- 55 minutes ago
A remarkable survival story opens this episode, followed by a look at how our lungs affect more than we think. Plus: Sleep apnea, cancer prevention, and the amazing benefits of exercise.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:07Cristina was terminally ill with a lung disease.
00:10Today, she's playing with her children again.
00:15You have to have the mindset of a fighter.
00:18You have to want it so badly and fight so hard.
00:21If it weren't for my children, if I hadn't always known that I was doing this for my family,
00:26I don't know if I'd have fought so hard.
00:28I don't think so.
00:33That story and more, coming up on In Good Shape, the DW Health Show.
00:45Cristina Schmitz received a devastating diagnosis, incurable pulmonary fibrosis.
00:51The lung tissue becomes increasingly damaged and scarred and breathing difficult.
00:57The worst thing you can do when you're struggling to breathe is panic.
01:01That's why even when I had severe coughing fits and felt I was suffocating,
01:05I always tried to tell myself, OK, no panicking.
01:10You have to stay calm.
01:12I tried to keep breathing calmly, but all I could manage was this.
01:17She kept getting pneumonia and would have to stay in hospital.
01:22She'd send her family photos and voice messages, wanting to stay strong.
01:28I think it's incredibly hard to see someone you love suffering.
01:33My husband said he could see me getting smaller and smaller, fading away.
01:39Toward the end, I started crying at one point because he parked the car 150 meters away.
01:45I really cried, I thought I can't do this.
01:52Only a lung transplant could save her life.
01:55She was put on the waiting list for a donor organ.
01:58But she knew that every day people on the list die waiting for a new organ.
02:06At Christmas, I thought that would be the last time that I'd bake cookies.
02:10I'd never have thought that kneading dough could leave me gasping for breath.
02:14But just the kneading with six liters of oxygen was so exhausting that I thought,
02:19that's the last time I'll ever make Christmas cookies.
02:24That was December 2024.
02:26She began making arrangements for her funeral, discussing everything with the funeral director.
02:32But then, one evening, she got a phone call.
02:37When the phone rang, I suddenly had this feeling.
02:40I answered and just said, oh my God.
02:43There it was, the news.
02:46We have an organ for you.
02:51My three favorite people were already sitting next to me crying
02:55because they knew immediately what was going on.
02:57There was laughter and crying.
02:59News like that brings so much hope.
03:02But there's also the fear that this might still be the last time you say goodbye.
03:14At the hospital, everything was set up for the lung transplant.
03:18The operation would usually take six to eight hours.
03:22Ten hours later, they were still operating.
03:25Twelve hours, 14 hours, the doctors would not give up on her.
03:34They fought incredibly hard for me.
03:37A nurse told my husband afterwards,
03:39tonight we saw that your wife is a fighter.
03:42It wasn't entirely clear that it would work out.
03:50Christina Schmitz is deeply appreciative of her personal miracle.
03:56For me personally, this is the greatest gift I've ever received, and it's mine.
04:02I was given this gift by a wonderful person who made that decision.
04:06Just thank you.
04:14Without our lungs, we couldn't breathe.
04:17Without breathing, we'd have no oxygen.
04:19And without oxygen, we couldn't live.
04:23Inhale.
04:26Exhale.
04:28This rhythm shapes our lives.
04:31Sometimes we breathe quickly.
04:35Sometimes slowly.
04:38The lungs set the pace for many other organs.
04:41They even affect our mood.
04:45Pretty much all cells need oxygen to power their furnaces, the mitochondria.
04:50These produce energy 24-7 using a process of bit-like combustion.
04:55It creates a waste product, carbon dioxide, or CO2.
05:00The lungs' job is to get oxygen into the bloodstream and expel carbon dioxide.
05:06A super important task.
05:08In fact, it's so crucial that other parts of the body have to pitch in.
05:14The diaphragm and the muscles between the ribs expand the lungs,
05:20drawing air into the mouth and down the bronchial tubes.
