The University of Washington’s School of Nursing, Pam Wiseman is the speaker and will be in Silverdale, Wednesday, 18 November 2009 to speak in honor of World COPD Day.

Harrison Medical Center will honor COPD Day 2009 in the Rose Room at Harrison-Silverdale, Washington from 1:30pm to 3:30pm

The Shortness of Breath subject will include discussion on strategies on what we can do to help ourselves lead a quality life with COPD.

Pursed lip breathing, exercising and all the questions you can think to ask are included. We will get answers to what we can do to best help ourselves lead the best quality of life possible and help us remain the Captain of our own lifeship. Knowing these strategies can and will make a difference in our lives.

Caregivers, family and friends are welcome.

Refreshments

For more information:
Pam Wiseman, Shortness of Breath Study (206)616-8993
Eric Anderson, Harrison Medical Center (360)744-6686

I am a COPDer and fan of the recumbent trike as a superb way for us to exercise; gain muscle for optimal ability to breathe….since muscle utilizes oxygen better than flab.

I will bring one of my trikes tomorrow if anyone is interested and please note that I do not sell recumbent trikes nor benefit from anyone else selling them.

Hope to see you tomorrow!
More later… Sharon O’Hara

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The program is “How to Cope with the Stress of the Holidays” and deal with Sarcoidosis at the same time and bound to be informative.

I hope to see you there – the Baker Room in Good Sam Hospital, right by the fairgrounds in Puyallup.
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm.

For additional information contact:

Lynn Short,
Executive Director
Sarcoidosis Networking Association
5302 South Sheridan Avenue
Tacoma, Washington 98408 USA
http://www.sarcoidosisnetwork.org/

More later… Sharon O’Hara

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“It is a common misconception that the free enterprise system is at fault for the current high cost of medical care in the US, a misconception that the current administration has no desire to refute…”

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE HITS 10.2 PERCENT, WORST SINCE 1983; EMPLOYERS CUT 190,000 JOBS ”
http://email.foxnews.com/t?ctl=2163:7A6A4B31296F1CB1EA28BA15CAB80E79&

Now the White House is extending the unemployment insurance – again. Nothing happens overnight, we know…but I would feel more hopeful if our government wasn’t spending money we don’t have… and keeps spending the same invisible money.

President Obama reminds me of a cookie starved kid suddenly turned loose in Ma Kettle’s Cookie Kitchen – he keeps making cookies long after the oven died and the shelves are bare.

The car bonanza helped people buy all electric golf carts at a fraction of the cost or got them free – thanks to the taxpayer and generosity of the White House. (WH)

The Acorn shame was hidden by the mainstream media – Fox opened Pandora’s Box and we began to learn how the WH is manipulating the media and attacking Fox for telling us THE NEWS. Real news, not slanted.

Last night I did my usual click through stations and found one miserable health condition show after another…gee, right when the WH is manipulating for government controlled health care.

Once during the past few months, I joined in on a AARP phone town meeting and listened to one amazing comment after another…until I had a page almost full of comments and questions to ask.
I called the number given for questions and left the message. The impetus to call was when AARP bragged that California had the best system of superb health care in the nation. The California health care system should be the model for the country…no one mentioned that California is BANKRUPT.

Later, the last cookie of remaining respect crumbled when I watched the CEO on a Fox interview state over and over again that AARP did not have a position yet on health care.

I have a special interest in health care, as do most of us … and do not want another government controlled agency doomed to fail…just as government controlled Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are failed.

“Social Security is safe today but will run deficits in just 12 years. That’s not a very long time to fix the world’s biggest government program.”
http://www.socialsecurity.org/reformandyou/faqs.html

“…The current recession is wreaking havoc on the Social Security trust fund. But the real blame lies with irresponsible politicians. Instead of planning for the future—of which they had literally a generation in advance warning—politicians acted as if a severe recession would never come.

