Originally published December 3 2005
Manitoba lung expert raises awareness of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Dr. Sat Sharma, a lung expert practicing in Manitoba, has advised Canadian health officials that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is not adequately diagnosed or treated in Manitoba.
A Manitoba expert on lung disease says the province is ignoring an illness that claims 300 lives every year in the province.
In a national report released this week, the Lung Association gave Manitoba a "C+" for its management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung disease blamed on heavy smoking.
COPD causes airways in the lungs to become inflamed and obstructed, causing coughing or shortness of breath.
About 80,000 Manitobans suffer from COPD, and a quarter of those cases are serious.
Sat Sharma, a lung specialist at the Health Sciences Centre, says COPD is "not on the radar" of the health care system.
Sharma says there are only four programs available to help people quit smoking and learn to live with the disease -- and COPD is gaining ground: it is the fourth leading cause of death in Canada.
The Lung Association report called on the Manitoba government to develop a strategy to deal with COPD, to provide funding for certain treatment drugs through the provincial drug plan, and to increase funding to rehabilitation programs to improve access to pulmonary rehabilitation, a treatment for the disease.
Bill Scowcroft, a geneticist and biologist, admits that as a scientist, he should have known better than to ignore the warnings about smoking over the four decades he smoked.
Now, Scowcroft wants to get the word about COPD out to young people -- especially young smokers.
"If you keep smoking after that, you increase the risk, because it takes another 20 years for the disease to manifest itself."
Scowcroft says it breaks his heart to see young women smoking: "One or two in five of them are going to end up the same way I am."
He says Manitoba needs more programs to help people quit smoking and help them get on with life once they have the disease.
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