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Consuming lots of soy foods such as tofu and soy milk may improve lung function and lower the chances of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), new research suggests.
Researchers asked 300 COPD patients in Japan and 340 age-matched healthy people about their soy intake. The results, published online in the journal Respiratory Research, indicate that consumption of soy products is associated with better lung function and reduced risk of COPD.
Long-term smoking causes 90 percent of cases of COPD, which is characterized by a progressive decline in lung function and includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, according to background information provided in a news release from the journal's publisher.
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People who eat lots of soy products have better lung function and are less likely to develop the smoking-associated lung disease COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). A new study has shown that consumption of a wide variety of soy products can be associated with a reduction in the risk of COPD and other respiratory symptoms.
Dr. Fumi Hirayama and Professor Andy Lee from Curtin University of Technology, Australia, worked with a team of respiratory physicians to poll 300 patients with COPD from six Japanese hospitals and 340 age-matched control subjects from the same areas as the patients about their soy intake. Dr. Hirayama said, "Soy consumption was found to be positively correlated with lung function and inversely associated with the risk of COPD. It has been suggested that flavonoids from soy foods act as an anti-inflammatory agent in the lung, and can protect against tobacco carcinogens for smokers. However, further research is needed to understand the underlying biological mechanism".
To investigate the relationship between soy consumption, COPD risk and the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, a case-control study was conducted in Japan. . . .
Conclusions
Increasing soy consumption was associated with a decreased risk of COPD and breathlessness.
Six of the world's foremost health agencies, collectively managing an estimated 80% of all public health research funding, today announced formation of a landmark alliance to collaborate in the critical battle against chronic, non-communicable diseases: cardiovascular diseases (mainly heart disease and stroke), several cancers, chronic respiratory conditions, and type 2 diabetes.
The health impact and socio-economic cost of these largely-preventable diseases is enormous and rising, potentially derailing efforts at poverty reduction.
The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (Alliance) is being created to support clear priorities for a coordinated research effort . . .
The Alliance's charter members are:
* Australia National Health and Medical Research Council;
* Canadian Institutes of Health Research;
* Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences;
* The U.K. Medical Research Council; and
* The U.S. National Institutes of Health, specifically its National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the Fogarty International Center. . . .
The following research priorities have been proposed by some founding Alliance members, for discussion at their inaugural scientific meetings in November:
* Test ways to prevent cardiovascular diseases and complications of diabetes;
* Identify and promote public health measures for controlling obesity;
* Characterize and quantify the major risk factors for chronic obstructive airways disease (both tobacco and environmental pollution) and the development of control measures; and
* Advance research into the problem of tobacco consumption and its relationship to cancer, cardiovascular disease and other disorders;
* Develop interventions to address the above priorities.
Even a short period of 4 to 8 weeks of smoking cessation prior to surgery for cancers of the mouth and throat improves wound healing, according to a new review.
Furthermore, if the patient stays tobacco-free, the risk of cancer recurrence is substantially reduced.
However, full cessation is required; simply reducing the number of cigarettes smoked per day is of little benefit, Dr. Richard O. Wein from Tufts Medical Center, Boston, reports in the Archives of Otolaryngology--Head and Neck Surgery.
Although there are conflicting reports concerning the impact of short-term smoking cessation, Wein says, the sheer number of studies reporting the negative impact of continued tobacco use on postop lung function and wound healing "far outweighs those minimizing this impact."
Habitual tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States and is responsible for 1 of every 5 deaths.1 Although there has been a steady decline in the percentage of smokers since 1960, a plateau in this progress has been noted in the past decade. In 2000, 25.7% of males and 21.0% of females were smokers.2 The physiologic impact of smoking is well described and includes impaired mucus transport and pulmonary macrophage function, increased bronchial reactivity and arterial carbon monoxide levels, reduced oxygen transport, and inhibited mitochondrial oxidative metabolism.3 In addition, active smoking, including heavy (20 cigarettes/d) and lighter users, has also been associated with an increased relative risk (1.44 overall) of the future development of type 2 . . . [Full Text of this Article]
When Vera Duckworth, one of Coronation Street's most loved characters, passed away 18 months ago, there was barely a dry eye among the soap's 12.5million viewers.
But for actress Liz Dawn, who played Vera for an astonishing 34 years, it was a significant personal moment - not only because it was the end of the role, but also because she'd been building up to it since being diagnosed six years earlier with the lung disease, emphysema.
The condition leaves sufferers struggling for breath.
'My last years in the Street were increasingly stressful,' Liz says, talking about living with emphysema for the first time. . . .
Concern that others avoid the same problem is why she has agreed to be the celebrity ambassador for the British Lung Foundation (BLF) and is heading the organisation's Love Your Lungs campaign, launched this week.
Its aim is to encourage people with symptoms such as a persistent cough, breathlessness or wheezy chest to ask their doctor for a lung test. . . .
In the normal lung, the airways are lined by a balanced mixture of ciliated, secretory and neuroendocrine cells which perform functions as diverse as air humidification, detoxification, and clearance of environmental particles. This balance can be altered dramatically by faulty adaptation responses of the lung to cigarette smoke or allergens in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma.
How these different cell types emerge from lung progenitor cells and how these fates are balanced in developing airways, remain an open question. A study from a research team led by Wellington Cardoso, MD, a professor at the Pulmonary Center Boston University School of Medicine and Director of the Program in Lung Development and Progenitor Cell Biology, sheds light into this problem.
