Open house

and this is interesting:  Lungs from heavy smokers may be effective for double-lung transplant’

‘…A critical shortage of organ donors leaves many of these patients without the vital organ they need, and a large portion of those on the waiting list simply do not get a new pair of lungs in time.
To combat this problem, researchers from Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia decided to think outside the box, in order to come up with ways of expanding the usable field of lung donors.  Their research ultimately led them to the least likely candidates of all – heavy smokers.
The new study found that lungs from selectively chosen donors who have had an extensive smoking history, performed just as well in adult, double-lung transplants as lungs from non-smokers.

When comparing the recipients who had received lungs from heavy smokers and those who had received lungs from non-smokers, the researchers found little difference in patient outcomes.

Even the number of deaths due to malignancy was not different in the two groups of recipients, despite the established link between smoking cigarettes and the development of lung cancer…’

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24 Responses to Open house

  1. mistress mara says:

    Ah yes KG, but the lungs of PASSIVE smokers would be totally fucked and useless. So if you are schlepping down the footpath and come upon a smoker in an office doorway befouling the atmosphere with noxious death gasses, FLEE for your very life!
    If you didn’t know this, you have not been paying attention to the prop er health literature. :roll:

  2. Robertvdl says:

    A medical doctor once told me that soldiers in combat zones better can smoke. If they get wounded the nicotine in the blood helps slowing down the bleeding. Smoking can save your life.
    Of course the hole should not be too big.

    • Robertvdl says:

      Could you please remove the first part KG.

    • mawm says:

      It’s not so simple. :roll:

      As far as I understand, smokers with COPD (chronic obstructive lung disease) have increased fibrinogen (which is needed to form a blood clot) levels and decreased fibrinolysis (the break down of existing clot such as in deep vein thrombosis, etc.), and the platelets (also needed to form a blood clot) become more adherent to each other, but there is a dose dependent inhibition by nicotine of the enzyme thrombin which facilitates clot formation needed to block up the hole. Smokers with COPD have a higher incidence of developing a DVT and a pulmonary embolus. It’s all very confusing I know, but the body’s ability to stop bleeding but prevent the blood vessels blocking up with blood clot is very complex. http://falfn.com/CrusaderRabbit/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_wacko.gif

      So maybe if you are a light smoker it helps, but heavy smokers are more likely to die from a pulmonary embolus and have a myocardial infarct than non smokers. http://falfn.com/CrusaderRabbit/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_cry.gif

      Personally it’s getting COPD that would worry me, but here again it’s not a simple “if you smoke you’ll get COPD” equation. Some people get it without smoking, some smoke like chimneys their whole life and don’t. http://falfn.com/CrusaderRabbit/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_mail.gif

      • KG says:

        Dang it, Mawm, you’ve done gone and ruined the post I had planned with inconvenient facts:
        “SMOKE MORE, BLEED LESS!
        No need to carry tampons in your kit on the battlefield any more–simply hand out packets of cigarettes. Smokers bleed less, you see.
        What’s more, recent research shows that the lungs of heavy smokers will soon be in demand for organ donations…”

        Sigh….that was going to be the post that won us the blog Pulitzer. :sad:

  3. KG says:

    Done.
    “Of course the hole should not be too big” Quite! :mrgreen:

  4. jonno1 says:

    Thought of you last night KG as I tucked into my Wabbit, I mean Rabbit Terrine with Red Wine Jus at the CAC tapas restaurant. No, actually I settled for the Grilled Steak Strips with some greens, plus meatballs plus rissotto balls plus Macs Gold.

    If you ever get the opportunity I recommend this tapas restaurant in Normanby Rd, Auckland, almost opposite the prison (which I’m sure you know well). It’s one of our regular haunts (the restaurant, not the prison). The original shot tower is still standing behind the main building (visible in the Wikipedia photo with the restaurant to the left).

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Ammunition_Company

    • pmofnz says:

      A good read on an old shot tower in London.

      Up the Shot tower

      The miracles of the then ‘modern’ industrial age. Humping lead bars, heavy metals arsenic and antimony 200′ skyward, along with coal or firewood for the furnace. Then setting fire to the lot. Who needs a unionised workforce when the artisans in those days would have been glad of the job and well rewarded. Not like today’s lazy idle indigents in entitlement mode.

