By BRIAN BRENNAN Associated PressA new study says it takes an average of 5.5 years to get a new set of lungs to keep a person’s oxygen levels up.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge say that’s equivalent to a life expectancy of about 70 years.
A report by the International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday said there is no cure for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the leading cause of death in people over 65.
But, with life expectancy expected to fall from 76 years to 62 years by 2026, a few new lung treatments could help.
In a new study, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, researchers say the average life expectancy in the U.S. is about 5.75 years, and they have found a few ways to extend that.
The authors say it is impossible to predict how long a person can live on their own, but they have devised a few simple ways to prolong life.
For people with mild to moderate obstructive lung disease, they recommend trying one of a few treatments, such as using a respirator or using a mask to breathe, or both.
For people with more severe obstructive conditions, such in severe lung disease and COPD, they suggest taking lung-strengthening drugs such as celecoxib, which slows the progression of the disease.
The U.K. government also offers a treatment, the Combination of Life Support and Life Support, which has been shown to extend the life span of people with COPD.
Another way to extend life is to give the lungs a new job, said study co-author Dr. Jonathan Liao, an assistant professor of respiratory medicine at the University College London.
For example, some people with lung disease are unable to use their lungs to exhale, so they are forced to take an oxygen mask to breath.
Using this method, researchers found that those with moderate to severe obstructives were able to extend their lives by about 4 years.
Liao and colleagues, who include David Macfarlane of Imperial College London, used data from a large cohort of older people, and compared those with COPC to those with other chronic lung diseases and to the general population.
The team found that people with severe obstructions had the lowest average life expectancies, at 4.6 years, but that the average length of life with severe symptoms increased from about 5 years to nearly 10 years for those with mild obstructive diseases and from 5 to about 7 years for people with moderate obstructions.
The researchers also looked at people with pulmonary fibrosis, a condition that causes large, blocked holes in the airways, and found that the life expectancy with severe pulmonary fibroses was 7.4 years, compared to 6.8 years for mild fibros.
Liang says people with chronic obstructives and COPDs tend to have the same type of pulmonary fibro and that it is possible to lengthen their lives.
People with COPDs have the most severe and progressive lung disease but have a longer average life span, and for this reason, some are able to use more advanced treatments such as lung transplantation and lung-stabilization drugs.
Liu’s team also found that one of the most effective treatments for COPD is to reduce the severity of the problem.
The study found that using the Combinations of Life support and Life support with life support (BLS-LA) showed that the people who had COPD and COPC lived an average 7.3 years longer than people who didn’t have COPD or COPC.BLS is the combination of a mask and oxygen and has been used to prolong people’s lives with COPs for more than a decade.
Liao said BLS-LAs have a wide range of possible benefits, including improved lung function, reduced risk of pneumonia, and reduced inflammation in the lungs.