Asbestosis and Mesothelioma Symptoms and Signs of Asbestos Disease
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Asbestosis and mesothelioma have symptoms that make it hard to distinguish the signs of asbestos disease from the signs of hundreds of other respiratory illnesses. Monitoring your symptoms can help you recognize when the signs of your symptoms start flashing “get medical attention now” because asbestosis or mesothelioma are on the way.
Asbestosis and mesothelioma are both diseases which can be attributed to asbestos exposure. Although some of their symptoms and signs of disease are similar, there are fundamental differences. Asbestosis is a lung disease, referred to as “pulmonary fibrosis” in medical fields. Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer. Asbestosis can develop into mesothelioma. Anyone who has a history of working or living with asbestos is at risk for either disease, and is also seven times more likely to suffer from lung cancer.
There are symptoms of the disease that are familiar to many heart and lung diseases. For example, swelling at the tops of fingers and toes from an accumulation of excess blood is called “clubbing.” This is a familiar sign of heart disease or lung disease, and particularly in diagnosing asbestosis.
The most noticeable first symptom of asbestosis and mesothelioma is difficulty breathing. Obviously, this is a symptom of a plethora of diseases and a result of many normal human activities. For smokers, smoking is likely the cause of difficulty breathing. Smoking and asbestos are a deadly combination, and diagnosis of the disease is far more difficult when a person has a history of smoking. However, there are some notable signs that difficulty with breathing is a suspect for asbestosis or mesothelioma, rather than due to smoking. The breathing difficulties will become notably progressively worse and will be wrought with frequent spasms. The difficulty in breathing then leads to chest pain for asbestosis and mesothelioma patients.
Pain in the side of the chest and the lower back while suffering from progressive difficulty breathing is a symptom of Mesothelioma. Symptoms are more severe than asbestosis. High fevers, muscle weakness, and sensory loss are signs that the cancer has attacked the chest or even the abdominal area – and coughing up blood is not uncommon.
Asbestosis and mesothelioma symptoms and signs of disease are so common to other instances of lung disease and heart disease, that diagnosis often requires a long series of tests to distinguish the respiratory symptoms from one disease to another. Providing a history of asbestos exposure to your physician can help the physician prioritize the tests based on the most likely contributors to the cause of your symptoms. Asbestosis and mesothelioma both require substantial medical care as the diseases progress. Although there is not a cure for either, pain can be monitored and reduced with early diagnosis. If you’ve been exposed to asbestos, even from decades ago, monitor your symptoms and make an appointment with a physician if you begin having the symptoms of asbestosis or mesothelioma. A symptom is a sign of disease – and any signs of asbestosis or mesothelioma should direct you to get the medical attention you need to lessen your pain before it gets any worse.
Watch the video related
Asbestosis is a chronic inflammatory medical condition affecting the parenchymal tissue of the lungs. It occurs after long-term, heavy exposure to asbestos. Sufferers have severe shortness of breath and are at an increased risk regarding several different types of lung cancer. Learn about the symptoms, possible causes, and treatment options for asbestosis in this video.
Help answer the question
If asbestos is found in the lungs does that mean you definately have asbestosis?
Ans what are the effects of asbestosis?
asbestosis
9 Comments
September 10th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
No. Some fibres can remain in the lung forever and cause no issues. It is when the body defends against the fibres and enclose them in protein substances and create "asbestosis bodies", that a chronic inflammation occurs. this is asbestosis.
September 10th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
September 11th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
September 13th, 2009 at 6:02 am
This would depend on the severity of the asbestosis, i.e. some sufferers can have a mild widespread scarring of the lungs over a life time. However smokers who continue smoking after they have been diagnosed with asbestosis have a fifty five percent higher chance of developing cancer and mesothelioma – particularly if the person smokes more than 20 per day.
Tobacco smoke and asbestos both contribute to each other’s cancer-causing carcinogenic effects, hence, both risk factors combined is more dangerous than the effects of one risk factor alone.
September 13th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Hi, sorry but i don't know where you're from so I can't help you find a naturopathic dr. Sorry! But this link might be of interest to you
http://www.blackmores.com.au/news/news_detail.asp?art=989
Good Luck
September 13th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Asbestosis is not nescessarily fatal, but can decrease lung capacity and lead to heart failure. It causes chronic scarring in the plueral walls and can actually lead to mesothelioma. Mesothelioma, on the other hand is a rare form of cancer caused by prlonged expsosure to asbestos. This cancer is highly resistant to conventional radiotherapy and chemo drugs, and very often has a poor survival rate.
September 13th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Hopefully, Spreedog answers this Q
. Maybe he (or, someone else) will have a much better answer. But, I’ll give this a shot…
I found a 1997, where cohorts of asbestos sprayers and silicosis patients were tracked for incidence of cancer. Total cancer, lung cancer, and mesothelioma were dependent/criterion variables (<-not familiar with the statistics utilized), from what I saw. I realize this research is a little dated. There is no control group, but just looks like a report on incidence, but, still, not very much control to attribute results to isolated effects. Anyway, from what I read, standardized incidence ratios indicated that asbestos sprayers had a significantly higher incidence in the development of mesothelioma. Silicosis patients only had significantly higher incidence ratios for all sites (i.e., total cancer risk). Check out the abstract for yourself:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9131223?ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
Interesting little bits to do with silicosis and asbestos-related diseases. More recent, but not quite relevant to your Q: Apparently, silicosis and asbestos-related diseases not only differ in their causative materials (obviously, really), but also in terms of complications; autoimmune disorders being common in silicosis and tumors in asbestos-related diseases. Asbestos-related disease patients also show restricted overpresentation of TcR-Vbeta without clonal expansion, whereas silicosis patients reveal significant overpresentation of TcR-Vbeta 7.2. Basically, it may be concluded, here, that there are superantigenic effects associated with asbestos and dysregulation of autoimmunity-inducing effects of silica. I include these aforementioned bits, for the sake of interest, really, but perhaps you may glean something related to your reasoning/background to do with asking the Q. Here is the relevant abstract:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17166401?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
EDIT: Below, scroll down to the graph entitled, "CDC asbestosis vs silicosis deaths" associated with "Attachment 1". It's not a very clear graph. Pesky. But, on quick skim, it looks like a comparison of those with either asbestosis or silicosis who expired due to malignant mesothelioma, from 1980 thru 2002. Looks like, asbestosis on the rise and a bigger killer (?):
http://www.actuary.org/pdf/casualty/asbestos_feb06.pdf
September 13th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
September 14th, 2009 at 1:00 am
They will give you an x ray, but that is not the final answer as to if you have asbestosis. They will do Pulmonary function tests, Ct Scan and even do a Bronchoscopy, where they run a tube down and actually take out a piece of the lung to check for Asbestos.
When I was informed I had it, I started walking, every day to get my lung capacity up. I can walk 30 blocks, pick up mail and turn right around and walk back, without stopping, without breathing hard.
And I have white lung also, from working with glass dust.
It depends on how bad you have Asbestosis, as to how easy it is to see on an x ray. They first found out I had it in the 1970's and I am still here in 2008, and am 73 so it always stays there in the lungs, but what good lung capacity you still have you can increase by exercise.
Now my Dad had black lung, and that is easily seen on an xray. But asbestosis will usually look like a spot or sometimes a mass on a lung. You see since the lungs cannot get rid of the asbestos fibers, they create fibroblasts to sorround the asbestos fibers. This will look like scar tissure,
sometimes you will read on a CT scan, diffuse pulmonary fibrosis. Now if you are doing a report on this be sure and include that it can affect the heart also. You will usually see patients with a dry cough, sometimes called a non productive cough.