  5. KG says:

    Well, I’m familiar with the location of the prison, jonno1. :lol:
    Thanks for the tip, but in truth I’m utterly uninterested in food. It’s just fuel and eating’s something to be got out of the way as quickly and simply as possible.
    A good cigar and fine coffee, however…. :mrgreen:

    • Cadwallader says:

      I agree; but black coffee after 3pm excites my bladder and stretches the hell out of my prostate. :mrgreen:

      • KG says:

        Hmm..perhaps you need some Wabbit genes, Cad. I get up around 0230, have a few coffees and a smoke or two then go back to bed and sleep well until around 5:30.

  6. mawm says:

    Another fine post by Melanie Phillips – Britain’s infernal cocktail of hate

    It thus fused antisemitic images and grotesque lies about Israel — an infernal cocktail which is now the mandatory accessory of the British intelligentsia, even as this cocktail incites violence and mass murder by Arabs and Muslims across the world.

    Murdering innocents and using their blood for demonic purposes is the essence of the ancient antisemitic ‘blood libel’, which fuelled the medieval Christian pogroms and is now regularly used in the Arab and Muslim world to incite its demented hatred of Jews.

    http://melaniephillips.com/britains-infernal-cocktail-of-hate

  7. KG says:

    Dammit–they’ve taken half the fun out of biking:
    “SYDNEY’S motorbike riders will be able to “lane filter” with impunity under a road safety trial.

    Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/national/motorbikes-ok-to-weave-in-sydney-trial/story-e6frfku9-1226565187965#ixzz2JQULQeS5

  8. KG says:

    That’s a great site, Robert. :grin: Thanks.

  9. Benares says:

    Hmmm, today “GDP Shows Surprise Drop for USA in Fourth Quarter”
    http://www.cnbc.com/id/100419252

    So much for the “slow” growth or recovery being touted due to the wisdom of the Democrats and the President with their massive borrowing and spending and QE3 “money printing to infinity and beyond!” stimulus policies, who is surprised? The US is going over the cliff, I admit that I did get it wrong with how the Republicans would cave at the last moment re the fiscal cliff (= minimal basic prudent fiscal control) – they did hold out for one day (well actually not a full day, 21 hours but rounding up ya know). And Bohener would “reach across” the aisle (though some would say that the Demo’s getting 61% of the scheduled tax increases with immediate effect and only 0.8% of the scheduled spending cuts – and those deferred – would more accurately be called a “reach around” by the Republicans). With the US going down, also the UK now officially in “triple dip”, EU now officially in “recession”, Japan now officially in “recession”, Australia and the PRC slowing down, “interesting times” ahead.

    Another hmmm,
    Barack Obama says “I go shooting all the time”. Amid conservative anger over Mr Obama’s proposals to ban assault weapons as part of a drastic overhaul of US gun control laws, the president said that he was a keen clay-pigeon shooter. “Up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time,” he said. “And I have a profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations. And I think those who dismiss that out of hand make a big mistake”.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/9830016/Barack-Obama-I-go-shooting-all-the-time.html

    Setting aside the fact that the 2nd Amendment is not about hunting in any way at all (and he damn well knows it) Seriously? Obama was a big gun fan all along (in total secrecy for some reason) and regularly went “skeet shooting” (I know!) with his hardcore Democratic liberal supporters for years? Cue Tui “Yeah, right”. The man is a fucking liar (pardon my French), he flat out lied, over something little that he had no need to lie about and where honesty would have served him just as well. Just think of the sheer arrogance and contempt he showed to the American citizens with this little effort – he obviously takes you for total morons.

    The thing is we’ve all encountered people like this – as long as their arse points downwards they will lie about everything, great and small even with totally unbelievable fabrications. However people quickly realize these guys are total BS artists and don’t believe a word they say and treat them accordingly, almost always they end up as little losers with no real accomplishments, you simply don’t trust them to do anything because they are useless and can be dangerous so their damage is limited. But what if one became President of the US?