{"id":15121,"date":"2021-09-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/conditon-lung-conditions-interstitial-lung-disease\/"},"modified":"2021-09-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-24T00:00:00","slug":"conditon-lung-conditions-interstitial-lung-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1millionbestdownloads.com\/conditon-lung-conditions-interstitial-lung-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Interstitial Lung Disease? What to Know, According to Pulmonologists"},"content":{"rendered":"
Your lungs are always hard at work. Those two spongy, air-filled organs on either side of our breastbone are constantly taking in fresh air, and removing waste gases (e.g., carbon dioxide) from your body. When your lungs are working as they should, it's easy to forget just how important they are to your body's functioning—but at the first instance of a dry cough<\/a> or difficulty taking in air, it's hard to ignore their importance. <\/p>\n Those two symptoms—dry cough<\/a> and shortness of breath<\/a>—are two of the most common symptoms of something called interstitial lung disease, a condition (technically a group of diseases) that about 400,000 people in the US are currently dealing with, according to the American College of Chest Physicians' Chest Foundation<\/a>. That's a large number—primarily because interstitial lung disease (ILD) includes more than 100 specific diseases. Overall, it's estimated that ILD accounts for about 15% of cases seen by pulmonologists (aka lung doctors), per National Jewish Health<\/a>.<\/p>\n ILD can often be difficult to diagnose; according to the Chest Foundation, because symptoms of ILD are so often similar to other lung conditions, half of all cases are initially misdiagnosed. Here, pulmonologists explain what you need to know about ILD, including the most common symptoms and causes, as well as how physicians typically treat the condition.<\/p>\n RELATED: Woman Diagnosed With Rare 'Cobalt Lung' Disease After Vaping Marijuana<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Interstitial lung disease, at its core, is a group of lung diseases that cause lung inflammation and\/or scarring (aka fibrosis), according to the Chest Foundation. While sometimes ILD is referred to as interstitial pneumonia, that's not entirely correct. For the most part, typical pneumonia is inflammation in the lungs due to infection, but "interstitial lung disease is a broad category of lung diseases that cause inflammation in the lung tissue in the absence of infection," Thomas Monaco, MD, assistant professor of pulmonary medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, tells Health<\/em>. <\/p>\n The inflammation and scarring in ILD occurs in the interstitium, or a collection of support tissues, in the lung, Reynold A. Panettieri, Jr., MD, professor of medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and director of the Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine & Science, tells Health.<\/em> According to the Chest Foundation, this scarring happens happens gradually; the inflammation in the lungs leads to scarring, which then leads to the alveoli (the lungs' tiny air pockets) to become thickened and stiff. "The scarring can be quite substantial and cause loss of lung function," says Dr. Panettieri. <\/p>\n Because there are so many different types of ILD, doctors usually separate them into groups. Here are some of the most common subtypes, according to the Chest Foundation:<\/p>\n RELATED: What Do 'Ground Glass Opacities' Mean in Lung Scans of COVID-19 Patients?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Because there are so many types of ILD, there are also quite a few different potential causes. "Many different things can cause interstitial lung disease, and we are learning about more causes all the time," says Dr. Monaco. <\/p>\n According to National Jewish Health, there are four main causes of ILD: <\/p>\n RELATED: The Large, Painful Sores on This Man's Hands Were Caused By An Extremely Rare Inflammatory Disease<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This relates to the many different types of ILD, as well—the symptoms are usually quite nonspecific. "The symptoms of interstitial lung disease are challenging because they're vague," says. Dr. Sood. That, again, is why many cases of ILD are often misdiagnosed at first. Many patients have even reported going without a diagnosis for more than a year after the onset of symptoms, according to the Chest Foundation. <\/p>\n According to Dr. Sood, "<\/em>the uniform feature is some sort of lung scarring that can make it hard to breathe." Though every person is different, these are the most common symptoms reported with ILD in general, according to Stanford Health Care: <\/p>\nWhat exactly is interstitial lung disease?<\/b> <\/h2>\n
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What causes interstitial lung disease?<\/b> <\/h2>\n
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What are the symptoms of <\/b>interstitial lung disease?<\/b> <\/h2>\n
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