Singulair Helps Girls, Kids Exposed to Secondhand Smoke More
Okay, I know Singulair is a touchy subject right now. My own kid doesn’t take it because of several side effects, but this is good news for asthma patients who can tolerate it. National Jewish researchers have noted how well girls and children exposed to nicotine smoke respond to Singuliar, but they also think they figured out some biomarkers that more accurately identify which patients will respond to Singulair.

There’s a great quote about asthma towards the end, too:

Increasingly we have come to understand that asthma is not just one disease; it is more likely several diseases that present with similar symptoms. Thus different medications are likely to work for different patients.

And more or less related to that:

Possible Link Between Adult Asthma and Suicide Attempts
Singulair’s a touchy subject because of all the recent news about side effects like depression and a possible link to suicide? Well, now there’s possible evidence of a link between asthma and suicide.

In this study, adults with asthma were 50% more likely to have suicidal thoughts and attempts than those without. As always, this one piece of research isn’t definitive proof but instead points to a need for more study. However, note that researchers did control for other, more obvious suicide risk factors like depression and alcoholism.

Texting Medicine Reminders to Teens
First, I’m simultaneously horrified and unsurprised that only 30% (estimated) of teens take their preventative asthma meds the way they should. And while I hope AG falls into that conscientious third, I’m not holding my breath. The child forgets her glasses at school, her library book on the bus, her lunchbox here at home, her various articles of clothing at friends’ houses. . . .

The list goes on and on and on.

But Cincinnati doctors are experimenting with daily text reminders for daily meds, since teens are on their cell phones all the time anyway. Add to that the way teens tend to treat their symptoms as they occur rather than try to prevent them, and you can see the logic here. The study has implications for all kinds of chronic illness like diabetes or pediatric cancer survivors who must take follow-up medicines to stay in remission.

After Natural Disasters, Rebuilding Brad Pitt-Style
From my newest Celsias.com article:

Because I live in Florida, it’s possible that I pay more attention to high-intensity storms than most. It’s also possible I follow the cycle of natural disasters and rebuilding in particular because I live on the Gulf Coast of Florida, which is battered by hurricanes practically every summer. While I’ve been lucky enough not to experience anything on the level of Katrina or the recent Burma cyclone, I’ve seen plenty of destroyed homes, downed trees, and eroded coastline. Lately, I’m fascinated by the trend of viewing storm-damaged cities as blank slates and turning them into models of ecological sustainability.
Read the whole article.

Filed under: Asthma Girl, Asthma Meds, Asthma News & Research, Asthma Parents, Children's Asthma, Children's Health, Environment, Friday Links, Healthcare Issues, Self-Pimpage | 1 Comment »

Statistics sometimes tell the story best:

Myanmar Cyclone

While it’s hard to pinpoint numbers since the ruling military junta severely limits access and informtion, here are some estimates.

38,491 confirmed deaths
68,833 to 127,990 total estimated dead, according to the Red Cross and Red Crescent
1 million estimated homeless
41,000 missing, according to Mynamar media
4.7 inches of rain possible in the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta this week.
65% of country’s rice produced in devastated areas, increasing the risk of long-term starvation

Source: CNN

China Earthquake

19,500+ dead
50,000 total possibly dead
40,000 missing or buried in debris
65,000 injured
1,600+ of those in serious condition
Almost 400 dams at risk of aftershocks, endangering people trapped in the vicinity and downstream

Source: New York Times

Those are just the bare facts, and they don’t speak to the need for food, clean water, clothing, housing, and future rebuilding efforts.

To Help

Oxfam
World Food Programme
Red Cross and Red Crescent
Doctors Without Borders

Filed under: Off-topic | 2 Comments »

I never get tired of the illustrations on uncommon personal safety signs:

(Flickr user: Abulic Monkey)

(More funny health signs. And more.)

Russian Man Drinks, Get Stabbed in Back, Falls Asleep
Until, that is, his wife woke up screaming at the sight of a knife sunk 4 inches into her sleeping spouse’s back.
Best. Quote. Ever:

He said: “We had a few vodkas and I remember playing some silly games and someone had a large knife.

I must find a way to drop that line into casual conversation.

Now this is devotion to a cause.
Lawyer Joe Egan fought against nuclear waste on Nevada’s Yucca Mountain for 7 years, so when he died of gastro-esophageal cancer May 7, he left behind the wish to have his ashes scattered over the site with this eulogy: “Radwaste buried here only over my dead body.”

