Unsolicited AdviceI admit I've always been a bit indifferent about 24-year-old vocal sensation Amy Winehouse. I do believe she has an amazing voice and certainly knows how to capture the public eye as well as some of the young females who cover the tabloids in the U.S. But with her recent announcement (through her U.S publicist) that she is already showing early signs of emphysema secondary to her years of smoking, I was initially perplexed in her decision to go public with a lung ailment that is often associated with elderly life-long smokers.
You see, emphysema is a progressive lung disease that results from damage to the small air sacs (alveoli) of the lung which ultimately obstructs the airflow during the breathing process. Depending upon the damage from the disease, it may result in shortness of breath when involved with moderate physical activity (like playing tennis or basketball) or just walking from one room to another. Often it takes years for the symptoms to appear, when the physiological changes of the lungs become irreversible.
But why did she go public? I see the answer being two-fold. One, she may be trying to generate some empathy (at least here in the U.S.) and with that create a new image where millions of dollars could follow. But I will leave that for the publicists and tabloids to spin. Two (and the one I will be discussing with my adolescent patients), she is allowing herself to be an example of what can occur if one doesn't take care of oneself, even at the young age of 24. Ms. Winehouse is dispelling the myth that this disease only affects 40-year smokers now in their 60s as research has shown that teens smoking even just 5 cigarettes a day can begin this path of irreversible damage to the lungs. Furthermore, she reminds us all of the negative consequences attributed to smoking, including chronic bronchitis, heart disease, and cancer.
First and foremost, I do hope Ms. Winehouse gets the care and treatment she needs to put herself down a path of a healthier lifestyle. And I also applaud her for coming forward as I believe she will help others from following the path she has chosen to this point.
Dr. Jeremy
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Her having emphysema is sad, and hopefully it will have a positive impact on our youth. It would be nice, since thus far her example has been nothing but garbage that I want to hide my kids from.
sambrown
Crack Cocaine
since ur from abroad, i just want to know how can we, (with my sibling) convince our father to see the doctor while he is suffering from shortness of breathe and chest pain, he is a sufferer of smoking addiction. And sometimes when he is complaining about his sickness, we couldn't control his temper. I honestly cannot open this thing up with my friends or relatives because my mother has been suffering too from cervical spondylosis and diabetes milletus type one and many other complicatons...I am afraid that one day we will find ourselves blaming one another for not giving them a chance to seek medical attention.
hope to hear from u doc, i hope in any way i can be answered so that i may not be bothered or somehow find some adequate answers even through here, thank u!
from a lupie patient...(koohmiz)
In my view her coming forward for whatever reason can only help COPD awareness - to all people including the young easily addicted drug users.
THOUGHT about qutting....
Breathing got better and I continued to smoke until some people hear asked that I join the 8-8-08 club.
I never planned on quitting smoking EVER again because I've never had problems breathing except for those 2 days 14 years ago.
Well, today's day 7 and believe it or not, as hard and then as NOT so hard as this was, the friends I have at DS have gotten me to do my unthinkable and can't say ENOUGH about the support here and what a wonderful site this is!!
Plus her continued binging on alcohol
It does not seem to me that she has any intention of getting better. Too bad.
i started young, and the addiction increased to full time by the time
i was 17, three packs a day for 40 years is a terrible position to
be in. especially nowadays, when there is no where to smoke. organized
crime will be fighting over territories when smoking is banned entirely,
tobacco banished from the earth. who will protect us from second
hand bullets, not second hand smoke. as usual the Big Ideas always
get us in trouble. the man in the mirror is the one to fear. he's
got such great ideas for you and i and everyone else, by which to
box himself right in a corner. by the time i was 25, miss winehouse's
age, i was pretty winded already. rode a bicycle from canoga park, ca
to malibu, ca through the ucla area with my wife and back home to
canoga park, ca. not bad. she could do it all the time. it was
major effort for me. and on the way, a woman opened her car door,
just before i passed, smacking me to the ground. my wife? she just
kept on riding, oblivious to anyone but herself. Her Royal Majesty
and i soon divorced. she got the gold mine, i got the shaft.
ultimate justice? go ahead, think god doesn't exist. tell me the origin
of space itself, mr. scientist? got it all figured out don't ya.
what was here before space was here. you guys better read beyond space-time. life after death? how do you know there isn't? can you prove
beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt there isn't? there is a short
tv show called 'phone to the 'other side' by alfred hitchcock. scared
the heck outta me as a kid. a little girl gets calls from her dead
grandma on her playphone. and she dials her all the time. made my
skin just kinda crawl. ya know, as a kid, it was pretty scary in the
dark. some kids they say aren't afraid of the dark. see, ma and pa
don't wanna get up at 3 am to take ya to the restroom, in the totally
dark blackness of night. turn on the little baby bathroom light will ya. but sonny, that takes electricity. we gotta keep costs down.
the uncle scrooge accounting firm, or usaf, rules this world.
international space stations are very important. remembering economic
scarcity. the dismal science of economics. and then there is medical
economics. how many patients did you see today, at how much per hour,
etc. and who is gonna ultimately pay the bill? as a full charge
bookkeeper for a collection agency, mostly for doctors, dentists
and credit unions, i just felt so bad for so many people. they owed,
and owed, and owed forever, with interest on the interest, on the
interest. i had to quit finally, it was too mean. good luck and pluck.
there is a spanish-sicilian proverb--do can do whatever you like in life,
but you will pay the price for it, someday, some way, some how, some
night. enjoy all that financial equality. lolol.