Smoking doesn't affect COPD the same

MONTREAL, June 5 (UPI) -- Cigarette smoking induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease worsens in some smokers, but skips other smokers, Canadian researchers said.

Dr.Manuel Cosio from the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal in collaboration with Italian and Spanish scientists, said COPD has a family connection and next of kin of patients with COPD have a much higher chance of developing the disease -- a characteristic of autoimmune diseases.

Smoking is the primary risk factor for COPD in the Western world, however, open fire pollutant cooking and heating fuels in the home is an important risk factor for the development of COPD in women in developing nations.

"COPD does not go from stage one, two and three in all people," Cosio said in a statement. "Depending on their personal balance between immune response and immune control some people would stop at stage one, others at stage two, and some will progress to stage three, full autoimmunity and lung destruction."

The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.