Read his firm’s tribute here, and may he rest in peace.

Filed under: Weird Health Wednesdays | 3 Comments »

Don’t miss these three:

The New York Times Wrote About the CFC to HFA Inhaler Change Today
I doubt the switch or the differences in the new inhalers are news to any of you. AG’s been using the HFA models since fall, when our pharmacy stopped stocking the old ones. Still, it’s nice to see the Times pick up the story, particularly since it addresses the much higher cost–and subsequent enormous profits for pharmaceutical companies–of the new inhalers. I’ve complained more than once how my co-pay’s for AG’s meds have now doubled. I can’t imagine how the uninsured are affording the price difference. (via Dr. Mintz)

PolicyLink Must Want Me to Love Them
Because they just published Breathing Easy from Home to School: Fighting the Environmental Triggers of Childhood Asthma. It’s a report that advocates a comprehensive approach to reducing asthma triggers. You know, through things like smart growth, considering health effects when making city planning decisions, raise awareness about global warming’s health risks, and promoting reduced car emissions through higher use of public transportation.

PolicyLink has a whole slew of practical, wide-ranging solutions, all of which advocate addressing asthma on a community and environmental level rather than just leaving parents to fend for themselves with an inhaler in one hand and a prescription for prednisone in another. Finally.

Yep, it’s love all right. Here’s the full report pdf and the executive summary pdf.

And speaking of public transportation’s effect on the environment, over on Celsias.com I talk about high gas prices–how they’re changing the way America buys cars and whether they could lead to a more eco-friendly transportation profile for the U.S. over the long term:

Paying more for gasoline has prompted Americans to do what climate change warnings and our number-one ranking in CO2 emissions couldn’t do. This country is ending its long and dirty love affair with massive trucks and SUVs in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. The reversal represents an enormous shift in trends, but it’s nice to think more innovative transportation solutions may loom on the horizon, however distant.
Read the rest of the article.

Filed under: Air Quality, Airborne Irritants, Asthma Meds, Asthma News & Research, Asthma Triggers, Asthma in the School, Children's Asthma, Children's Health, Environment, Self-Pimpage | 2 Comments »

Next-to-last installment of the asthma glossary. As always, see the tab above for the whole thing.

Allergist - specialist in the allergy and asthma fields. Allergists conduct allergy tests, administer sensitivity shots, and prescribe medications for allergies and asthma. While allergists have extensive training in asthma, they are not lung specialists the way pulmonologists are. For that reason, they may be most effective in treating allergen-triggered asthma. Also called an allergist-immunologist.

Gastroenterologist - specialist who examines, diagnoses, and treats disorders of the digestive system. Some asthma patients also have gastrointestinal reflux disease (GERD) and see this type of doctor.

Lung Diffusion Capacity Test (DLCO for Diffusing Capacity of the Lung for Carbon Monoxide) - a PFT that measures how much oxygen passes from the lungs into the bloodstream. The test requires a patient to empty out the lungs with a deep exhale, inhale completely and then hold breath, and then exhale completely. During the final exhale, a technician measures the gas blown out to determine the amount that passed into the bloodstream during the inhalation.

Pulmonary Function Tests (PFTs) - range of tests a pulmonologist will conduct to determine asthma severity and treatment. The tests measure the ability of the patient�s lungs to inhale, exhale, and diffuse oxygen into the bloodstream. Lung diffusion capacity and spirometry are PFTs.

Pulmonologist - specialist of lungs and lung disorders, including asthma. Patients with asthma not triggered by allergies usually see a pulmonologist rather than an allergist. These specialists usually receive training in pulmonology and critical care after medical school, making them the most popular choice for treating persistent or severe asthma.

Pulse oximetry - fingertip sensor that uses a patient’s pulse to measure the level of oxygen in the blood. Doctors may also test pulse ox levels through the earlobe or (with babies) the toe. Oximetry measures the oxygen diffused into the blood from the air breathed in, not the actual rate of breathing. This test is usually administered in a critical setting like a hospital. Doctors use oximetry to help determine if a patient needs oxygen therapy during a very severe flare or as a result of asthma-induced pneumonia.

Spirometry - PFT that indicates how well a patient can exhale into a mouthpiece connected to a spirometer. The spirometer measures the amount and rate of air breathed out, providing a good indication of severity of obstructive pulmonary diseases like asthma.