Now, instead of a trust fund filled with the accumulated dollars of previous generations to cover distributions to those taxpayers, the government is left with an empty bag of holes.
The trust fund’s annual surplus will all but vanish next year according to the Congressional Budget Office’s (cbo’s) most recent report.
With unemployment rising, there are 5.1 million fewer workers paying into Social Security than when the recession began in December 2007.

The end of the Social Security surplus could have enormous consequences.
For the government, it means not only will it need money to somehow pay those Social Security entitlements, but it will also need to find a new source of off-budget money to “borrow” from for other expenditures that were previously funded by stealing from Social Security. …

“Over the past 25 years, the government has gotten used to the fact that Social Security is providing free money to make the rest of the deficit look smaller,” said Andrew Biggs, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. “Instead of Social Security subsidizing the rest of the budget, the rest of the budget will have to subsidize Social Security.”

That is not good news for the 51 million retirees who depend on Social Security.

Already in massive debt, the government has limited options for financing Social Security.

The first two options—cutting benefits for retirees, and/or raising taxes on current workers—are probably politically impractical, especially since America is only in the early stages of the “Greater Recession.” …
…government with one last-ditch option: to just create more money…. may include discrediting the dollar, destroying America’s purchasing power and severe international consequences.

The Federal Reserve Bank has already announced that it has started down this path. Inflation will almost inevitably result.
America is facing some tough choices, none of them easy: reduced benefits, higher taxes, more borrowing, higher inflation, a damaged dollar. The consequences of big government and even bigger spending are about to slam home with landslide force.

The Social Security debacle is just one more should-have-been-avoidable financial crisis to add to the growing list. … •
http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=6106.4502.0.0

President Obama is NOT RESPONSIBLE for the SS crisis…he inherited the SS, Medicare and Medicaid disasters.
President Obama IS RESPONSIBLE for his outrageous borrowing and throwing more billions of invisible money into the pit of no return.

Between Fannie, Freddie, Ginnie and the FHA, an astounding near 90 percent of all loans being issued in the United States are now backed by the government. If home prices continue to fall, and defaults continue to grow, these organizations have the potential to destroy government finances. Yet instead of trying to mitigate this unfolding disaster, America is actually plunging in deeper. http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=6697.5217.0.0

The writing is on the wall–the Social Security system won’t be able to sustain itself much longer. When the Social Security trustees issue their 2010 report next May, the viability of this system will have deteriorated further—a fact trustees cannot hide any longer under the proverbial “political rug.” However, with media attention focused on healthcare and the death of Michael Jackson, most Americans are simply unaware of this coming tempest….”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/08/why_social_security_will_go_ba.html

“…Not only will Obama ration your health care — especially if you are a senior citizen — and have the government decide what treatment and benefits you get, the proposed plan will also build and expand the government’s surveillance and control grid.

Section 163 of the bill now in Congress allows the government real-time access to a person’s bank records, including direct access to bank accounts for electronic fund transfers. “Even-though the bill mentions privacy aspects, the fact remains that if approved, Obama’s health care plan will allow government access at any time to your personal bank records,” KFYI News reports.
“It’s pretty Orwellian, it certainly gets the government pretty darn deeply involved in private matters in our lives,” Arizona Congressman John Shadegg told the news radio station…. http://www.infowars.com/obama-health-bill-allows-government-real-time-access-to-bank-accounts/

“It is a common misconception that the free enterprise system is at fault for the current high cost of medical care in the US, a misconception that the current administration has no desire to refute. However, the government’s regulatory and control practices are really at fault. Ever increasing and more punitive government and Medicare regulations set the standards for the actions of the private insurance companies. … Government over-regulated and managed health care makes as much sense as government managed flying.
Frank S. Rosenbloom, M.D. “Government Health Care Won’t Fly””
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/government_health_care_wont_fl_1.html

More later … Sharon O’Hara

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To be a part of such a study is the greatest opportunity for us…person, patient or senior to be a part of something important for future generations, meet the most amazing people and have fun at the same time…such as the University of Washington’s Shortness of Breath Study https://www.managesob.org/RS/StudyII/

Unfortunately, our own close-by University of Washington in Seattle isn’t one of the eight sites for the study but for those seniors close enough to one of the sites of the new “Lifestyle” – get your feet wet and get involved. I’ve been lucky enough to have been part of two COPD studies and can’t recommend them highly enough.

