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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 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...

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...

The following post was originally published by me at healthcentral.com/asthma on September 11, 2015 Links Between Testosterone and Asthma Even though asthma was first described over 2,500 years ago, why some people develop it, and why some have it worse than others, remains a mystery.  Yet by observing trends between male and female asthmatics, researchers now suspect a link between asthma and a hormone called testosterone. Researchers have been studying asthma for many years now, and are well aware of the following trends regarding male and female asthmatics. Boys are more likely to have it than girls. During teenage years this trend reverses, and women are more likely to have it than men. Women are more likely to have allergic asthma. Women are more likely to have difficulty controlling asthma.  Therefore, women are more likely to suffer from more severe asthma than men. Women are also more likely to develop adult onset asthma. Women are more likely to have an adverse reacti...

The following post was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/copd on October 6, 2015. MacGyver-like Doctor Saves Asthmatic Child Set the scene: an asthmatic toddler is having an asthma attack aboard a transatlantic flight from Spain to the U.S. The parents realize they had accidentally packed his asthma supplies in their checked luggage. What are they to do? Thankfully a MacGyver-like genius was on board and steps in to save the day. When he learned the two-year-old boy's oxygen saturation was only 87-88 percent , Dr. Khurshid Guru, director of Robotic Surgery at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, sprung into action to create a makeshift nebulizer and oxygen delivery device out of supplies readily available aboard the Air Canada flight. During an interview with an ABC News reporter, Guru said he was able to obtain an oxygen tank and an albuterol inhaler.  He then collected oxygen tubing, a bottle of water, and a water cup. He connected one end of the tubing to the oxyg...

The following was written by me and published at healthcentral.com/asthma on December 21, 2015 Looking to improve your repiratory health in the new year? As one of HealthCentral's health guides,  I was asked to write an article with a list of my best articles going forward into 2016, with an explanation of why I chose each one and why it’s important to respiratory health readers. Here are my picks for the best respiratory health articles from 2015:  1.   The Natural Progression of COPD . This is probably the most important article I’ve ever written, and I refer to it every time I’m encouraging my patients to quit smoking. I discuss the Fletcher-Peto Curve.  It’s a telling visual for anyone with COPD because it shows that smoking speeds up the progression of the disease, and that quitting smoking at any age slows the progression of the disease, thus prolonging life.   2.   Smart Inhaler the Future of Asthma Control . This article is neat becau...

The following post was published on May 7, 2015, at healthcentral.com/asthma. The Best Allergy Medication for Asthma About 75 percent of asthmatics also have allergies. So that means controlling asthma may also involve controlling allergies--a task that may not be possible without the assistance of one or more allergy medications. Surely you can try to avoid and control them . But these methods don’t work for everyone. So the next best option is to talk to your asthma doctor about medicinal options. Some of the best options are: Asthma Controller Medicine . The first step is to make sure the underlying airway inflammation in your lungs is controlled. This will make your airways less sensitive to allergens. It may also make inevitable asthma attacks less severe when they do occur. Asthma Rescue Medicine . It is of utmost importance that any person with allergic asthma have rescue medicine nearby at all times. You may feel fine now, but you never know when you might be exposed to o...

Some of my asthmatic friends constantly criticize pharmaceuticals as run by a bunch of evil rich people who are greedy and make money at the expense of the sick.  Their evidence is the fact that newer, non-patented, asthma medicine costs so much.  I would like to argue that pharmaceutical companies (or most of them) are run by people who simply want to make enough profit to stay in business. It is true that asthma medicine costs too much. Consider that if your doctor prescribes Advair to control your asthma, it will cost you about $250 a month if you pay out of pocket.  If you have a copay the cost will be about $70 per month.  This copay is high, considering a typical copay for generic medicine is between $20 and $40 a month.  Consider the following facts as reported by medicine.net, " Drugs: Why they cost so much? " The high price of Advair is not the result of greed, but of regulation. In fact, pharmaceuticals are constantly looking to find new medicines to h...