05:24The lungs' tissue is made up of millions of tiny air sacs called alveoli.
05:30This is where the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place.
05:36The lower part of the brainstem keeps a close eye on how much oxygen and carbon dioxide are in the
05:43blood
05:43and adjusts our breathing accordingly.
05:47And that's not all.
05:50Our body's built-in alarm center, the sympathetic nervous system, reacts to our emotions.
05:57When we're afraid, it cranks up our breathing.
06:01That makes sure the brain and the muscles get the extra oxygen they need.
06:10Once we feel safe, the parasympathetic nervous system slows our breathing again, and everything calms down.
06:17The process can be reversed, because we can consciously control our breathing,
06:23making it quicker or slower, or even holding our breath, and that affects the entire body.
06:34Calm, deep breathing, lowers the pulse and blood pressure, reduces stress and anxiety,
06:43calms us down, and improves focus, even boosts our motor skills, and helps us fall asleep.
07:03When you fall asleep, your muscles relax, including those in your tongue and throat.
07:08Your tongue slips backwards, in some cases narrowing the airway, causing the soft tissue to vibrate.
07:14This can lead to pauses in breathing, a type of snoring that's dangerous.
07:21Alcohol increases muscle relaxation.
07:24Sleeping on your back also promotes snoring, as your tongue is more likely to slip back.
07:29Risk factors include anatomical characteristics and being overweight.
07:36Heiko Stoppe is heading to the hospital.
07:39He works here as a respiratory therapist, but today he's not going to work.
07:44He's a patient himself.
07:46That's because he snores loudly and frequently.
07:49Twelve years ago, he was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea.
07:53Tonight, he's spending the night in the sleep lab.
07:58I kept waking up at night, drenched in sweat, and during the day, I was really tired.
08:04That reduced my ability to concentrate.
08:07I struggled to focus on my work.
08:09By noon, I was tired.
08:11I always felt like I could just lie down and sleep.
08:14During one assessment, his breathing paused 35 times an hour.
08:19Over time, that can be dangerous.
08:22With every pause, the level of oxygen in the blood drops, so your body wakes you up.
08:27Levels of the stress hormone adrenaline also increase.
08:31Sleep specialist Joachim Glockner warns that sleep apnea can have serious consequences.
08:37Feeling tired during the day is one factor, but another is the increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
08:43Sleep apnea usually causes high blood pressure, with all the complications that can bring.
08:49Increased risk of strokes and heart attacks.
08:52That's why it's so important to treat this condition.
08:57Heiko Stoppö was given a CPAP mask designed to normalise his breathing during sleep.
09:05It's the standard treatment for obstructive sleep apnea.
09:10The mask is placed over the nose or mouth and is connected via a tube to a small device that
09:16continually pumps air into the airways.
09:22This gentle, constant positive pressure keeps the throat open, preventing the airway from closing, even when the muscles relax during
09:31sleep.
09:32This stops the interruptions in breathing.
09:35Oxygen levels remain stable and snoring is also significantly reduced.
09:42Heiko Stoppö is very happy with the mask and now uses it every night.
09:48I tried one night without it after losing weight, to see what it was like, but it didn't work.
09:53The mask is fine for me.
09:55I take it on vacation, on business trips.
09:58For camping, there are small battery-powered devices that you can take for one night.
10:02No problem.
10:06Patients are also encouraged to address lifestyle factors that exacerbate sleep apnea.
10:12Lose weight, change your lifestyle, limit your alcohol intake and avoid alcohol for three hours before bedtime.
10:18Your last meal shouldn't be too late either.
10:21And turn off electronic devices at least one hour before going to bed.
10:27Today's assessment at Heiko Stoppö's sleep lab is just a check-up.
10:33All the sleep data are recorded during the test.
10:37Joachim Glockner can then assess how effective the mask is.
10:41He's confident the results will be good.
10:44Heiko Stoppö has lost a lot of weight, which can have a positive effect on sleep apnea and snoring.
