Posted: 23 Mar 2010 01:58 AM PDT

By Jerry Itkonen, M.D.

Asthma makes breathing difficult for more than 23 million Americans, including 7 million children. In fact, one out of every 10 school-age children has asthma.

With staggering numbers like these, chances are good you or someone you know has been affected by this troubling respiratory condition.

Asthma is a disease that affects the lungs and causes repeated episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing. Symptoms may vary from person to person, but one thing is constant: When airways come into contact with an asthma trigger, the airways become inflamed, narrow and fill with mucus.

The good news is that asthma can be controlled by taking medicine and avoiding triggers that can cause an attack.

If you or a loved one has asthma, it's important to understand your asthma triggers. Once you identify and reduce exposure to the specific triggers or causes of asthma, you can take an active role in controlling your asthma and reducing the frequency of asthma attacks.

For example, if you find that allergies are the cause of your asthma, you may have allergic asthma. Being aware of allergies and avoiding them can significantly help in asthma prevention by reducing the frequency or severity of asthma attacks. Or if environmental pollution seems to cause your asthma, it's important to stay indoors during periods of heavy air pollution. Try to find the specific triggers or causes of your asthma, and then plan to avoid these triggers and have better asthma control.

An important message about smoking: People who smoke cigarettes are more likely to get asthma, and smokers with asthma have worse symptoms. If you have asthma and you're a smoker, quitting is the most important step you can take to protect your lungs.

Types of asthma

Advances in the understanding of asthma have helped experts define specific types of asthma, such as exercise-induced asthma (asthma that occurs with physical exertion) and nighttime asthma. Understanding the type of asthma you have can help you seek the most effective treatment.

• Allergies and asthma. Eighty percent of people with asthma have allergies to airborne substances such as tree, grass and weed pollens; mold; animal dander; dust mites; and cockroach particles. In one national study, children who had high levels of cockroach droppings in their homes were four times more likely to have childhood asthma than children whose homes had low levels. Your doctor may prescribe medications to control the allergies and reduce your cough and other asthma symptoms.

• Exercise-induced asthma. Exercise-induced asthma is a type of asthma triggered by exercise or physical exertion. Many people with asthma experience some degree of symptoms with exercise. However, many people without asthma, including Olympic athletes, develop symptoms only during exercise.

Symptoms such as wheezing and coughing may peak five to 20 minutes after exercise begins, making it difficult to catch your breath. Check with your doctor to see if you need to use an asthma inhaler before exercise to prevent these uncomfortable symptoms.

• Cough-variant asthma.

Cough-variant asthma is largely underdiagnosed and undertreated. The hallmark is a severe, dry, nonproductive cough. Asthma triggers include respiratory infections and exercise. If you have a persistent dry cough, contact your doctor, who may order lung function tests to show how well your lungs are working. You might need to see a lung specialist for further tests before an asthma diagnosis is made.

• Occupational asthma.

Workplace triggers are responsible for what is commonly called occupational asthma. With this type of asthma, you might experience symptoms only on days you're on the job, including runny nose, congestion, eye irritation, shortness of breath or a cough. Jobs commonly associated with occupational asthma include farmers, hairdressers, animal breeders, painters, woodworkers and nurses.

• Nighttime (nocturnal) asthma. The chances of having asthma symptoms during sleep are often much higher because asthma is strongly influenced by the sleep-wake cycle (circadian rhythms). Wheezing, coughing and trouble breathing are common and can be quite dangerous.

Why? It's thought that nighttime asthma may occur because of increased exposure to allergens and asthma triggers such as dust; cooling of the airways; reclined sleep position; heartburn; sinusitis; or even the production of certain hormones that follow a sleep-wake cycle. If you have asthma and notice your symptoms worsen as evening progresses, it's time to see your asthma doctor.

Know the early symptoms of asthma

Early warning signs are changes that happen just before or at the very beginning of an asthma attack and include:

• Frequent cough, especially at night

• Shortness of breath

• Fatigue or weakness when exercising

• Wheezing or coughing after exercise

• Feeling tired or easily upset

• Changes in lung function as measured on a peak-flow meter

• Signs of a cold or allergies (sneezing, runny nose, cough, etc.)

• Trouble sleeping

If you or someone you know has uncontrolled asthma, the Ingalls Wellness Center recently introduced a comprehensive Asthma Education Program. Following the guidelines of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute/National Asthma Education and Prevention Program, the Ingalls program focuses on education and management of asthma and offers individualized sessions with a certified asthma educator.

A physician order is required, and the cost is reimbursed by most major commercial insurance plans, HMOs and Medicare.

For more information, call Ingalls Care Connection at (800) 221-2199.

JERRY ITKONEN, M.D., IS A BOARD-CERTIFIED PULMONOLOGIST, DIRECTOR OF THE INGALLS ASTHMA EDUCATION PROGRAM, MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF PULMONARY REHABILITATION AT INGALLS HOSPITAL AND VICE PRESIDENT OF THE INGALLS MEDICAL STAFF.