*Note*
More pulmonary function tests exist than the ones listed above. I’ve included some of the more common ones.

ABOUT THIS POST
This is part of the asthma glossary which I compiled for myself and originally published as BellaOnline’s asthma editor. Because the entire list is so long, I arranged the definitions into mini-glossaries by subject, and I’ll post each section over the next few weeks. When I’m done, you’ll be able to read the entire glossary through the tab above or find the mini-sections through the Asthma Glossaries category in the right sidebar.

I hesitate to use the word comprehensive here. That’s a pretty big word. What I’ll say, instead, is this glossary feels comprehensive to me. As with everything else I write on this blog, I don’t claim expert knowledge so much as I pass along what helped me, in case it might help you.

Filed under: Asthma Glossaries, Children's Asthma, Children's Health | 1 Comment »

Florida is a weird state, and it’s mostly misunderstood by non-residents. Tourists think we’re all Universal Studios and Disney World. Beach vacationers remember condos and palm trees only, and snowbird retirees stick to their central and south-central coastal communities. Up here in northwest Florida, though, is like a completely different state. We’re more Deep South than Disney, and the climate surprises new residents and first-time visitors.

Our weather is similar to southern Georgia and Alabama and more seasonal by far than south Florida. Our summers are a little longer than the middle portions of the U.S. and very humid, but shorter than say, the Tampa Bay area where I used to live and where we used to swim right up through November. Here, while I may venture into a sun-warmed pool in May, the water in the Gulf of Mexico is too cool for my thin Florida blood until June. Yesterday, for example, the Mother’s Day pool gathering at my mom’s was tolerable only because she heats the water with solar panels until the summer sun gets hot enough to do the job.

But once the summer does hit its stride, with the July and August heat index reaching 100+ and a walk from the front door to the car leaving us sweaty, we more or less don’t venture outside until September unless we’re immersing ourselves in a large body of water.

I’ve always been ambivalent about what swimming pools mean to AG’s asthma.

Swimming requires taking deep breaths and holding them at regular intervals, increasing lung capacity and training lungs into good breathing patterns for regular people. So it makes sense that swimming may actually help asthma. No, you can’t run, bike, walk, or swim your way out of this disease that involves a very real physiological component, but it’s thought that the regular breathing associated with swimming helps overall lung health, which may in turn help the lungs through flares.

Sites like the AAFA say,

Swimming that involves breathing warm and moist air, is often well tolerated.

Last year I wrote an article for BellaOnline.com that explains how this environment, according to researchers like Brent S. Rushall, Ph. D., and Larry Weisenthal, M.D., in Swimmer’s Asthma: The Serious Health Problem with Chlorinated Pools, can actually make indoor pools dangerous for asthmatics. Inhaling high concentrations of the toxic gas chlorine produces is known to damage the respiratory tract. Since public pools tend to over-chlorinate, most indoor pools don’t have stellar ventilation systems and chlorine gas is heavier than air, the highest concentration of toxins is close to the surface of the water, where you swim. The higher the concentration, the worse the potential lung damage.

European research from last year also shows higher numbers of childhood asthma in areas with more indoor pools, and this study may support a relationship between indoor pool use and childhood asthma, although it’s not conclusive.

Outside public pools aren’t necessarily worry-free, either, since they’re also usually over-chlorinated. While breezes blow the chlorine gases next to the water surface away, pools with high sides on still, humid days can trap the gases close to the water surface just like in poorly ventilated indoor pools. (Private pools probably don’t pose the same risk, since homeowners don’t tend to over-chlorinate their own pools.)

Want more data?

The 2000 U.S. Olympic swim team contained more asthma sufferers–one-quarter of the whole team–than any other U.S. team that year. This isn’t evidence that indoor pools cause asthma, either, but it’s noteworthy since Olympic swimmers usually train indoors.

Now, more recent research is adding to the case. Just last month, a Norwegian study pointed to possible links between baby swimming and childhood asthma. Again, nothing definitive here, although my children certainly align with the results. AG has been in pools since she was two months-old, but her non-asthmatic sister didn’t get in for the first time until right around her seventh month.

So even though we practically live in the water during the summer, with all the conflicting evidence about swimming pools, I make a few compromises:

1. Natural bodies of water over pools if I have the choice. With beaches like this one and the Blackwater River–one of the purest sand-bottom rivers in the world–both only half and hour from my house, this isn’t really a sacrifice.