Cystic Fibrosis
()
About this ebook
Melissa Abramovitz
Melissa Abramovitz lives in Roseville, California, and writes nonfiction books for all age groups. She is the author of hundreds of magazine articles, more than 40 educational books for children and teenagers, numerous poems and short stories, and several children’s picture books. She has a degree in psychology from the University of California San Diego and is a graduate of the Institute of Children’s Literature. Visit her online at www.melissaabramovitz.com.
Read more from Melissa Abramovitz
West Nile Virus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe 100th Day of School Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMilitary Helicopters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeukemia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMultiple Sclerosis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBig Cars Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMilitary Airplanes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOsteoporosis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMilitary Trucks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow Do Computers Talk to One Another? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Toad That Explodes and Other Cool Animal Facts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe World's Smallest Country and Other Geography Records Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Cystic Fibrosis
Related ebooks
Breast Cancer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOvarian Cancer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNew Truth to the Fountain of Youth: The Emerging Reality of Anti-Aging Medicine Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsColon Cancer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPrevent Cancer And Fix What Aging Ails You Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCancer: Past, Present, and Future Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThyroid Disorders Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCould it be Insulin Resistance? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of Outlive by Peter Attia MD : The Science and Art of Longevity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOsteoporosis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBittersweet: Diabetes, Insulin, and the Transformation of Illness Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGood Health in the 21st Century: a family doctor's unconventional guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeart Solution for Women: A Proven Program to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lifestyle Medicine: An Incredible Journey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsObesity and Lung Disease: A Guide to Management Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFire Your Doctor!: How to Be Independently Healthy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Alzheimer Conundrum: Entanglements of Dementia and Aging Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Good Gut Guide: Help for IBS, Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease, Diverticulitis, Food Allergies and Other Gut Problems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat You Can Do to Prevent Cancer: Practical Measures to Adjust Your Lifestyle and Protect Your Health Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHepatitis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAsthma Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnintentional Suicide: A Doctor's Guide to Preventing Disease Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 30-Day Thyroid Reset Plan: Disarming the 7 Hidden Triggers That are Keeping You Sick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inflamm-ageing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Medicine and Sociology of Health Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLiving an Alzheimer's Free Life: The Why We Eat Series, #6 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOvercoming Metabolic Syndrome Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Guts Mind & Soul Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
YA Health & Daily Living For You
Elena Vanishing: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary of The Silva Mind Control Method: by Jose Silva and Philip Miele - A Comprehensive Summary Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Luminary: A Magical Guide to Self-Care Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The V-Word: True Stories about First-Time Sex Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Our Year of Maybe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What They Don't Teach Teens: Life Safety Skills for Teens and the Adults Who Care for Them Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSix Months to Live: The Dawn Rochelle Series, Book One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Self-Love Workbook for Teens: A Transformative Guide to Boost Self-Esteem, Build a Healthy Mindset, and Embrace Your True Self Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEat To Live Diet Reloaded : 70 Top Eat To Live Recipes You Will Love ! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTerrible Typhoid Mary: A True Story of the Deadliest Cook in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If You Give an Ox an Oxy: A Parod(ox)y Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Carb Cycling for Weight Loss: The Ultimate Diet Guide For Those Who Want To Lose Weight Fast Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCore Exercises For Relieving Back Pain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBuddha in Your Backpack: Everyday Buddhism for Teens Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Period Power: A Manifesto for the Menstrual Movement Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Keys to Personal Development : 60 Quotes For a Fulfilling Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAttention Hijacked: Using Mindfulness to Reclaim Your Brain from Tech Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Horse of Her Own Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Clean Eating :Clean Eating Diet Re-charged: Top Clean Eating Recipes & Diet Cookbook To Detox Your Body & Lose Weight Now! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy me? What now?: Life's tough, but you're tougher. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThis Will Give You Wider Hips and Bigger Butts In 21 Days Without Surgery Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Zac and Mia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51 Year, 100 Pounds: My Journey to a Better, Happier Life Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Secret to Teen Power Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Cystic Fibrosis
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Cystic Fibrosis - Melissa Abramovitz
Titles in the Diseases & Disorders series include:
© 2013 Gale, Cengage Learning
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyrighted material.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Abramovitz, Melissa, 1954-Cystic fibrosis / by Melissa Abramovitz. p. cm. -- (Diseases & disorders)Originally published: Farmington Hills, Mich. : Lucent Books ; San Diego, Calif. : Thomson/Gale, c2003.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-1-4205-0901-4 (hardcover)1. Cystic fibrosis--Juvenile literature. I. Title.RC858.C95A274 2013 616.3’72--dc23
2012026503
Lucent Books 27500 Drake Rd. Farmington Hills, MI 48331
ISBN-13: 978-1-4205-0901-4 ISBN-10: 1-4205-0901-2
Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 16 15 14 13 12
Table of Contents
FOREWORD
INTRODUCTION
Extending Life: A Success Story
CHAPTER 1
What Is Cystic Fibrosis?
