Radio waves can significantly help asthmatics

This is a promising article about a new treatment for asthmatics to reduce attacks as much as 75% as claimed in trials. Check it out, it's good to see that there are still people working on new asthma treatments.

Help asthmatics with radio waves.

Check out the article

The Air up there!!!

Well I haven't wrote anything in awhile here but I have a reason for this lapse in time. I was on vacation in the Rocky Mountains and surprise I can relate this to something respiratory.

Now this is not my first time up in the mountains of Colorado because I was stationed in Colorado Springs in the early 90's but this is my first time in the mountains up there as a Respiratory Therapist. With my profession being in the respiratory department I did notice how much harder it was to breathe between 8,000 and over 10,000 feet above sea level and I couldn't help but try and remember the full explanation of why this is so I thought I would look it up and blog about it.

One experience that I really noticed besides my hikes to up over 10k was when my wife and I went to Leadville which is the highest incorporated city in the USA, topping out at 10,600 feet above sea level. My wife and I were walking around the downtown area and we were talking away and I noticed that I actually had to stop and take a couple deep breathes as I was getting quite winded just walking and talking this really kind of stunned me as I'm not in bad shape, even my wife who runs 6 miles at least 5 times a week was noticing this with herself it's really kind of amazing the difference here with your breathing. I do recall however that the Army gave new soldiers to Ft. Carson Colorado a month to acclimate before they really started making you run hard and on this trip I didn't have nearly that long so I never fully acclimated to this air.

Why is this? Well I found a good analogy to this effect, if you take a jar of air at sea level and compare it to a jar of air at 10,000 feet above sea level there will be less molecules of air in that jar at the higher sea level, this is due to basically less partial pressure of the oxygen and less barometric pressure which helps make the molecules more dense at lower levels so in actuality I was getting less molecules of oxygen in my lungs with a breathe at higher altitudes than I would get with the same size breathe at the lower sea level.

Makes sense to me.

Here is a nice article on asthma in higher altitudes on Livestrong.com. Yes it's worse up there, when I was stationed in Colorado I seem to remember more people coming down with "Asthma" it seemed like, not I wasn't a RT but I was a Medic so I did have some medical knowledge there.

Some diseases make going to a high altitude very dangerous. People who have sickle cell anemia shouldn't go to a high altitude. A high altitude is also dangerous for people who have severe lung disease, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or severe emphysema, and for people who have severe heart disease.

Well all in all my wife had a great time together in the mountains with no kids thanks to my mother in law, one other side note about higher altitudes, if you like have some alcoholic drinks they WILL affect you quicker ... I'm just saying!!!

Keep driving on RT's.

Metabolism induced asthma?

A new study is showing that a poor diet and being inactive can increase the chances of kids to develop asthma, which is coined "Metabolism induced asthma".

The article can be read here: Poor Diet, Inactivity May Lead to Metabolism-Induced Asthma

This I've always had a sneaking suspicion of when we see people in the hospital who are obese and are taking inhalers and told they have asthma but with no actually family history of asthma. I do understand that obese people have shortness of breath due to increase body mass causing them to have a harder time taking a breath or just getting short of breath with exertion. Now I'm not sure I believe it's acutally "asthma" in those already obese people but as we all know if you lead a unheatlhy lifestyle you chances of having medical problems do increase a lot, so why should it not be possible for kids to develop asthma if they grow up with poor dietary habits and a inactive lifestyle? It's up to us parents to create a healthy lifestyle for our kids and be examples. Now don't get me wrong I have not problem with partaking in the good foods like pizza, cheeseburgers but moderation works well along with getting kids involved in active things like sports or just getting outside.

I was watching "The Biggest Loser" last night and there was some scary facts about our county and cities in general. I wish I had the direct quotes but I don't and cannot find a transcript online anywhere but here is just basics of what Jillian, Bob and Ali were saying that stuck out

-Our country is at the highest obesity rate in our history
-The 5 cities they went obesity was costing the city over $1 billion per year due to
hospital costs and other issues.
-Our countries hospital admissions have increased over the years due to a increase
obesity.

All this in turn comes back around to us as hospital workers, we deal with the issues of people who are obese and in my opinion if doctors help patients lose weight versus just treating the symptom which present themselves these patients will have less hospital admissions, less medications to take and just be healthier in general. This in turn will save hospitals money in the long run along with helping keep insurance premiums down.

Now this is all just my personal opinion and I'm not some health nut who only weights 170lbs. I am 5'10" 230, but I hit the gym 4 days a week, lift heavy weights and try to eat decent except for some splurges and I like beer, but I can still run a couple miles at a time and I have to keep in shape to keep up with my wife she runs all the time and workouts out at the gym a lot to. This is stuff I like to do, it's instilled in me from my years of Football, Swim team, baseball, and 10 years in the military, I'm just putting this out there so people don't call me a hypocrite.

