Ronald Crystal, MD, Pulmonary Disease Specialist at Weill Cornell Medical College: Probably about 20 percent. Maybe 30 percent that will have some disease. But the people that really get COPD is about 20 percent of cigarette smokers. Dr. Gupta: Is there any point where you can say, “Okay, you haven’t smoked for 25 years, 30 years, whatever it may be. You are in the clear”? Dr. Crystal: You are never in the clear. It depends very much on how much you smoked. So if you smoked, you know, one cigarette a day for maybe a year, probably your risk is very little. But if you smoked a pack a day for 20 years, then 20 to 30 years later you are still at risk. Dr. Gupta: So once you have COPD, you kind of have it. This is going to be a diagnosis that you carry for the rest of your life? Dr. Crystal: It’s a diagnosis you carry for the rest of your life, but what you would like to do is if you stop smoking, is be able to stay at that level and not progress. Dr. Gupta: Leonard Nimoy came out and talked about his COPD. He said he hadn’t been smoking in 30 years. Dr. Crystal: Yes Dr. Gupta: And he still developed COPD. Dr. Crystal: I don’t know his lifestyle and how much he exercised and so on. But my guess is that he was developing COPD all along, and he was losing lung function and, like many patients, just denied it and sort of put it off until it really hit him. Dr. Gupta: What’s the impact of someone like him, a well-known name, coming out and talking about the fact that he has this? Dr. Crystal: I think that’s very important. It helps people be more aware, and also takes… there’s a little bit of shame associated with COPD because you brought it on yourself.
