Podcast #3

Thanks for joining us for edition number 3 of Aurora's audio program called Your Health. I'm Neal Linkon, and every other week we offer you a new opportunity to learn about key health issues and how to help you and your loved ones stay healthy. If you have any suggestions or ideas for this program, we'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email at internet@aurora.org.

Ever see a picture of somebody who is having an acupuncture treatment? Millions of needles stuck in their bodies. It's got to hurt, right? Wrong. And there's a ton of evidence that it can really be valuable. The Chinese, who invented acupuncture, actually use it when they are well to keep from getting sick.

Dr. Tiffany Mullen is a family practitioner working in West Allis who also does acupuncture. And I couldn't help but ask her why anybody would subject themselves to all those needles!

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To learn more about acupuncture, go to www.Aurora.org/Needle.

It's always interesting to see how many people are so eager for information on their health or health condition that they send an email through our Web site asking for advice. But it's often difficult or impossible to respond to those emails. As much as we'd like to help, the individual circumstances of any particular patient can make diagnosis or even advice based on the information in an email impossible and many times dangerous.

But we do offer several ways that you can get some help if you don't have a doctor available or aren't comfortable discussing your problems with your doctor.

There's a ton of health care information of all kinds that you can find by going to www.Aurora.org/Health. A full encyclopedia, dictionary, list of medications, articles on wellness and much, much more are there. And all of it has been fully medically reviewed, so it's reliable.

You also can ask an expert. From that same Web page on www.aurora.org/Health, look for the Ask an Expert option near the bottom of the page. You'll find dozens of answers to questions already asked, and if you don't find the help you need, you can ask one of your own.

If you have an Aurora doctor, you can sign up for My Aurora and ask your question privately and securely via the web. Just go to www.Aurora.org/MyAurora to learn more. You also can request appointments, medication refills and renewals, pay your bill, use a full personal health record, track your health and a lot more.

Finally, the Aurora Librarians are here to help. Go to www.Aurora.org/Library to learn how to ask a professional researcher to pull together all kinds of information for you.

But the best thing is to have a medical professional that you trust and who has your health in mind. To find one near you, go to www.Aurora.org/Docs. Many of them even offer video profiles so you can get a sense of their personal style before you go see them.

Care management is something we talk about each edition. It's really our philosophy of care, and it means that we:

• Define health care needs of the people we serve
• Research the best ways to meet those needs
• Design a plan of action that can be carried out by all of our health professionals
• Measure our results against national standards

In each edition of Your Health, we'll look at a Care Management initiative to give you a better idea of what this is all about. Most importantly, these segments will have real meaningful and useful information to help you and your loved ones.

Asthma is a lung disease that affects the airways. The airways are the tubes that carry air into the lungs. These airways divide into smaller and smaller tubes like the branches of a tree as they go deeper into the lungs. These very small airways are wrapped in muscle.

Asthma affects the airways in two major ways:

• The airways become swollen and clogged with mucus (called inflammation)
• Muscles go into spasm and tighten around the airways (called bronchoconstriction)

Both of these changes make it hard to move air in and out of the lungs. With proper treatment, the inflammation can be controlled and the spasms can be prevented.

Asthma symptoms can include one or more of these:

• Wheezing
• Shortness of breath
• Chest tightness
• Coughing
• Trouble breathing or speaking

Symptoms may be only at night (between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.) making it hard to sleep.

Lots of things can bother the sensitive airways of an asthmatic and bring on asthma symptoms. Common triggers include:

• Allergies to pollens, molds, dust mites, animals, cockroaches, feathers, and some food products such as preservatives, nuts, and fish
• Exercise
• Irritants like smoke, air pollution, chemicals, cold air, fumes, and changes in weather or temperature
• Infections like colds, flu or sinus infections
• Exposure to chemicals at work
• Acid reflux (heartburn)
• Certain types of medications such as beta-blockers or aspirin

Here are just a few things you can do to help get rid of asthma triggers at home:

• Close windows and doors of your house and car, and use an air conditioner if possible
• Stay inside during the afternoon when pollen and mold counts are highest and on ozone alert days
• Do not mow the lawn – if you must mow, wear a pollen filtration mask
• Use a dehumidifier to reduce dampness in the house
• Avoid indoor flowers and plants
• Avoid foods that bring on a reaction and check food labels carefully
• Do not smoke, and do not allow smoking in your home or car
• Avoid using hairspray and cleaning sprays, if possible
• Avoid perfume, scented soaps and scented hair or bath products
• Use unscented household cleaning products, laundry detergent and dryer sheets

You can monitor and help manage your asthma in two ways. Ask your doctor if you should:

• Use a peak flow meter. This is a device that tells you how well air is moving in and out of your lungs. By taking regular peak flow readings, you will learn your own “personal best” number. A drop in your peak flow number alerts you to begin treatment for an asthma flare-up.
• Use an asthma action plan. Many people with asthma have a personalized set of written instructions that tells them how to adjust their medications at home and when to call the doctor. These actions are taken based on warning signs, symptoms, and peak flow readings.

Asthma episodes rarely happen without warning signs. These signs are different for everyone. Knowing your warning signs can help you avoid a serious asthma episode. Common warning signs include:

• Drop in peak flow reading
• Coughing
• Wheezing
• Trouble breathing or speaking
• Chest feels tight or hurts
• Breathing faster than normal
• Getting out of breath easily
• Tired, unable to sleep well Itchy, watery or glassy eyes
• Itchy, scratchy or sore throat
• Itchy, scratchy chin or neck
• Sneezing
• Head feels stuffed up
• Headache
• Fever
• Feeling restless
• Runny nose
• Change in face color
• Dark circles under eyes
• Having a cold or the flu

If you have any of these signs, call your doctor or get medical help right away:

• You are still wheezing, coughing, or short of breath, even after you've given your medicine time to work. Most inhaled bronchodilator medicines work within 5 to 10 minutes. Talk with your doctor about the time it takes your medicine to work.
• You have a hard time breathing. Signs of this are:
  • Chest and neck are pulled or sucked in with each breath
  • Hunching or lifting of shoulders
  • Struggling to breathe
  • Rapid breathing
  • Nostrils are flared
• You have trouble walking or talking (not able to complete a full sentence).
• Your peak flow rate gets lower, or does not improve after treatment with bronchodilators, or drops to 50% or less of your personal best. Discuss this peak flow level with your doctor.
• Your lips or fingernails are gray or blue. If this happens, call 911 or have someone drive you to the emergency room right away (do not drive yourself).

To learn more about care management, go to www.Aurora.org/CM. For more on what we're doing about asthma, go to www.aurora.org/asthma.

Keeping you healthy and informed is what Your Health is all about. Thanks for joining us for this edition of our program, and by all means, let us know what you'd like to learn more about or have us cover in the future. You can email us at internet@aurora.org. I'm Neal Linkon, and thanks for listening.

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Your Health, Edition 3 (17:16)

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