10:50The next morning, it's time for the evaluation.
10:54Your treatment is working very well.
10:57You're averaging at just half an apnea episode per hour.
10:59That's an optimal treatment outcome.
11:02Heiko Stoppö must continue to wear the mask each night.
11:07I generally get along fine with the mask.
11:09But are there any new alternative treatments?
11:13We'll look for alternatives if the standard therapy doesn't work.
11:17The basics are stabilise your weight or sleep on your side, or a combination of the two.
11:25Some people use a custom-made mouth guard in combination with a CPAP mask and achieve good results that way.
11:34The mouth guard works rather like an orthodontic brace.
11:38It gently pushes your lower jaw forward at night.
11:41This increases the space in the upper airways, allowing air to flow more easily.
11:46Surgery can also be an option for complex cases, where the patient doesn't get on with the mask.
11:52Here, none of that is necessary.
11:54For Heiko Stoppö, the mask works perfectly.
12:07Coughing fits that last for minutes at a time, especially at night.
12:12Whooping cough often continues for weeks.
12:17The coughing is really uncontrollable, with little or no time to catch your breath.
12:22It often ends in vomiting.
12:26People strain their muscles from coughing.
12:29In older patients with osteoporosis, it can even result in broken ribs.
12:34The coughing can last up to three months in total.
12:39That's what happened to Felix.
12:41For the 14-year-old, it all began after summer vacation, with agonizing coughing fits.
12:48When I was coughing a lot, I noticed I was getting stomach aches.
12:54It was just so exhausting, and it was really extreme compared to other types of cough.
13:01Hooping cough is extremely contagious.
13:04If you come into contact with someone who's infected, your chances of catching it are around 80% unless you're
13:11vaccinated.
13:13Tiny droplets produced when coughing or speaking spread the whooping cough bacteria from one person to another.
13:20The bacteria target the respiratory tract.
13:24Normally, tiny, hair-like structures called cilia move back and forth, keeping the bronchi and lungs free of dust and
13:32foreign particles.
13:34The whooping cough bacteria penetrate deep into the lungs and attach themselves to the mucous membranes.
13:41There, they multiply and produce toxins.
13:43These toxins irritate the mucous membranes and destroy the cilia.
13:49That results in the typical spasmodic dry cough.
13:54Hooping cough is often diagnosed late.
13:56This is because in the first two weeks, the symptoms resemble those of a common cold.
14:02Only later does the cough become increasingly severe.
14:05By then, the toxins have spread throughout the lungs.
14:09But treatment is only effective in the early stages.
14:13Rather than waiting three weeks before deciding to act, seek treatment early.
14:17Then antibiotics can really shorten the duration of the illness and the symptoms.
14:24Antibiotics eliminate the bacteria.
14:26But the toxins continue to cause damage in the lungs for weeks afterwards.
14:31And the coughing persists.
14:37When babies contract whooping cough, it's especially dangerous.
14:46They can even die due to interruptions in their breathing.
14:53The children are really sick and can't feed either.
14:57Then you have to act fast.
14:59We admit very young children to the hospital.
15:01They have to be monitored so we can tell if they're having apnea episodes.
15:05These pauses in breathing.
15:09Infants are often infected by adults or older children around them who aren't fully vaccinated.
15:15And who often don't even realize they're infected.
15:21That's why it's especially important for the adults in their lives to be fully vaccinated,
15:26so they don't unknowingly have whooping cough and infect the children.
15:32Infants are especially at risk during their first few months.
15:36Babies are supposed to get three vaccinations during their first year of life.
15:40But they aren't fully protected until around five months of age, after the second vaccination.
15:47It's very important that all newborns receive their primary immunizations on time.
15:54Ideally, the process should begin even earlier.
15:56Pregnant women are advised to get vaccinated during the third trimester,
16:00so that they can provide their babies with some protection right from birth.
16:04Then comes the primary immunization.
16:07But the vaccine's protection doesn't last very long, which is why booster shots are so important.
