 U.S. adults followed between 1984 and 2000, found that those with the highest fiber intake at the outset had a lower risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a group of lung disorders that includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Out of the 111,580 study participants, 832 were diagnosed with COPD during the study period, for...

HYDROGEN PEROXIDE INHALATION FOR C.O.P.D. / LUNG ISSUES I have been using assisted oxygen for the past five or six years. Lately I have been getting fed up with it because my health has been slowly deteriorating. A couple of months ago I bought a 20 MHz Sweep/Function Generator, a Model GB-4000. It is another fantastic machine but as far as helping my shortness of breath. It did some, but just not enough. If I wanted to go outside of the house I still needed to carry oxygen in a tank and be darn sure that I didn't run short,...

Uncommon version seems to lessen risk of lung disease in smokers People who carry a variant form of a gene that encodes a protein called MMP-12 are in luck. This uncommon form of the gene appears to provide some protection against emphysema and asthma, researchers report online December 16 in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the study, an international team of researchers analyzed data on lung function and genetics from seven studies that included more than 5,000 people and found that 7 to 13 percent of people harbored the beneficial variant of MMP-12. In four of the studies,...

Treating lung diseases is a high priority--chronic lung diseases are the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. Now a Canadian team has successfully treated a rare, progressive lung disease, pulmonary hypertension, using the patient's own genetically-modified adult stem cells.   The company Osiris has also started a Phase II clinical trial using its adult stem cell product, Prochymal, for moderate to severe chronic obstructive lung disease. Researchers at Vermont College of Medicine have also shown that cord blood stem cells has the potential to regenerate lung tissue.

Two Canadians have been injected with a genetically modified version of their own adult stem cells in an attempt to cure pulmonary hypertension, a rare, debilitating lung disease. The procedure, which has successfully cured rats with pulmonary hypertension, has halted the progress of the disease in the patients. The first patient, who has had the disease for 13 years, is reporting no ill effects from the treatment and has seen her condition improve. Researchers are hopeful that the treatment eventually will reverse or even cure the disease. "The use of ethical stem cells to treat disease is a positive and...

Too much bacon 'bad for lungs' Scientists says nitrites in cured meats could be a risk factor COPD Eating large quantities of cured meats like bacon could damage lung function and increase the risk of lung disease. A Columbia University team found people who ate cured meats at least 14 times a month were more likely to have COPD - chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. COPD, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, kills around 30,000 people in the UK each year. The report, in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, said nitrites in meat may be to blame....

Discovery step toward developing treatment for various lung diseasesResearchers at the University of Minnesota have, for the first time, coaxed umbilical cord blood stem cells to differentiate into a type of lung cell.  The cord blood cells differentiated into a type of lung cell called type II alveolar cells. These cells are responsible for secreting surfactant, a substance which allows the air sacs in the lungs to remain open, allowing air to move in and out of the sacs. The cells are also responsible for helping to repair the airway after injury.  "In the future, we may be able to...

Just a heads up to those who do home medical care esp with those with pulomonary issues. We could not figure out why lung issues started, no infection. We have been self sufficiant after training (on going and many decades) and Doctors to support us to do home health care. However this last week with neb treatments ect ect..the lungs are really junky. Well the air is stagnent. So if others are having issues we just want to remind them to sit up often (our situtation being quad is no easy but ya do what you need to) or what...

Over 3.1 million Americans have been diagnosed with emphysema, and its aftermath: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which is the fourth-highest cause of death in the US. (The article describes joint US-Israel clinical trials of a new non-invasive approach to treating emphysema) The technique involved injecting the lungs with material described as "biological glue" which completely destroyed the cell connections in the damaged portions and "sealed them up," combined with antibiotics to prevent infection. In the sheep, the damaged lung areas collapsed and scarred, leaving only the healthier, better-functioning parts of the lung intact - the technique essentially reduced the...

Michigan Firm Won't Allow Smoking, Even On Employee's Own Time LANSING, Mich. -- A Michigan health care company has fired four of its employees for refusing to take a test to determine whether they smoke cigarettes. The company enacted a new policy this month, allowing workers to be fired if they smoke, even if the smoking takes place after-hours, or at home. The founder of Weyco Inc. said the company doesn't want to pay the higher health care costs associated with smoking. An official of the company -- which administers health benefits -- estimated that 18 to 20 of its...

Vatican City, Vatican City, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- An article in a leading Roman Catholic journal signals that the Vatican may join the public health establishment's crusade against cigarette smoking. The latest edition of the scholarly publication Civilta Cattolica, published by the Jesuits and approved by a top aide to Pope John Paul II, says smokers cannot damage their own health and that of others "without moral responsibility." The article by Giuseppe de Rosa stops short of calling smoking a sin, but says lighting up is "not neutral either in social or indeed moral terms." De Rosa's views, and presumably...