Brueger’s Disease

While visiting with My cousins Christmas Eve, I learned that one of my cousin’s daughters has a disease called Brueger’s Disease. I had never heard of it, but as my cousin described it sounds horrible. Blood quits flowing through the capillaries in the extremities and the area of flesh starves. If not removed it then develops gangrene, putting the persons life at risk, and there is no effective medical cure. It is exceedingly painful.

My cousins daughter has had several amputations so far, losing one leg to just below the Knee this last time and all the fingers on one hand and portions of several on the other. I spent some time late Christmas Eve and early Christmas day perusing about two hundred web sites for information that might be helpful to her. What I learned was shocking to me.

The disease was first identified about 1887 AD., but no clue was expressed as to the cause until 1908, when a doctor Brueger named it and concluded that it was in some way linked to smoking. While fairly rare, it appeared in about 40 of every 100,000 people between 20 and 40 years of age in studies during the 1980’s. About four times as many men were affected as women. A recently conducted study indicates that the incidence has dropped to about 12 in 100,000, but that the ratio of men to women is now about 2 to 1, and that the number of older victims is increasing, perhaps because more are living longer.

Repeated studies over the last one hundred years, including the latest, concluded in November 2010 have shown that it is definitely a result of tobacco use with about 80% of the victims being heavy smokers, and the rest moderate smokers and smokeless tobacco users.

Smoking has been repeatedly related to heart and vascular diseases, as nicotine causes the veins and capillaries to contract and restrict the flow of blood, causing the heart to have to work harder. In addition, the higher pressures result in inflammation of the blood vessels, causing swelling and further restriction. To protect the lining of the blood vessels, the auto immune system begins to form plaque which also restricts the blood flow and can break loose and block the smaller vessels.

People who develop Brueger’s Disease seem to react more than most to the constricting effect of nicotine. The only effective thing yet discovered is totally stopping all nicotine intake. Even breathing second hand smoke is enough to trigger the constriction. Nicotine patches to stop smoking make the problem worse, as do other medications containing nicotine related compounds. People who completely eliminate nicotine frequently experience no further problems. No medications have been found that exhibit any level of effectiveness. Several of the articles I read stressed that if the person refused to quit, further amputations and eventually death were inevitable.

I was especially troubled to realize that the connection to tobacco use has been even more clearly established than that of lung and throat cancers or heart disease, since 1908, yet the FDA, and the ATF have not even required a warning label until recently, and still allow the advertising and sale of tobacco products. The recent study concluded that the drop in incidence of Buerger’s was the result of a drop in tobacco use due to greater anti-smoking pressure, but that fewer women were quitting than men.

While Brueger’s Disease is clearly the result of the individual’s actions, the failure of the medical associations and regulatory agencies to warn people of the dangers is willful negligence. They have knowingly allowed people to take dangerous actions with no warning for over a hundred years. The tobacco companies have profited from and encouraged such use with the same knowledge. They ought to be held criminally liable.

Sadly, churches and Christians who have failed to warn others of the consequences of sin are just as guilty of willful neglect as the Governmental agencies which have failed to warn consumers. We cannot prevent people from doing the activity, as demonstrated by the failure of the war on drugs, but we can warn and discourage people from doing it. The most effective anti-drug program yet tried was Nancy Reagan’s “Just say No” campaign. People simply stopped using drugs because they were aware of the dangers and were given a choice. All the efforts to force them to stop have failed, on the other hand.

People cannot be forced to turn from sin. They have to be given the choice. Some will reject salvation, but some will receive it if it is presented as their choice. Just as with Brueger’s Disease, if they refuse to put aside their sin, nothing else will work. Ultimately, the result is up to them.