sade082

The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/asthma on December 18, 2015. Our Asthma Christmas Wish List I recently participated in a brainstorming session with a group of respiratory therapists.  Our goal was to create a list of medicines asthmatics would like to find under the Christmas tree. That in mind, here’s our list of fake, or yet to be developed, asthma medicines.  This is our wish list we sent to Santa. 1.  Probiotic Magic .  Probiotic is a fancy way of saying good, or healthy, bacteria that are essential for maintaining a healthy body.  Microflora is a fancy term for describing all the microbes inside our body, good and bad, such as parasites and bacteria.  The  Microflora Hypothesis  states that a normal balance of good and bad microflora inside our gut prevents an abnormal immune response that leads to asthma and allergies.  It also states that our modern diet, and antibiotic use, is killing off good microf...

The following was originally published at healthcentral.com/asthma on May 4, 2015.  While it was published for last years event, it still applies today.  World Asthma Day: You Can Control Your Asthma World Asthma Day is May 5, 2015. This is an annual event sponsored by the Global Initiative for Asthma ( GINA ) since 1998. This is one day of the year specifically dedicated to improving asthma awareness and care throughout the world. This year’s theme is “You Can Control Your Asthma.” Asthma, or asthma-like symptoms, were recorded in some of the earliest writings. The disease was relatively ignored by the medical profession, mainly because it was considered more of a nuisance (like a head cold) than a serious disease . So they ignored asthma in favor of diseases like tuberculosis and diptheria. So now that those diseases are tackled, it’s our turn. Since the 1950s researchers have made great strides in asthma research. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, asthma guidelines...

Originally published at healthcentral.com/copd Researchers are working overtime to learn what causes COPD. The Fetal Origins Hypothesis suggests it all begins in the uterus as the fetus adjusts to its environment. Such adjustments may predispose the fetus to chronic diseases like asthma and COPD later in life.   During the 1950s and 1960s, physicians thought the placenta was a natural barrier that protected unborn babies from the mother’s environment; that it protected the fetus from anything bad ingested or inhaled; that it only allowed good substances, such as essential nutrients, to get to the fetus. It was based on this old theory that caused physicians, or at least many of them, to remain indifferent to a mother’s nutritional status.  If anything, it was prefered they didn’t gain too much weight. Physicians also remained unconcerned about mothers having a few drinks or inhaling cigarette smoke. In fact, during the 1960s, about half of expectant mothers reported smoking ci...

Originally published at healtahcentral.com/asthma Researchers are working overtime in their quest to find better treatment options for asthmatics. Here are some of the latest discoveries. We think you'll be impressed! Key protein discovered .  Researchers at the University of Leipzig believe they found a “key molecule” responsible for allergic asthma. The molecule is called protein syndecan-4, and is found in the cell membrane of antigen presenting cells. The hope is further research in this regard will lead to better medicines or cures for allergies and asthma.   Source:   Science Daily: Allergic Asthma: Key Molecule Identified Root cause of asthma discovered . Using mouse models of asthma and human airway tissue, researchers at Cardiff University believe the calcium sensing receptor (CaSR) is the "potential root cause of asthma."   It was already known that  asthma triggers  release chemicals that activate sensory neuro airways leading to airway twitchine...

Originally published at healthcentral.com/asthma Many childhood asthmatics seem to get better with age.  Sometimes asthma attacks come less often, or are less severe.  In some cases asthma may seem to go away altogether, or to go into remission.  Here are seven reasons to explain this phenomenon. 1   Testosterone .  Asthma in boys often improves during teenage years. One theory for this suggests this may be due to an increase in testosterone levels. Testosterone (or one of its metabolites) may have an  influence over the abnormal immune response that causes asthma . 2   Communication . Because you cannot see how other people feel, some parents have a hard time recognizing asthma in children. Making this worse, children are often poor communicators of how they feel.  As they grow older and mature, children become better communicators, and this makes asthma easier to both diagnose and treat.   3   Medicine . For liability reasons, few stud...

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 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 ...

The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/asthma on January 11, 2016 How I Conquered Exercise Induced Asthma To say I  never  exercised as a kid is not telling the whole truth.  A more accurate statement would be to say that I rarely exercised when my asthma was acting up.  And considering I had brittle asthma as a child, there were many times I was unable to exercise with it.  Now I exercise every day, so what changed? Essentially, I conquered exercise induced asthma (EIA), or what is now referred to as  exercise induced bronchospasm  (EIB). Here are five reasons I credit for helping me conquer EIB. 1.   Brittle asthma .  During teenage years airways increase in scope and size with the rest of your body.  So my airways are now bigger and less brittle.  Now, this does not mean they are less sensitive.  It just means when my airways spasm, there is more room than there once was. So now, when I'm exp...

The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/asthma on November 4, 2015. What is Severe Asthma?  Researchers have learned that 5-10 percent of asthmatics do not respond well to traditional asthma medications, making their asthma difficult to control.  In order to better help these asthmatics, researchers now categorize them under a special asthma subtype  called Severe Asthma. So, what is severe asthma, and what does it mean if you have it? What is it?   Sally Wenzel, professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, defines severe asthma as “patients who require high dose inhaled glucocorticoid (GC), or continuous or near continuous oral GC treatment to maintain asthma control or who never achieve control despite that treatment.”  It was defined as an asthma subtype less than 15 years ago. What is it  not ?   Severe asthma must not be confused with other causes of difficult to treat asthma, including: Asthma exacerbated...