This does not help at all.

Posted on 2007-06-08

"Jonathan Grigg, Professor of Paediatric Respiratory and Environmental Medicine at Queen Mary University London, said: "Idiopathic pulmonary haemosiderosis is a rare disease, the cause of which is unknown.

"Affected patients have episodes of bleeding in the lungs, which often need hospital admissions, and in some cases it can be life threatening. This is normally combated by the use of continuous oral steroids (which can have major side effects).

Dr Cooke said that idiopathic pulmonary haemosiderosis is a devastating condition. Characteristic of this condition is the accumulation of protein-bound iron in the lungs, a consequence of repeated bleeding in the lungs, coupled with inflammation and fibrosis. Ultimately this condition is usually fatal. Treatment to prevent the lung damage and prevent anaemia is a combination of corticosteroids and iron supplement.

Both chronic inflammation, and the presence of iron, released following bleeding into the lungs, can lead to a condition known as oxidative stress. Oxidative stress occurs when the production of free radicals, highly reactive chemicals, outweighs antioxidant defences. This leads to a great deal of damage to cells, and in particular DNA, the cell's 'blueprint', and is likely to be responsible for the fibrosis, as the lungs try to repair the damage done by free radicals."

-from science daily

I should not have researched on that. That's really scary. One fatal disease after another.

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