Anyways whats you opinion?

Drive on RT's

Seriously, that wheeze is not Asthma!!!

As any good RT knows, not all wheezing is associated with asthma but this knowlege that we have about wheezing has not been disseminated to all the masses that walk the halls of a hospital. I know for myself that I do attempt to educatate nurses about the different types of things that can cause wheezing, for example congestive heart failure wheezes versus asthma. CHF wheezes are more wet sounding and normally are in the upper airway, just have them put their stephescope on the patients larynx and listen, then the sound "echo's" down into the lower airways. In the classic asthma wheezing it's a more cleaner wheeze and it is usually without the coarseness of the fluid buildup of the CHF wheeze, plus it tends to start in the lower airways instead of the upper, CHF of course you can hear some nice crackles also.



Here are some common reasons for that sound we call wheezing:



By Age:



Infants and Children

• Congenital anomalies
  Bronchopulmonary dysplasia
  Bronchomalacia
  Vascular rings
  Cystic fibrosis
  Foreign body aspiration

Adults

• Asthma
  Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
  Congestive heart failure (CHF)
  Primary endobronchial tumors
  Endobronchial metastasis (from colon, breast, melanoma, kidney, pancreas)

By Onset

Acute

• Asthma
  CHF
  Pneumonia
  Pulmonary embolism
  Anaphylaxis
  Aspiration syndromes
  Foreign body aspiration

Chronic/Insidious

• Bronchogenic carcinoma
  Tracheal tumor
  Endobronchial metastasis
  CHF

Course:

Intermitant

• Aspiration syndromes
  COPD
  Asthma
  CHF
  Carcinoid syndrome
  Vocal cord dysfunction

Persistent

• Endobronchial tumor
  Tracheal stenosis
  Bilateral vocal cord paralysis
  Asthma
  Churg-Strauss syndrome

Progressive

• COPD
  Tumors
  Pulmonary infiltrates/eosinophilia syndromes

Well there you have it, i'm just throwing out things I found which might cause some wheezing in our patients and with what you can see, not everything is from Asthma or COPD there are other things which can cause this lung sound. There are different ways things can wheeze, it can be expiratory, inspiratory, both, or even considered musical but not all of those are asthma related. In reality there can even be asthma issues without even having a audible wheeze associated with it which is something that occurs quite a bit in kids. There are many people in the medical profession who hear wheezing and think, ohhh they need albuterol to stop the all and powerfull wheeze because it MUST BE ASTHMA!!!

Ok well if you would like some really good information on asthma look over at

The Respiratory Cave, Rick is well informed and educated in many things related to asthma.

Thanks for reading,

Drive on RT's

High off Inhalers?

I ran across a article in Science Daily that is talking about teens misusing inhalers (MDI's) to get a buzz or get high off of them.

"Asthma inhaler misuse is prevalent in the adolescent population, particularly among antisocial teens, US study findings indicate."

I find this interesting because I'm wondering how many puffs off of a MDI do they have to do before the feel any effects of being high?

There was a study conducted to get an idea of how prevalent this actually is and the results were kind of surprising:

"Brian Perron (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) and Matthew Howard (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) conducted a cross-sectional survey with face-to-face interviews assessing substance use, psychiatric symptoms, and antisocial behaviors among 723 adolescents in residential care. Over 26% (193) of adolescents were diagnosed with asthma, 91.2% of whom had received a prescription for an inhaler. Almost a quarter of the 373 adolescents who had used a prescribed or nonprescribed inhaler reported using an inhaler to get high."

Is this like any other inhalant that kids use to get high, is it like huffing gasoline, inhaling paint thinner? You would think that there would be a cheaper way to get this type of high, but I guess if insurances is paying for it or you are from a lesser well off family and you have a medical card, it probably is pretty low cost for the kids who do this.

Reading later in the article is shows what effects misuse of the inhaler can cause:

"Inhaler misusers were significantly more likely than asthma inhaler users to report euphoria, memory problems, slurred speech, blurred vision, confusion, dizziness, and a variety of other acute reactions to asthma inhaler use."

Pretty interesting to see how people will look to anywhere to find a way to get high, and with inhalers I'm sure these kids are thinking that this is a lot safer to use like this instead of other inhalants like gas and paint thinner. Wow what is this world coming to, are we now going to start have MDI seekers coming into the ER as well as the regular drug seekers? I'm doubt that would happen as this I couldn't see becoming very popular, but on the other hand you can never fully tell what is going to happen.

As you giving that MDI and spacer instruct to a person who you didn't think really needed that neb you just did on them, they might just be a one of those MDI get High people.

Herbal Asthma Tea?

Was surfing around and came across this posting for:

Herbal Asthma Tea

This blogger states that this tea concoction helps with her asthma.

