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![Medications that can harm your lungs
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It’s one thing to contend with a drug’s side effects in the name of treating whatever it is that’s ailing you. It’s quite another to know that the very drug that’s helping treat one health condition may set you up for another one.
Case in point: the medications that can cause respiratory issues.
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“There are obviously many drugs that we use to treat breathing problems, but similarly, there are many drugs that are not used to treat lung problems that will cause lung dysfunction,” says Neil Schachter, M.D., a pulmonologist and Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
In fact, a review of research published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine found that although a number of drugs used to treat a range of conditions — including arthritis, cancer and an irregular heartbeat — are successful for most patients, they carry potential risks to the respiratory system.
Those risks include difficulty catching your breath at one end of the spectrum, to the more serious drug-induced interstitial lung disease (DIILD) at the other end. More than 350 drugs are believed to cause DIILD, a type of inflammation that scars the lungs’ delicate tissue.
All of which begs the question: What makes the lungs so vulnerable?
Why the lungs?
Part of it has to do with the role they play, working to bring oxygen into the body and send carbon dioxide out. Over time, that constant exposure to the environment can take a toll.
“Because the lungs are connected to both the outside environment and blood circulation, they’re exposed to more elements than other organs,” says Tianshi David Wu, M.D., assistant professor of pulmonary medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
Some people are at greater risk of drug-induced respiratory problems than others. For example, people with underlying lung disease and a history of smoking, as well as people with kidney disease or liver disease because the offending drug is disposed of more slowly by both of these organs.
Age is also a risk factor.
“Like all organs, lung function slowly decreases with age, and the lungs become less able to tolerate disruptions to the environment that occur with any new exposure, such as a drug,” Wu explains.
The most common lung-irritating drugs are well-known, so if you’re prescribed one of these medications and a respiratory issue arises, your doctor will have a high level of suspicion that it’s the drug that’s causing the problem.
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