16:14The first booster is given around elementary school age and the second during teenage years.
16:20In addition, at least one more vaccination is recommended for every adult.
16:25This is often forgotten.
16:27You might want to check at your next doctor's appointment.
16:31And if you're not sure how long it's been since your last whooping cough jab,
16:35be sure to check your vaccination record.
16:40A persistent cough is a warning sign.
16:43It could be caused by asthma or even heartburn, where stomach acid enters the airwaves.
16:48But sometimes a cough can be a symptom of lung cancer, in most cases caused by smoking.
16:54Every year, about two and a half million people are diagnosed with the disease worldwide.
16:58Early detection significantly improves the chances of recovery.
17:05Lucien Matai is 48 years old.
17:09For 30 years, he smoked between 40 and 60 cigarettes a day.
17:13But not anymore.
17:16He says there's no going back now.
17:20Absolutely not. I will never smoke again.
17:22I feel like I've been reborn.
17:25A chance discovery saved his life.
17:28He went to the doctor with a stomach ache.
17:31His doctor couldn't find the cause and referred him for a scan.
17:34That's when lung cancer was discovered, in its early stages.
17:39He underwent surgery immediately and is now recovered.
17:42More than 50% of lung cancer patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, which we cannot cure.
17:50At best, we can improve their prognosis for several months, or in some cases years.
17:55But sadly, we can't cure them.
17:58Lucien Matai was very lucky.
18:00He no longer needs any further treatment after the surgery.
18:03The best-case scenario.
18:06Such patients are considered cured with a very good prognosis.
18:10To give heavy smokers the best chance of survival, Germany, like many countries, offers lung cancer screening.
18:18It's offered to older smokers who have smoked for many years.
18:23The screening is performed using a so-called low-dose CT scan, which Lucien Matai also underwent.
18:33The scan is offered at radiology practices and centres across Germany.
18:39With low-dose computer tomography, we can visualise even the smallest round lesions on a CT scan.
18:45And we achieve an 80-90% reduction in radiation exposure compared to a normal CT,
18:52which corresponds to the natural exposure that everyone receives anyway from background radiation over a few months.
18:58But do the benefits of the screening justify even this level of radiation exposure?
19:05And what about the risk of false alarms leading to unnecessary treatment?
19:11Large studies have shown that lung cancer mortality can be significantly reduced, by about 20%.
19:18It's important to understand that we're not preventing lung cancer,
19:22rather we're detecting it earlier at a stage when it can be cured.
19:27Studies have also shown that women especially benefit from lung cancer screening.
19:34That's because the incidence of lung cancer has been rising among women in recent years, unlike with men.
19:41Lung cancer is now the third most common cancer among women, after breast and colorectal cancer,
19:48and among men, it's even the second most common, after prostate cancer.
19:53The main cause of lung cancer is still smoking.
19:57In women, it causes 8 out of 10 cases, and in men, as many as 9 out of 10.
20:05But there's also good news.
20:07A lot of progress has been made in diagnosing lung cancer,
20:11including in bronchoscopy, where an endoscope is inserted into the bronchi.
20:16Thanks to improved navigation techniques, our diagnostic capabilities are becoming increasingly precise.
20:22We can now reach lesions, where we used to say, let's wait and see.
20:26We can now do a biopsy much more effectively and precisely,
20:30and may soon be able to treat them more effectively as well.
20:34Tumor boards are crucial for success.
20:37This is where treatment options are discussed and decided upon.
20:41Lucien Matthij's case was also discussed.
20:44If such a small lesion glows that brightly, it's either an infection or a small lung cancer tumour.
20:50To us, it looks more like a small tumour.
20:53You're young and otherwise healthy, so we should remove it.
20:58Lucien Matthij underwent surgery, and it was indeed cancer.
21:03Thanks to a newly developed colour-coding system,
21:06even smaller tumours than his can be located and removed during surgery.
