Amy Winehouse diagnosed with emphysema

Taken from Times Online

Amy Winehouse has been diagnosed with emphysema, thought to have been caused by smoking crack cocaine, her father has revealed.

The Grammy-award winning singer is being treated in a private London hospital, and could require a permanent oxygen mask, Mitch Winehouse told the Sunday Mirror.

The taxi driver said that his daughter started a drug replacement programme last Tuesday after being told she would need to wear the mask and may be confined to a wheelchair unless she abstained from smoking crack cocaine.

“With smoking the crack cocaine and the cigarettes, her lungs are all gunked up. There are nodules around the chest and dark marks. She's got 70 per cent lung capacity."

“The doctors have told her if she goes back to smoking drugs it won't just ruin her voice, it will kill her.”

The singer, 24, was admitted to The Clinic last week after collapsing at her north London home. She told doctors she had not slept for 48 hours and they found she was suffering from an irregular heartbeat.

Scans showed Winehouse, who is scheduled to play at Glastonbury this weekend, had a lump in her chest, but doctors ruled out cancer and diagnosed the progressive lung disease.

British Lung Foundation spokesperson Dr Keith Prowse said Chronic Obstrusive Pulmonary Disease, an umbrella term for lung conditions like emphysema, rarely affected people in their twenties.

“It normally affects people in their forties onwards, but heavy smoking and inhaling other substances like drugs can age the lungs prematurely and bring on early onset in someone much younger.”

“COPD causes irreversible damage to the lungs, leaving the sufferer struggling for breath. The disease is progressive but it can be managed with treatment and stopping smoking is vital to slow it down and stop the lungs getting any worse."

Dr Prowse indicated Winehouse’s celebrated voice could be affected by her illness.

“In the late stages of the disease people with COPD struggle to walk more than a few steps and often are confined to a wheelchair. They have difficulty taking part in everyday activities. Anyone who relies on their lungs for a living, such as a singer, dancer, or musician, would struggle to find the breath to perform effectively.”

Winehouse won world-wide acclaim after releasing her second album, Back to Black, in 2006, but has since become more famous for her drug problems and chaotic lifesyle.

Over the past year she has been arrested four times, checked in and out of rehab repeatedly, and cancelled a string of performances.

Her husband of one year, Blake Fielder-Civil, is in prison after pleading guilty to charges of assault and perverting the course of justice.