Did you know that the lung are your largest internal organ that is exposed to the environment? Yep, your lungs are exposed to the environment you are in. Even though you might have PCD just like me our environmental exposures are going to be different. Even if you have the same PCD gene as me, our environmental exposures and the impact of those exposures will be completely different. Kind of like every artist starting with the same canvas, think of our PCD as the canvas in question. Each artist then influences the canvas and creates their unique work of art. This is why I say the PCD is as much an exposure disease as it is a genetic one.
Like I said take two PCD patients with the exact same gene defect that causes PCD and compare them side by side looking for commonalities and you will likely not find a clear pattern. At least scientifically this has eluded scientists to date. Sure you can see trends and stuff like that, but when you get right down to it each patient’s individual exposures to bacteria and other environmental factors influence said patient’s progression trajectory. This is why it’s important to take reasonable exposure precautions to prevent these bacteria from getting into your system any earlier than possible. Once you likely get say pseudomonas into your lungs, it will likely be an up hill battle to get away from it in the future. Delaying contamination of your respiratory for as long as possible is extremely important in PCD care. Remember those of us with PCD take up to seven days to clear out what we breathe into our lungs compared to just twenty four hours for a healthy counterpart. Up to seven days for a piece of debris or bacteria to be cleared out of our lungs gives those things a huge amour time to attach, party in our respiratory system, and ultimately make us sick. Minimizing our exposures where possible helps us to keep permanent lung damage at bay for as long as possible. Keep coughing my friends, and turtle on.
Be sure to join us next week for another Topic Thursday.
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