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Amy Winehouse has emphysema and could be in wheelchair
 Frail Amy Winehouse has been struck down by the deadly lung condition emphysema - and she could be in a wheelchair within a MONTH if she doesn't stop smoking crack cocaine, her dad revealed last night. Doctors have also told the star, 24 - rushed to hospital after having a fit this week - that she will need a permanent oxygen mask to survive unless she takes their advice.
| She's 24? I thought she was about twice that from her pictures... |
In an emotional interview, her devastated father Mitch told the Sunday Mirror how watching his daughter deteriorate reminded him of his own 78-year-old mother struggling for breath on an aspirator before she died of lung cancer. Worried dad Mitch said: 'To think this could be my beautiful 24-year-old daughter's life is preposterous. But if drugs mean more to her than breathing properly, then so be it. But the doctors have told her if she goes back to smoking drugs it won't just ruin her voice, it will kill her. It's been a tough week.'
Mitch also told of his fears as Amy underwent tests after a mystery lump was found on her chest during scans at private London hospital The Clinic. He said: 'After lots of tests they found a lump in Amy's chest. A scan has shown it's not cancerous and there are no traces of cancer in her blood. But they might need to double check. There is a chance she might need a biopsy. If they need to cut the lump out then that will mean a massive and painful operation and a lot of recuperation.'
At the moment that doesn't look likely. 'When they told me she had a lump, I was very, very worried. At times Amy seems nervous about it but she doesn't panic until something's 100 per cent.'
Okay folks, let's talk about emphysema.
Emphysema is destruction of the peripheral lung: specifically the alveolar septal walls. Think of the lungs as a million tiny balloons in which gas exchange occurs, and think of emphysema as a needle that pops the balloons. Once popped you don't get them back, and you can't make more balloons. It's a slow process, and you need to lose about 30 to 50% of the total number of alveoli (balloons) before you're symptomatic (short of breath with exertion).
Most people who have emphysema get it some smoking coffin nails cigarettes. Numerous gasses and particulate matter in the cigs contribute to the destruction of the lung. Depending on one's innate genetic susceptibility, the risk for emphysema scales with the number of cigarettes you've smoked. But it's relatively rare to get emphysema prior to age 50 or so, because popping enough balloons to make you symptomatic takes time. If you're a smoker, understand that, all things considered, your lifetime risk of emphysema (all comers) is about 20%.
One special group should be considered, since the loverly Ms. Whitehouse might be one of these. 1% of all people with emphysema have it due to a specific genetic problem: alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency. If you have A1AT and you smoke, you're guaranteed to have emphysema and may have it as early as your late 20s/early 30s. These folks generally need a lung transplant in their 30s/40s to survive.
Now there's a second way to get emphysema, and that's by inhaling substances other than cigarette smoke. And the most common group of substances are the illegal ones: marijuana, heroin and cocaine. This leads to a classic presentation of emphysema (slightly different than that seen with cigarettes, though you needn't worry about the details unless you're taking the pulmonary board exam). Heroin and cocaine in particular can cause emphysema, and that's true whether you inhale or inject. In the big urban charity hospitals (and I trained at two of those), it was colloquially known as 'drug lung', and we saw a couple a month. Inhaled cocaine, inhaled cocaine smoke (crack), and inhaled, sniffed heroin, along with their cutting agents (e.g., talc) can destroy the peripheral lung as surely as cigarettes. As with cigarettes, the more you inhale/inject, the greater your risk.
The prevalence of drug-lung isn't exactly known: it certainly isn't a majority of heroin/cocaine users, but it's an appreciable number.
The treatment for drug-induced emphysema is about the same as for that caused by cigarettes: oxygen, flu/pneumonia vaccination, smoking cessation, and inhaled bronchodilators to relieve shortness of breath.
So now you know Ms. Whitehouse's problem. She's not old enough to have emphysema from cigarettes unless she's also A1AT deficient -- bad luck but it can happen. But more likely, if I had to hazard a guess, it's from the drugs. |
Posted by: Fred 2008-06-23 |