CHAPTER 2
What Causes Cystic Fibrosis?
CHAPTER 3
Cystic Fibrosis Treatment
CHAPTER 4
Living with Cystic Fibrosis
CHAPTER 5
The Future
NOTES
GLOSSARY
ORGANIZATION OF CONTACT
FOR MORE INFORMATION
INDEX
PICTURE CREDITS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
FOREWORD
The Most Difficult Puzzles Ever Devised
Charles Best, one of the pioneers in the search for a cure for diabetes, once explained what it is about medical research that intrigued him so. It’s not just the gratification of knowing one is helping people,
he confided, although that probably is a more heroic and selfless motivation. Those feelings may enter in, but truly, what I find best is the feeling of going toe to toe with nature, of trying to solve the most difficult puzzles ever devised. The answers are there somewhere, those keys that will solve the puzzle and make the patient well. But how will those keys be found?
Since the dawn of civilization, nothing has so puzzled people— and often frightened them, as well—as the onset of illness in a body or mind that had seemed healthy before. A seizure, the inability of a heart to pump, the sudden deterioration of muscle tone in a small child—being unable to reverse such conditions or even to understand why they occur was unspeakably frustrating to healers. Even before there were names for such conditions, even before they were understood at all, each was a reminder of how complex the human body was, and how vulnerable.
While our grappling with understanding diseases has been frustrating at times, it has also provided some of humankind’s most heroic accomplishments. Alexander Fleming’s accidental discovery in 1928 of a mold that could be turned into penicillin has resulted in the saving of untold millions of lives. The isolation of the enzyme insulin has reversed what was once a death sentence for anyone with diabetes. There have been great strides in combating conditions for which there is not yet a cure, too. Medicines can help AIDS patients live longer, diagnostic tools such as mammography and ultrasounds can help doctors find tumors while they are treatable, and laser surgery techniques have made the most intricate, minute operations routine.
This toe-to-toe
competition with diseases and disorders is even more remarkable when seen in a historical continuum. An astonishing amount of progress has been made in a very short time. Just two hundred years ago, the existence of germs as a cause of some diseases was unknown. In fact, it was less than 150 years ago that a British surgeon named Joseph Lister had difficulty persuading his fellow doctors that washing their hands before delivering a baby might increase the chances of a healthy delivery (especially if they had just attended to a diseased patient)!
Each book in Lucent’s Diseases and Disorders series explores a disease or disorder and the knowledge that has been accumulated (or discarded) by doctors through the years. Each book also examines the tools used for pinpointing a diagnosis, as well as the various means that are used to treat or cure a disease. Finally, new ideas are presented—techniques or medicines that may be on the horizon.
Frustration and disappointment are still part of medicine, for not every disease or condition can be cured or prevented. But the limitations of knowledge are being pushed outward constantly; the most difficult puzzles ever devised
are finding challengers every day.
INTRODUCTION
Extending Life: A Success Story
When Dorothy Andersen of Columbia University first described and named cystic fibrosis (CF) in 1938, most patients died soon after symptoms appeared in infancy or childhood. CF is a genetic disease that affects mucus-producing organs and glands. The buildup of thick, sticky mucus in CF leads to inflammation, scar tissue, and infection, and most patients die from lung failure. As recently as the 1980s, few patients survived past infancy or early childhood, and until the twenty-first century, CF was classified as a childhood disease. But today, even though 95 percent of patients still die from respiratory failure, the median survival age is thirty-seven. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) states, For the first time in the history of the disease, many people with CF are living into adulthood—more than 45 percent of people with CF in the United States are age 18 or older.
¹ The CFF adds, Many people with the disease can now expect to live into their 30s, 40s and beyond.
²
In response to these increases in the number of adults living with CF, many of the Cystic Fibrosis Care Centers in hospitals have begun to expand their programs so adults can now receive specialized care. In 2010, for example, the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Center at Stanford University Hospital opened its doors to accommodate the many adults who outgrew the existing children’s CF program at Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
Causes of Increased Life Spans
Doctors attribute the increased life span of CF patients to advances in understanding the causes of the disease and to vastly improved treatments. Ever since doctors began to understand the underlying problems that characterize CF in the 1950s, and ever since they discovered the genetic causes in the late 1980s, efficient methods of treating harmful complications before irreversible damage occurs have gradually increased patients’ survival rates.
A cystic fibrosis patient's respiratory functions are tested. Despite better treatments, the median life span of sufferers is thirty-seven years.
The treatments that have improved the length and quality of patients’ lives focus primarily on