LungBlog

Our lung is one of the main “motors” of our body. Yet, often it is not given due attention and care, and it remains in the background when it comes to issues of the hearth or brain.

The main function of our lung is to exchange the gases between the air we breathe and our blood. It is through our lung that carbon dioxide is emptied from our body and oxygen is transported to our blood vessels.

It was just a slight cough and a tingling in her fingers.

State Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon wasn’t really worried about either as this year’s regular legislative session was winding down at the Capitol.

“We were all coughing,” she said. “It’s like a meat locker in there.”

As for the tingling, a fellow lawmaker suggested it might be carpal tunnel syndrome because she did a lot of repetitive page-turning as a member of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee.

When someone is diagnosed with or dies of lung cancer, the first question people often ask is, “Was he or she a smoker?”

Although most lung cancers are caused by smoking, a 2007 review found that about 25 percent of lung cancer cases worldwide — accounting for over 300,000 deaths each year — are not attributable to tobacco use.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports that high intakes of folic acid and vitamin B12 may increase the risk of cancer, deaths from cancer, and mortality from all causes in people with ischemic heart disease, in which reduced blood supply to the heart causes chest pain and difficulty exercising. The study’s surprising results have spurred a flurry of concern from some and backlash from others, as we try to gain a better understanding of the real risks of supplementing with or fortifying foods with these essential vitamins.

In the Valley of the Moon, Norton Buffalo is a legend.

The harmonica virtuoso was a friend to anyone who knew him, and his death on Oct. 30 following a battle with lung cancer sent a wave of sorrow through the Valley’s musician community and beyond. Now that community has come together to remember “the Buffalo” and raise money to carry on his legacy with a daylong benefit concert on Sunday, Nov. 29, at the Sonoma Valley Veterans Memorial Building.

The state of Georgia is failing to make progress in the battle against lung cancer, says the Lung Cancer Alliance in Georgia’s fourth annual report card.

LCA-GA gave the state four Fs and two Ds in six categories in its 4th Annual Report Card on Lung Cancer issued Wednesday. No grade was above a “D” for the fourth straight year, they said.

I don’t walk as much as I used to, or as I should, but last week I joined a crowd of about a hundred people walking in Creve Coeur Park in support of lung cancer survivors. Dubbed “The First Annual Fun Lung Run/walk” by its organizers (a group called the Lung Cancer Connection, sponsored by the Saint Louis University Cancer Center), the idea was for volunteers to recruit teams of people supporting a person they knew who has had lung cancer.

About a dozen teams supported a lung cancer survivor, the other teams honoring others who did not make it. I had a heavily smoking older brother who died of lung cancer four years ago, and a very sweet friend is only a few months post-surgery, so I had ample reason to attend.

When suffering from lung cancer, it is relaxing to know that you have many treatment options, but it can also be overwhelming. It is best to evaluate each treatment option and understand what is going to be involved in each surgery or treatment option. When suffering from lung cancer you major options to choose from are: wedge resection surgery, lobectomy surgery, pneumonectomy surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy.What is Involved in Lung Cancer Surgery?

LA Testing and EMSL Analytical recommend radon testing to help prevent the world’s second leading cause of lung cancer.

Only smoking causes more lung cancer deaths than radon according to industry and public health experts. To bring more awareness to this issue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently joined the World Health Organization’s (WHO) first call to action to prevent radon caused cancers in homes across the globe.

Researchers from Boston University (BU) have identified a number of proteins whose activation allows them to distinguish between cancer and normal cells with almost 97 percent accuracy.

In addition, the BU researchers have developed a new computational strategy to analyze this data and specifically identify key biological pathways (molecular circuits) that are active in cancer and “dormant” in normal cells. The study which appears in the November 25th issue of PLoS ONE, will ultimately lead to the development of drugs specifically aimed to inhibit these proteins.