When Bennett Glazer’s shortness of breath wouldn’t go away after a few months, he knew something was off. He had also developed a mild cough and was having trouble sleeping, all unusual symptoms for this fit 74-year-old. Others also noticed that he seemed more breathless than usual when walking or going up a flight of …
Can’t seem to get rid of your vaping habit? The best way to begin the process is to analyze how it first started. There are many reasons why people begin using e-cigarettes: to stop smoking, to fit in with their peers at school or just to try it. Teens are more likely to start to …
As a lung doc, the biggest health threat we talk about is tobacco. Like Paul Simon’s old song, “50 ways to kill your lover,” tobacco wreaks havoc on almost every organ system in one way or another. Nicotine addiction drives the desire to smoke, chew or snuff, and can be a difficult addiction to break. …
Inhale this: Why vaping is destroying your lungs Read More »
From coughing and a sore throat, to fever, to sinus and nasal congestion, and even wheezing, respiratory symptoms can leave you feeling miserable. Potential causes include allergies, sinus infection, throat infection and pneumonia, but one of the most common causes is acute bronchitis. (The word “acute” means the symptoms came on suddenly rather than being …
More than 26 million Americans are all too familiar with the feeling of “breathing through a straw” — or in other words, an asthma attack. A patient of mine named Scott described it this way after being diagnosed with adult-onset asthma: “Breathing is one of many things we take for granted. It’s something we don’t …
How to take control of your asthma with the “Rules of Two” paradigm Read More »
When most of us hear “hypertension,” we immediately think of blood pressure issues all over the body. But people with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) have problems in a very specific area: the blood vessels running from the heart to the lungs. With that important highway clogged, they can’t get enough oxygen. To compensate, their blood …
New therapies offer hope for patients living with pulmonary arterial hypertension Read More »
Allergies affect more than 50 million Americans, and it turns out allergic rhinitis, or hay fever, symptoms are our bodies’ way of being overprotective. The immune system mistakes irritants such as airborne pollen, dust, mold or pet dander as viruses, bacteria or parasites that are trying to enter the body. Mucosal membranes of the nose, …
Having asthma is like breathing through a straw. Those words stare at me every day like a billboard. That’s how Mark Millard, MD, pulmonologist on the medical staff at the Baylor Scott & White Martha Foster Lung Care Center, first described asthma to me. Before you get the wrong idea, I’m not a pre-teen. I …
Breathing through a straw: Life with adult-onset asthma Read More »
Take a breath, hold it in your lungs and count to three. Now exhale, but don’t let out all the air. Now take in another breath and hold it, let a little out, and inhale once more. Imagine: Could you go grocery shopping while breathing like this? This is how an estimated 30 million people …
COPD patients use harmonicas to increase lung capacity Read More »
When you think about asthma, what comes to mind? Maybe it’s an image of your child coughing after exposure to pollen, or maybe it’s a kid running around on the soccer field that starts wheezing. We usually do not think of adults as having asthma, and for good reason — adult-onset asthma does not usually …