A form of Vitamin A may cure emphysema

[MORTARDUDE]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3329103.stm

Vitamin may cure smoking disease


Smoking can cause emphysema
A form of vitamin A could one day provide the basis for a cure for the smoking disease emphysema.
British researchers have found that retinoic acid, a derivative of vitamin A, can cure the disease in mice.

Writing in the European Respiratory Journal, they said it reverses damage done to tiny air sacs in the lungs.

There is currently no cure for emphysema. The disease causes progressive damage to the lungs and can eventually kill.

Breathing problems

Emphysema usually affects older people. It is generally the result of long-term damage to the lungs, such as a lifetime of smoking. It can also affect people working in certain industries such as mining.

The disease can start as mild breathlessness. However, over time it can leave sufferers struggling to breathe and reliant on oxygen.

This is a relatively simple compound to take. It is already use to treat severe acne

Professor Malcolm Maden
It occurs when the tiny air sacs in the lungs called alveoli, through which oxygen is absorbed into the bloodstream, lose their natural elasticity.

This means spent air is pushed back out into the lungs. The lungs feel overfull and it is a struggle for sufferers to push air in and out.

This eventually means that the body is not getting enough oxygen, leading to fatigue and weight loss.

Scientists believe that if they can return the tiny air sacs in the lungs to their former healthy state they can cure the disease.

This latest study by Professor Malcolm Maden and colleagues at the Medical Research Council's Centre for Developmental Neurobiology at King's College London raises hopes that a cure can one day be found.

The researchers bred mice with all the hallmarks of emphysema. The mice had been given a chemical soon after birth, which prevented the tiny air sacs in the lungs from developing properly.

By the time these mice were adults they had serious breathing problems and their lungs were unable to exchange gases effectively.

When these mice were given retinoic acid, the number and size of the tiny air sacs in the lungs returned to normal. Their lungs exchanged gases more effectively and they were able to breathe more easily.

Triggers genes

The researchers believe that retinoic acid triggers key genes into action, enabling the tiny air sacs to recover.

While further studies are needed, this research raises hopes that retinoic acid could form the basis of a cure for emphysema.

Professor Maden said it could also provide the basis for a treatment for the severe lung disease COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

"This would be quite significant," he told BBC News Online. "Incidence of emphysema and COPD are rocketing world-wide.

"This is a relatively simple compound to take. It is already used to treat severe acne.

"Being able to cure these conditions would be quite significant."

[revwardoc]

Great news, but comes too late for my Father-in-law. He died from complications of emphysema 4 years ago this coming February. I went to see him at the hospital 8 days before he died, then again 5 days later and I didn't recognize him! In that short span of time he had wasted away. The next day, the doctors sent him home to die, and he did 2 days later. In his final year he went from a normal 70 year old, to being on oxygen 24/7, to a wheelchair, to bedridden, to the grave, and it was painful to watch. He started smoking during WWII (her served on the USS Wichita in both the ETO and the PTO and as an aircraft mechanic on Guadalcanal and other islands) when the American tobacco companies "graciously" donated cigarettes to our fighting men and the fear and anxiety of combat pushed him seek relief in smoking. Emphysema is a horrible way to die (not that there's a good one) and a cure would be a Godsend.

[MORTARDUDE]

My father and mother both were ( are ) afflicted. My father's lungs were so bad that they couldn't operate when he was bleeding internally. He went in the hospital on a Saturday afternnon and died the following Monday morning ( St. Patrick's Day ). He had part of his jaw cut out 10 years before to remove a cancerous growth. My mother is on oxygen 24/7 and has gout and cirrohsis of the liver ( auto-immune ), and now takes 13 different medications besides. I think it should be mandatory for high school students ( maybe even grade school students ), to visit those who have smoked for many years to see what may happen to them. I tried, in vain, to get my parents to quit from the early '60s on. My mother is a fighter, but I know that one bout of the flu or pnuemonia will probably cause her death. Her lungs are just too weak. This article is interesting. I am sorry for your loss.

Larry