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The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/copd on January 25, 2016 Lungs 101: Learning Basic Lung Sounds I have been listening to lung sounds for 20 years now, and every so often someone wants to know what I heard and what it means. That said, here is a pithy lesson on the five basic lung sounds and what they mean.  First, however, a few definitions.  Auscultation : The process of listening to lung sounds.  It can be done ear to chest, although most health professionals prefer to use a stethoscope.  Stethoscope : It's a medical device used to auscultate (hear) lung and heart sounds. Listening to lung sounds is an important part of assessing a patient. Based on what is heard can help a caregiver both diagnose and treat patients, and determine the progression of lung diseases over time.  There are basically only five lung sounds.  You'd think that would make listening to them easy, but that's not always the case considering every pati...

Originally published at healthcentral.com/asthma Evidence shows asthma treats women worse than men, and researchers believe this may be due to hormones responsible for the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and menopause.  This has lead them to identify a new subtype of asthma called premenstrual or premenopausal asthma.  So, what is this, and what does it mean for women with asthma First, check out these statistics  from the American Lung Association .   Boys are more likely to have asthma than girls until puberty, at which time women are more likely to have it than men until menopause.  Among children under 18, boys were 14 percent more likely to have it than girls.  Among adults 18 and over, females were 62 percent more likely to have asthma than men. According to the American Lung Association, in 2011, women were 14 percent more likely to be diagnosed with asthma than men.  In the same year, 10.8 million males had asthma compared with 15.1 million females...

The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/asthma on January 29, 2016 Asthma (Possibly) Linked to Chronic Migraine Evidence already links asthma with allergies, anxiety, gastrointestinal reflux, and insomnia. The latest research seems to suggest asthma may also be linked with chronic migraines  (more than 15 migraine headaches in a year). Researchers at the University of Cincinnat i studied 4,500 individuals who suffered from occasional (less than 15 in a year) migraines. Participants were divided into two groups: those without asthma and those with asthma.  They were then asked to fill out questionnaires in 2008 and 2009.   The results concluded that that only 2.5 percent of participants without asthma were diagnosed with new onset chronic migraine, while 5.5 percent of participants with asthma were diagnosed with new onset chronic migraine.  This means that asthmatics with occasional migraine were more than twice as likely to develop chronic...

The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/copd on January 11, 2016 Would Pulmonary Rehabilitation Benefit You  Pulmonary rehabilitation is a top-line recommendation for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and this seems to be true whether you have mild, moderate, or severe COPD. So what is pulmonary rehabilitation, and how might it help you? It generally involves three elements: 1.   Exercise training .  Health experts show you what exercises are best for people with COPD, and the safest ways of doing them. Most programs meet once or twice a week for about 8 weeks. You may also be able to make arrangements to continue participating even after programs end.  2.   Education . You will learn about your disease and the  medicines  used to treat it. You will learn how to properly use inhalers and nebulizers.  You will learn coughing techniques to help you remove secretions. You will learn how to conserve...

The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com on January 19, 2016 Asthma (Possibly) Linked to Heart Disease We now know that asthma isn't just a disease of the respiratory system,  that it is a syndrome  linked with the  immune system, nervous system, and even the intestinal system .  The latest research now suggest a possible link between asthma and the cardiovascular system.  The study was performed at Northwestern University and published in the December 8, 2015, issue of the  Journal of Allergy & Clinical Immunology.  It involved a survey of 13,275 children from all 50 states, and showed that those with allergic asthmatics were twice as likely to be diagnosed with high blood pressure and high cholesterol than those without asthma.  It should be known here that most cases of asthma diagnosed in childhood (childhood onset asthma) also involve allergies.  It should also be known that about 75 percent of asthmatics ov...

The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/asthma on January 4, 2016. 9 Ways Exercise Improves Asthma Control If you have asthma, you should be exercising on a regular basis. The evidence of the benefits of exercising is abounding, and even shows that regular exercise can help you obtain and maintain good asthma control. If you already do it, great! If you don't, here's nine reasons to begin your exercise program today,  especially if you have asthma. This is because exercise... 1.  Makes your heart and lungs stronger .  Exercising builds up muscle strength. Your heart is a muscle, so when you exercise, you are, in essence, making it a stronger pump.  The Mayo Clinic explains  that this makes it easier for it to pump blood through your lungs and body, making you feel less winded. This also increases oxygen and nutrients to the various tissues of your body to help your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. 2.  Boosts your ...