Healthy Lungs & Longevity

Facts on smoking and shortened life span

Longevity is all about staying fit and healthy. Sure, we want to live longer, but how many of us are playing an active roll in making this a reality? 47 million Americans smoke, 90 million Americans are obese and only 30 percent of us exercise on a regular basis.

Taking care of our lungs is equally important as physical fitness. Lung cancer is the number 1 cancer cause of death among men and women in the United States, causing more than 160,000 deaths a year. 80 percent of which are smoking related. So what's is going to take to quit?

For some, seeing is beliving. The body Works exhibit, a world-wide tour of plastinized human bodies that is as much controversial as educational, had such a powerful impact that many viewers tossed their cigarette packs in a receptacle vowing to quit after seeing an actual pair of smoker's lungs, blackened, shrunken and covered in tar.

Unlike mammograms that screen for breast cancer and colonoscopies that screen for colon cancer, there is no widerly accepted screening for lung cancer. Yet early detecrion couldn't be more important.

"Lung cancer often grows without any symptoms whatsoever," says Dr. Robert Jotte, who specializes in thoracic oncology at Presbyterian/St. Luke's and Sky Ridge medical centers. "it's not unitl patients are incurable that they begin to have symptoms like a new cough, coughing up blood, chest pain, loss of appetite or weight loss"

In fact, only 16 % of cases in the United States are detected in Stage I. This is why the medical community is working tirelessly to find the best method for early detection.

Dr. Jotte is leading a pioneering study to identify patients who have an above-average risk of getting lung cancer and whether they should be screened.

"Screening may become the most important factor by which we begin to see an improvement in the low survival rate in lung cancer," Dr. Jotte say. "The earlier we find the lung cancer, the more likely we will be able to cure patients of the disease."

One More Thing:

Taking a puff on a hookah pipe, although trendy, exposes smokers to far larger amounts of nicotine, carbon monoxide and other toxins that the average cigarette.

A Test for Your Lungs:

Briskly run up two flights of stairs or walk 6 blocks without stopping. That's It. If you can do either one without pausing to rest. your lungs are probably in pretty good shape. If you don't pass, see your health care provider for a checkup.