21:11As part of lung cancer screening,
21:14doctors in Germany are supposed to refer eligible patients to a radiologist.
21:19If the findings are abnormal, they are reviewed at specialised centres.
21:24If treatment is required, patients are then sent to selected cancer clinics.
21:30Lucien Matthij knows how lucky he was.
21:33After that, quitting smoking was a no-brainer.
21:37It was very simple.
21:38The first few days were tough, but thank God,
21:41after the surgery and the hospital stay, I stopped.
21:44Lucien Matthij was lucky.
21:46Early detection saves lives, just like with many other types of cancer.
21:54People who quit smoking can get their lungs back in shape.
21:57Running clears out your bronchial tubes
21:59and improves the flow of oxygen to your bloodstream.
22:10I'm not a runner.
22:13I've only ever run when I was late for catching my tram or train.
22:2125 to 35 is a good time to start exercising.
22:26I'm a year away from turning 35, so I'm starting now.
22:32For six weeks now, Sindhu Shri has been going to training sessions for running.
22:38My job involves too much sitting.
22:43I have a lot of meetings and just sit all day.
22:47And all the stress takes a toll on our muscles.
22:50It's tiring.
22:52It's tiring.
22:53First, they have to warm up.
22:55Sindhu's running group meets every Thursday.
22:58The course goes for 10 weeks,
22:59after which they're supposed to be able to run 10 kilometers.
23:03People come for different reasons.
23:05I hadn't exercised for 30 years.
23:07A friend who's a coach here said to me,
23:09you're joining now.
23:11I started running last year with a beginner's class.
23:14The goal was to run for 15 to 20 minutes,
23:16and I started to enjoy it.
23:20Jan Lesman is here to help them reach the 10 kilometer mark.
23:25Every running group has a dedicated coach,
23:28armed with tips for the runners.
23:31Always take a two-minute break in between,
23:33and it would be great if the faster runners
23:35could come back to join the group again.
23:38The groups meet once a week.
23:40All participants are supposed to run twice more on their own,
23:44so they can increase their distance.
23:47And off they go.
23:48For the first lap, they have to run for eight minutes.
23:51Sindhu's at the back,
23:52but she's not lost her sense of humor.
23:57We're the protectors.
23:59We keep everyone here safe.
24:02We run at the back and make sure everyone's safe.
24:08Then they take a two-minute walking break.
24:12The coach says the group is keeping a good pace.
24:18After about three weeks,
24:20your cardiovascular system adapts,
24:22and then you have the advantage
24:23that you breathe more slowly.
24:26Regular running strengthens the heart,
24:28so it pumps more effectively.
24:30As a result, it needs to beat less frequently
24:32to supply the body with oxygen.
24:35The lungs benefit from improved blood circulation,
24:38so they filter inhaled air more effectively.
24:41The intestinal muscles also get moving,
24:43which stimulates the metabolism.
24:46Muscles and bones are strengthened,
24:48and the brain shows improved concentration
24:50and less stress.
24:56Even after just a short time,
24:58your breathing adjusts.
25:00The blood receives more oxygen,
25:02even if you haven't exercised in a long time.
25:07There are all kinds of reasons
25:09why people get out of the habit of exercising.
25:11We want them to pick it up again,
25:13with the help of the athletics coaches
25:14and the group dynamic,
25:16and get fit again.
25:20Sindhu's group has finished for today.
25:22A quick glance at the step counter on their watches
25:25shows they managed five kilometers today.
25:28Part jogging, part walking.
25:30They're quite happy with that.
25:35I'm always worried that it might be too much.
25:38Is it five minutes, six minutes, eight minutes?
25:40But when we run with the group,
25:41I get a burst of energy.
25:44And she'll need that energy.
25:46After all, she's training to run a full 10 kilometers
25:49in one go.
25:52Running with a group is great,
25:54but careful when you schedule it.
25:56You wouldn't want to miss the next episode
25:58of In Good Shape.
25:59Bye for now, and see you soon.