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Oboe and emphysema or COPD

Author: Caroline Bloss
Date: 2006-10-20 21:20

Dear Oboists and Bassoonist,

This week I was diagnosed having lung emphysema (or COPD). This is
when your
unable to exhale as much as you've inhaled before. The result is that
the
bad air in your lungs stays and that you don't have enough oxygen in
your blood. The cause is a destruction of the alveoli in the lungs
which
results in bigger lungs and weak lung tension to push out the bad
air.Normally it's a condition linked to smoking (80-90% of the victims
are
smokers).

I never touched a cigaret but I'm an oboist... playing the oboe seems
the cause to me but it's difficult to find any literature about it. It
seems logic to me that te pressure in the lungs and the difficulty of
getting rid of the bad air while playing, causes a pressure in the
lungs
which damages the alveoli.

My lung specialist didn't see this before, because I'm just 33 years
old and it occurs normally at the age of 50... and that after smoking
during 10 years 1 package of cigarettes a day... and that when you are
unlucky to belong to those 16% of smokers who develop this disease.

A search on the net learned me also that this disease supports
itself...: the more alveoli are damaged, more alveoli will follow that
path...

It doesn't sound very good.... But I like the sound of the oboe...
:-(

Is there anybody (or any windplayer) with the same experience? Does
it mean that I have to stop playing the oboe (sounds reasonable to me,
but I'm in love with that instrument)? Is every oboist suffering from
this disease and just ignoring it? The specialist told me to stop
definitely with smoking if I was. But he didn't have any information
about
oboe....

I'm curious about your reactions!

Thanks in advance,
Caroline

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Oboe and emphysema or COPD new

Caroline Bloss

2006-10-20 21:20