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Workshop addresses asthma, allergy issues - Altoona Mirror

Posted: 22 Mar 2010 08:43 PM PDT

Workshop addresses asthma, allergy issues

Annual event Thursday will offer free testing and expert advice

By Barbara Cowan, bcowan@altoonamirror.com

Fact Box

If you go

What: Asthma & Allergy Workshop

When: 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday

Where: Altoona Regional Health System, Sixth Floor meeting rooms

Admission: Free, no preregistration necessary

Schedule

6 to 6:15 p.m. - Welcome

6:15 to 7 p.m. - Asthma Awareness, Dr. Jeffrey Rosch; COPD Awareness, Dr. Timothy Lucas

Meet and speak with representatives of pharmaceutical companies responsible for the manufacturing of medications. Join Dr. Jeffrey Rosch and Baxter Health for fee asthma testing.

7:30 to 8:15 p.m. - Allergy Awareness, Dr. Michael Davies; COPD Awareness, Dr. Timothy Lucas

8:15 to 9 p.m. - Roundtable questions and answers

Find yourself short of breath? Wheezing? Coughing? Or see these signs in a family member?

Consider attending the Asthma & Allergy Workshop from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Altoona Regional Health System Altoona Hospital Campus.

Betsy Hurst, executive director of the Blair County Respiratory and Disease Society, said the event will include free asthma testing from Baxter Health and Central PA Asthma and Allergy Care.

"It's an opportunity to listen to very qualified physicians speaking, especially sports asthma and opportunity to get these tests," Hurst said. "It's an incredible free clinic."

She said preregistration for the event is not required, and she expects between 150 and 200 people.

There will be discussions on asthma and allergy problem triggers, how to deal with them, how to be active and healthy and sports-related issues.

Dr. Jeffrey Rosch of Central PA Asthma and Allergy Care, Altoona, is offering one of the free tests, spirometry, a breathing test to measure lung volume and the force of breathing.

"Anyone who has a history of wheezing or asthma, or who feels they have trouble with breathing, we can at least get a baseline to see what their lung function is," he said.

The test itself isn't enough to make a diagnosis, Rosch said, but it is a way to screen for problems.

"In some people, even when they feel good, there is a significant change. In others, between (asthma) attacks, their breathing ... may look perfectly normal. We need to be very careful when interpreting lung function studies," he said.

Other reasons for breathing difficulties can include heart problems and reflux.

"People who have trouble (breathing) with exercise may have a lung problem, a heart problem or be (out of shape)," he said.

The spirometry takes about two or three minutes and requires the patient's cooperation.

"It is the gold standard in evaluating lung function in asthmatics," he said.

The other free test, offered by Baxter Health, is the blood test alpha-1-antitrypsin.

"It is an enzyme that controls the function of a different enzyme that is important in turnover of tissue in the lung. Our body is constantly replacing old tissue with new," Rosch said. "If it (the enzyme) goes haywire, it may destroy more lung tissue than it should. If people are deficient, they may end up looking like people with asthma."

That is called suboptimal lung tissue, a genetic disease that Rosch said isn't usually identified until adulthood.

"We can now replace that enzyme and stop that process," he said.

Hurst said results from the blood test will be sent to people later, and the asthma test will be read there.

The Asthma & Allergy Workshop "is really an important opportunity for people with asthma or people with family members with asthma. ... You need to be an educated consumer; you need to know if the care you are being given is optimal," Rosch said.

Life Editor Barbara Cowan is at 946-7454.

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Health experts hold lung disease conference - Edmonton Journal

Posted: 23 Mar 2010 05:18 AM PDT

VIENNA - Lung diseases, which could become the third most common cause of death in the world within a few years, are the topic of a major conference of European experts that opened in Vienna Sunday.

Some 20,000 researchers and medical experts are due to take part in the European Respiratory Society's (ERS) annual congress in the Austrian capital, which runs until Wednesday.

High on the agenda of the sessions is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a potentially deadly condition where the airways narrow that, unlike asthma, is generally irreversible and often worsens with time.

According to the World Health Organisation, some 210 million people currently have COPD, while three million died of the disease in 2005. By 2030, it will become the third leading cause of death worldwide, according to WHO estimates.

Participants at the ERS congress are also due to discuss better treatments and new ways of diagnosing lung diseases, including a so-called electronic nose which could help detect lung cancer, experts said at the opening press conference.

Other topics of discussion will include the current spread of swine flu and well-known conditions like asthma and tuberculosis.

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Health Asthma

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

plus 2 more, “Control is key when it comes to asthma - Southtown Star”

plus 2 more, “Control is key when it comes to asthma - Southtown Star”

Workshop addresses asthma, allergy issues

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