Just Let Me be Mad

For the people around me on a regular basis, I admit I have not been the most pleasant person this week. I have been far from myself and instead have been grumpy, irritable, quiet and mad. This is unlike me and I know it. I also hate…

A recent study found that around half of the idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients surveyed had not been fully informed about their treatment by their healthcare team, yet 93 percent of respondents said they wanted to learn about treatments and therapies directly from their doctor rather than other sources. MORE: Only half…

Lung Therapeutics announced June 6 that it has completed a $14.3 million Series B financing round to support development of LTI-03, its lead therapy for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). LTI-03 has already showed promising results for other conditions including scleroderma and cardiac fibrosis. The funds will also support clinical trials, now underway in Australia and…

It’s estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 people are living with pulmonary fibrosis in Canada yet there is little awareness of this devastating disease. Many PF patients require caregivers (usually family members), some of whom have to give up their jobs to look after their loved ones. MORE: Four tips…

Overproduction of a protein called Sirtuin 6 (Sirt6) inhibits a cell process essential to the lung scarring seen in pulmonary fibrosis, according to a study. The finding suggests that scientists could use Sirt6 to develop therapies that prevent the disease. Scientists call the process that the finding applies to the epithelial to…

It is common for patients and loved ones to struggle with the reality of our diagnosis. For patients, it is tough to take in that we have a terminal illness. It is hard for us to reconcile how tragedies happen to those who have a positive effect…

Lung disease has a deep impact in Canada. Lung cancer remains the leading cause of death from cancer for both genders and each year more people die of lung cancer than those of prostate cancer, breast cancer, and colorectal cancer combined. MORE:…

As I write this column I am sitting in the uncomfortable chair in our local emergency room (ER) waiting room. This is a chair that I have sat in far too many times, with a familiar visual of nurses moving swiftly around the unit replacing IVs, coupled…

Pulmonary fibrosis is a progressive chronic lung disease where the tissue in the lungs becomes thick and stiff, making it increasingly difficult to breathe and leading to a low level of oxygen in the blood. In the early stages of the disease, the symptoms can mimic many other illnesses which…

The death rate of pulmonary fibrosis patients who were put on a hospital ventilator was seven times higher than those treated without a ventilator, according to a review of thousands of medical records. The study of 22,350 admissions also showed that the cost of treating patients who were put on…