Some of the ingredients are:
Lemon Verbena: known for stopping wheezing.
Skull cap: is good for respiratory health.
Chamomile: It’s a relaxant, anti-allergenic, antispasmodic and anti-inflammatory.
Caffeine: Suposedly has a effect on asthma.

Here is the Recipe on the site

Asthma Tea
1 part of each in dried herb form - Chamomile flowers, Passionflower, and Echinacea Root
1/2 part each in dried herb form - Licorice root, Elecampane root, and lemon verbena leaves.

Not sure if this all works but check the site to see what you think.

Enjoy.

Pro Atheletes and Respiratory Problems

Sitting around watching University of Illinois (I take classes through here) beat #1 ranked Ohio State University in football WOOhhooo, I began thinking. What Pro Athletes are out there who have respiratory related problems? I've heard of Pro Athletes who have asthma so there must be more than the couple I have heard of, so the search began. Not only did I have a good amount with asthma but a bunch of information on Pro Athletes with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA).

I found an article from Sleep Review about Pro Athletes and OSA which was a bit suprising and I will try to make a synopsis of the main points I thought was interesting, but of course feel free to read the whole article.

• More than 10 years ago, a trend became evident that a high incidence of asthma appeared to be a common condition across the athletes. Numerous Olympic athletes in recent years have been diagnosed with some form of asthma.
  


• The incidence of sleep apnea cuts across the entire populace, there is increasing evidence that the condition is quite prevalent in those who are considered particularly fit like professional athletes, especially football players.
  

• Over the past 30 years, body size of football players has increased dramatically. Today, more than 300 players in the NFL weigh over 300 pounds. These are the men who are most at risk for obstructive sleep apnea.
  


• There have been studies of more than 1,200 retired NFL players with a average age of 52. Sleep apnea among those studied ranged around 40% or so. OSA was most prevalent in linemen with 60% to 70% of them diagnosed with the disorder.
  


• Lineman have necks that average 17 inches or more and they weight close to or more than 300lbs, these are factors with them having OSA.
  


• A study of 8 randomly selected NFL teams and more than 300 players, including the smaller receivers and defensive backs, found evidence of sleep apnea in 14% of the players, nearly 5 times higher than noted in previous studies of similarly aged adults. The prevalence of the condition in linemen jumped to 34%.
  


• One study conducted at the Douai Memorial Hospital in Tokyo noted a high incidence of sleep apnea in sumo wrestlers whose ring weight averages between 300 and 400 pounds.
  

Reggie White, the star NFL defensive end of 15 years died at the age of 43 suddenly. His death was believed to be related to untreated sleep apnea. Supposedly he had tried CPAP at one time but was unable to continue to wear it due to claustrophobia.

Former Syracuse University star Kevin Mitchell. A three-time All Big East Conference nose guard, who also went pro and won a Super Bowl ring as a linebacker with the San Francisco 49ers, he also died young in his sleep at the age of 36. It was said that OSA was strongly suspected but not fully proven.

I thought there was some interesting information there in that article, and I found others online confirming that article, feel free to google some more information if interested.

Here is a list of Pro Athletes I found to have asthma:

• Jerome "The Bus" Bettis (NFL star of the Pittsburgh Steelers)
  
• Amy Van Dyken (Olympic gold medalist in swimming)
  
• Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Olympic gold medalist in track and field)
  
• Nancy Hogshead (Olympic gold medalist in swimming)
  
• Art Monk (NFL leading receiver for the Washington Redskins until 1995)
  
• Emmit Smith (Pro NFL running back)
  
• Greg Louganis (Olympic gold medalist in diving)
  
• Jim "Catfish" Hunter, (Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher)
  
• Isaiah Thomas, (former NBA basketball player)
  
• Dominique Wilkens, (former NBA basketball player)
  
• Dennis Rodman (former NBA basketball player)
  
• Mary Jo Fernandez, (top women's tennis professional in the 1990s)
  
• Keith Brantley (Olympic Team Marathon Runner)
  
• Bill Koch (Olympic silver medalist in Cross Country Skiing)
  
• Kristi Yamaguchi (Gold medal in Olympics figure skating)
  
• Jim Ryun (Olympic Silver medalist in track and field)
  
• Alexi Grewal (Olympic Gold medalist cycling)
  
• Tom Dolan (Olympic Gold Medalist Swimming)
  
• Paula Radcliffe (shattered the women's world marathon best in Chicago)
  
• Mark Spitz (9 gold medals in swimming)
  
• Jan Ullrich (Tour De France winner)
  
• Alison Streeter (has swam the English Channel more than 40 times)
  

I also found a article in the NY Times with a interview of Jerome Bettis talking about his asthma and asthma in general. This article here has a list of more famous people who have asthma if your interested. I was just mainly interested in athletes who have it which here we see there are many and I'm sure many more, this just shows if your patient is able to control it and deal with it, they can do pretty much anything.

Interesting? I think so...Drive on RT's