The Notch pathway is a major regulator of cell fate decisions in developing cells from fruit flies to humans. Using mouse genetic models, the BU researchers inactivated Notch signaling in the lung and discovered that airways no longer formed secretory cells. Instead they became populated almost exclusively by ciliated cells. The researchers showed that this imbalance seems to result from the loss of a mechanism of cell fate choice triggered by the Notch called lateral inhibition.
If you are a current or former smoker, at least 40 years old, and have been diagnosed with COPD, you may qualify for this study.
The research site is in Clearwater, Fla.
More information
Please see http://www.centerwatch.com/clinical-trials/listings/studylist.aspx?CatID=44.
than one kind of stem cell is required to support the upkeep and repair of the lungs, according to a new study published in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
Scientists at Duke University Medical Center painstakingly followed and counted genetically labeled cells in the mouse lung for over a year, under differing conditions, to learn more about natural renewal and healing processes. This information may shed light on what goes wrong in conditions like lung cancer, chronic bronchitis and asthma.
"We are learning the exact processes that maintain the various regions of the lung in tip-top condition and what happens when things go wrong," said Brigid Hogan, Ph.D., chair of the Duke Department of Cell Biology and senior author of the study. "Normally, the lung is beautifully organized, with the exact proportion of secretory and ciliated cells lined up next to each other to get their jobs done." The secretory cells lubricate and protect, while the hair-like projections of the ciliated cells waft the secretions up and out of the lungs.
In humans, under conditions of heavy smoking, or infection or inflammation due to asthma or cystic fibrosis, repeated cycles of damage and repair lead to a messy arrangement, she said. "You can get patches of cells building up in a stacked, flattened formation like skin cells. Some cells multiply too fast; others may make too much mucus."
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of illness and death throughout the world. It affects about 10% of the general population,1 but its prevalence among heavy smokers can reach 50%.2 COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in most industrialized countries, and it is projected to be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020.1 Tobacco smoking is the primary risk factor for the development of COPD, but other factors, such as burning biomass fuels for cooking and heating, are important causes of COPD in many developing countries.3,4
A principal feature of COPD is a . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Mechanisms Leading to COPD
Step 1 -- Initial Response to Cigarette Smoke
Step 2 -- T-Cell Activation and Proliferation
Step 3 -- Adaptive Immune Reaction
Evidence of Autoimmunity in COPD
Why Some Smokers Evade COPD
Dr.Manuel Cosio from the McGill University Health Centre, in collaboration with Italian and Spanish scientists, reports in the New England Journal of Medicine that an autoimmune mechanism, compounded by genetic predisposition in COPD, would explain the progression of the disease in some smokers and the evasion in others. COPD has a family connection and next of kin of patients with COPD have a much higher chance of developing the disease, a characteristic of autoimmune diseases.
Although smoking is the primary risk factor for COPD in the western world, open fire pollutant cooking and heating fuels in the home is an important risk factor for the development of COPD in women in developing nations. "Smoke can play an important role in autoimmune diseases such as COPD, and other diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, because it accentuates genetic predispositions to the disease," warns Dr. Cosio.
Yet contrary to previous scientific beliefs, COPD does not progress in the same way in all smokers. The authors describe three steps in the potential progression to COPD in smokers: "COPD does not go from stage one, two and three in all people," Dr. Cosio says. "Depending on their personal balance between immune response and immune control some people would stop at stage one, others at stage two, and some will progress to stage three, full autoimmunity and lung destruction."
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Many people have never heard of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). But it's a lung condition that includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, and is the fourth leading cause of death in the US. People who have it can end up with inflamed or damaged airways that make it difficult to breathe. In most cases, COPD is caused by smoking.
It is not a glamorous disease. The most recognizable symptom of COPD is a chronic, hacking cough. And yet, over the years, celebrities who have suffered from COPD--most of whom developed emphysema from smoking--have, through their fame, brought greater awareness to this serious and life-threatening disease.
Bob Habich, 66, is a retired pharmaceutical salesman from Schaumburg, Ill. When he was working, his fast-paced, stressful job kept him on the move; running from one flight to another in the airport wasn't unusual. He often turned to cigarettes to deal with his on-the-road job stress, and at one point, he was a two-pack-a-day smoker. Now, life is much slower for Habich. When he was in his early 50s, he found out his "smoker's cough" was actually chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a disorder that includes both emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Now he walks slowly and can't do many of the activities he did in the past. He uses oxygen around the clock and carries a container of liquid oxygen strapped to his shoulder whenever he leaves his house.
Kaushal (name changed), a teenager who got into the habit of smoking, is now finding it difficult to quit the habit that has started to take its toll on his health. Worst still, addiction of other tobacco forms, including paan masala, has almost pushed him on the brink of oral cancer and he is undergoing treatment at the Banaras Hindu University.
The teenager is not alone as a number of youth, including teenagers, are forced to visit hospitals with various complications, a majority of them related to tobacco smoking and chewing- a sign enough to indicate the fact that the addiction is still finding acceptance amongst youth despite legislative and restrictive measures taken by the government from time to time.
"A growing number of youth are coming to the out-patient department (OPD) with breathing problems with symptoms of asthma these days," acknowledged Dr JK Samaria of department of chest and respiratory diseases, BHU, while talking to TOI on Saturday. "In addition, a high number of these youth are reported to have history of tobacco intake in one form or the other," he informed.