Genetic Emphysema Strikes Nonsmokers Doctor Suffering From Disease Hopes Others Seek Treatment

Retired physician Bruce Moody has the ravaged lungs of a lifetime smoker, even though he never has touched cigarettes.

Moody, 65, has genetic emphysema and he believes about 400 other Idahoans have it, too, but don’t know it. That means they are missing out on treatment that might prolong their lives.

Diagnosis took 13 years for Moody, a Boise doctor who first began suffering a persistent, watery cough in 1977. It was diagnosed in 1990.

“It was a puzzle to me,” he said. “I’d always been so healthy … and I wanted to know the answer.”

Across the nation, 98 percent of emphysema cases are linked to cigarette smoking.

Emphysema is a lung disease where the walls of the air sacs gradually are destroyed, making it harder to breathe. There is no cure.

A total of 495 Idahoans died last year of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, an umbrella term for deadly lung ailments, including emphysema. It is the fifth-leading cause of death in Idaho.

In Moody’s case, emphysema is the result of a genetic deficiency of a protein called alpha1-antitrypsin that protects air sacs from damage.

Nationally, about one in 3,000 people has the deficiency that causes emphysema, Moody said. In Idaho, that translates into about 400 cases. But only about 25 cases have been diagnosed here.

If anything, the incidence of genetic emphysema might be higher in Idaho, he said. That is because it mostly strikes white people of Scandinavian descent, who tended to settle in chilly, northern states.

The genetic deficiency is easily detectable through a blood test. However, there is no study that proves every person who has the deficiency get emphysema.