Environmental causes of bronchiectasis?

Dr. Joe Falkinham, guru of all things NTM, would suspect no coincidence. Rather he'd suspect the plumbing. Are you in a condo with the other women who have symptoms?

Here's his paper on plumbing and NTM. In the meantime, turn up your water heater to as high as it will go (over 130 degrees). Buy a Life Straw water pitcher which filters out NTM, or more simply, boil your water before drinking. Keeping your nebulizer cups cleaned and sterilized will help too.

Bottom line much of NTM exposure is related to water. It also shows up in soil and therefore the air. If you garden wear a mask. Inside swimming pools and hot tubs also brew NTM (it's in the plumbing pipes). It's ubiquitous. While I'm sorry you had to find this group, now that you're here, you're in good company with others who have practical advice to share.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3166028/
https://www.ntminfo.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/NTMSupplementalGuide.pdf

Thanks, Scoop. I've done all that months ago. My question wasn't really about NTM, although we've all had our brush with it (I think). It was really about bronchiectasis. We live in individual homes, not condos so no sharing of home plumbing although we all get our water from the same place of course. The water seems likely so maybe from the street? Just seems really odd.

Ok, got it. I've always thought the bronchiectasis came first and then the NTM. Maybe exposure to NTM causes bronchiectasis? Also, as we age our immune function declines making us more susceptible but then again more people would have bronchiectasis.

Not really an answer but there's a recent paper by Dr. McShane and other bronchiectasis experts, "The Impact of Tobacco Smoking in Bronchiectasis: Data from the U.S. Bronchiectasis and Nontuberculous Mycobacteria Research Registry" which might shed more light on bronchiectasis. The registry indicates that half of all people with bronchiectasis smoked. It's behind an access wall but you can read the first page here. https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1164/rccm.202402-0466RL?role=tab

I would think, if there were such a connection then others would
already have examined and reported it.
Worldwide.
Any time.

First of all Happy Thanksgiving to all on this incredibly helpful, caring, and informative forum. Have you always lived in Florida or are you a transplant from another state? I have bronchiectasis and spend time in Ocala, but all my lung issues happened in New England. I think environment is definitely a contributing factor to many diseases, but our genetics and diet play a role as well. And as we age we probably see a lot of lung issues as those lungs have been breathing air for a really long time. We lived in a neighborhood years ago where three neighbors had sarcoidosis and lots had breast cancer! That to me is significant because we were younger couples then. The area had been farm land. Lots of pesticides had been used. We moved but had lived there over thirty years. I don’t have either of those diseases but my husband has sarcoid. I think a lot has to do with a susceptibility based on genetics when you are exposed to something in a certain environment. I’ve had MAC and pseudomonas , but my husband has not. The luck of the draw!! Right now we are in Connecticut with family for the holidays, but I’ll take Florida weather any day!! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Irene5

People with various lung infections sometimes develop bronchiectasis and MAC is one of the infections that can do that.
Scoop is also correct in thinking MAC is more likely in patients bronchiectasis.
Clusters with MAC occur. There was one in the county next to mine (PA) researched by Leah Lande and Faulkinham’s team (sp?) just a few years ago. I haven’t read it recently and don’t recall if it reported bronchiectasis rate. I’ll try to remember to look in a few days.

Happy thanksgiving to everyone. I am very grateful for being part of this community. I have come to know virtually so many wonderful, kind, caring and generous experience-sharing people. Big thanks to you all.

I was diagnosed with bronchiectasis Oct. 22. Like all of you, I was desperately searching for the reasons why it happened to me. Recently there is an article in the New York Times, it says that certain parts of our body age sooner than the rest of the body. I guess there is no argument for that. Even though I was a very healthy person all my life until I started coughing about 3 years ago for no reason. A year later I had pneumonia and was diagnosed with bronchiectasis. You see, our body changes, there is always a weak spot in our body, we don't know until something happens. Could we avoid what happened? My doctors always comment that I do everything right. My point is sooner or later something is going to break.
We are lucky to find people who share similar experiences, caring and supporting one another. Take care and be well
Ling

I did everything right, too Yet, I got mac and be. IMHO, I think genetics is a huge factor. Some things are out of our control.

Here’s the article I mentioned about the cluster of MAC near my current residence-just across river. Leah Lande and Faulkenheim’s team did the research because she noticed an unusual number of MAC cases being referred to her. The newspaper and local stations reported the story and I noticed/remembered because of my parents’ history. It was a 4 years before I developed bronchiectasis.
All the patients had nodular bronchiectasis. Here’s link.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6390762/

I was recently reading a paper on BE and it made a distinction between the radiological finding of BE and a clinical diagnosis of BE, saying that over the age of 70 approximately 20% of the population has BE on CT as a normal sign of aging, without clinical relevance. Assuming this is accurate, your question about whether it is unusual for you and a few close neighbors to all have BE, given your ages, I would think not. But if you all have MAC, then I would, as others have pointed out, at least be concerned about an environmental source common to all of you.