If you have COPD, you are well aware of triggers that can cause difficult breathing, or shortness of breath. Some people describe the scary feeling as: they can’t get enough air, or their chest feels tight. It is important to figure out the things that trigger this short breathing, but sometimes it just seems to…
My patient tells me she feels depressed. She used to go to lunch with all her friends on Wednesdays, but now she just tells them to go on without her. “Why?”, I asked . “I don’t like to hold them up. I walk so slow now! They say they don’t mind but I feel like…
This is one of my favorite (not!) answers when I ask one of my patients why they come to class wheezing and barely able to breathe. I have to pause before I figure out how to tactfully ask the question: You know you need your inhalers, so, how could you not know you were running…
What passes for food in the U.S. has become scarier than ever. Finding healthy, chemical- and additive-free food is becoming quite the challenge! I had breakfast last weekend with friends at a local breakfast joint. The ‘cream’ for the coffee was a bowl of individual creamers, some flavored, the others labeled ‘half and half’. Yep,…
Now, do your storyboard. I do mine in PowerPoint. For CXR’s for example, I would start with what a normal one looks like. Then go into some classic ones such as pneumonia, emphysema, fibrosis, and
Have you ever thought about what the next version of you would look like? Many of us just go along with the way we are, adding aging, food choices, and other unhealthy habits into the factors that make us what we are today. My yoga teacher does this one move– one I have been working…
Asthma is considered to be an inflammatory disease, with many different triggers that can start the spiral of not being able to breathe. However, many of my recommendations for Asthma patients also hold true for my COPD and ILD patients. There are several teas out there, Yogi Tea’s Breathe Deep and Traditional Medicinals’ Breathe Easy…
Current standards for performing the Six minute walk test (6mwt) include not walking with the patient, so that they will walk at their own pace rather than attempt to keep pace with the tester. While this may allow a better result, careful observation of the patient before, during, and after the 6mwt, and handoff of…
Walk into any store these days, and there are miles of aisles full of vitamins, supplements, teas, herbs, and more that claim to help with every breathing issue there is. I am wary of each and every one of them, largely due to possible interactions with other drugs you may be taking. For people with…