I recently looked at the report on a routine chest xray that was done as part of a physical and was surprised to see "emphysema" identified. I asked the doctor about it and he said my lungs weren't any different than they had been on any previous xrays He also said he didn't know why radiologists tended to diagnose emphysema so frequently when it didn't actually exist.
Evidently the clue the radiologists pick up on is "hyperinflated lungs," or lungs which appear to be larger than normally expected. It seemed to me that runners would be quite likely to have larger lungs as an effect of conditioning. I personally run 10 miles or more at a time, and run something about every other day and have for many years. I am never short or breath during or after running and my pulse goes back to its normal fifties within a few minutes. I've had exercise stress tests from time to time and have scored up to 16+ mets with no indications of problems. I did have fairly severe asthma as a child, less so as a young adult, entirely allergy induced--I've learned to avoid the allergy producing situations so it's no longer a problem.
I did a search but only came up with one reference suggesting runners may typically have xrays which appear to suggest emphysema. Does anyone posting here have any information or opinion on this? This does lead to another consideration--are highly developed and inflated lungs susceptible to the same outcomes as emphysematous lungs?
I recently looked at the report on a routine chest xray that was done as part of a physical and was surprised to see "emphysema" identified. I asked the doctor about it and he said my lungs weren't any different than they had been on any previous xrays He also said he didn't know why radiologists tended to diagnose emphysema so frequently when it didn't actually exist.
Evidently the clue the radiologists pick up on is "hyperinflated lungs," or lungs which appear to be larger than normally expected. It seemed to me that runners would be quite likely to have larger lungs as an effect of conditioning. I personally run 10 miles or more at a time, and run something about every other day and have for many years. I am never short or breath during or after running and my pulse goes back to its normal fifties within a few minutes. I've had exercise stress tests from time to time and have scored up to 16+ mets with no indications of problems. I did have fairly severe asthma as a child, less so as a young adult, entirely allergy induced--I've learned to avoid the allergy producing situations so it's no longer a problem.
I did a search but only came up with one reference suggesting runners may typically have xrays which appear to suggest emphysema. Does anyone posting here have any information or opinion on this? This does lead to another consideration--are highly developed and inflated lungs susceptible to the same outcomes as emphysematous lungs?