This six year “Interventions and Independence of Elders “(LIFE) study involves about 200 people, from 70 to 89 years at each of the eight sites around the nation.

I hope those of us who get involved will keep us posted when you can… the results of the study will help millions of future seniors maintain a quality of life and save future taxpayer dollars in health care.

“There is a lot of evidence indicating that exercise can help in preventing diseases, such as diabetes, among older people. But we do not know whether and how a specific regimen might prevent walking disability in older people who are at risk of losing mobility,” said NIA Director Richard J. Hodes, M.D.

“This research is critically important at a time when the population is aging and new interventions should be sought to keep people healthy and functioning in the community longer.””

“At eight sites around the country, LIFE will involve 1,600 people aged 70 to 89, who at the start of the study meet its criteria for risk of walking disability, defined as the inability to walk a quarter of a mile or four blocks.

About 200 participants will be enrolled at each of the study sites, which include the University of Florida; the University of Pittsburgh; Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago; Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.; Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.; Yale University in New Haven, Conn.; Tufts University in Boston and Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. Wake Forest will also coordinate the data management and analysis.”

“Limitations in walking ability compromise independence and contribute to the need for assistive care,” said Evan C. Hadley, M.D., director of NIA’s Division of Geriatrics and Clinical Gerontology, whose program is overseeing the trial. “Older people with impaired walking are less likely to remain in the community, have higher rates of certain diseases and death, and experience a poorer quality of life. A successful intervention might help prevent these bad outcomes.”

“We know that many older people have chronic health problems that affect their ability to walk,” said Jack Guralnik, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the NIA’s Laboratory of Epidemiology, Demography and Biometry and co-principal investigator of the study. “Arthritis, muscle weakness and poor balance can all affect how well and how far a person can walk. And, some older people have all of these problems. We will test the LIFE intervention in this population to see how it works in a real-world setting.”

Study participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group will follow a structured intervention consisting of walking at moderate intensity, stretching, balance and lower extremity strength training; the control group will participate in a health education program. The participants will be followed for about three years.

Researchers will evaluate whether, compared to health education, the physical activity intervention reduces the risk of major walking disability, serious fall injuries and disability in activities of daily living, and whether it improves cognitive function. They will also assess the cost-effectiveness of the intervention.

“This will be the largest randomized controlled trial to prevent major mobility disability ever conducted in older persons who are at high risk of losing their physical independence,” said Marco Pahor, M.D., director of the University of Florida’s Institute on Aging and study principal investigator. “Typically, this population is excluded from large trials, and from this perspective the LIFE study is unique.”

The NIA leads the federal effort supporting and conducting research on aging and the medical, social and behavioral issues of older people.

For more information on research and aging, go to www.nia.nih.gov.

The NIH — the nation’s medical research agency — includes 27 institutes and centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases.

For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.”

More later…Sharon O’Hara

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Since when does living a quality life for the medically or physically challenged mean too costly for taxpayers?

Living a quality life, to me, means seeing and feeling the world around us…seeing the sparkle and sharp colors of new daybreak splash slowly across the horizon and its new dawn promise, the muted and soft streaks of a sunset inch across the sky at day’s end, the happy, funny gurgle and contented baby coo, a bee’s buzz as it flits from flower to flower, the busy chirp and chat of birds, the cheery tug of anticipation at the shout of “STRIKE ONE!” when your child or grandchild is at bat, the intoxicating smell of freshly mowed grass, an unexpected hug from a friend, the excited bark of a welcome home greeting and the warm feel and tangy smell of a horse and the soft nudge of her head for a carrot treat – all blend together.

None have a price tag. One or more of these things and many more, give a quality life without a price tag.

Yes, for seniors, when major disease requiring intensive treatment costly to the body and pocketbook is diagnosed, open and honest dialog between the patient and doctor is a vital step to making the right decision for each patient.

If the patient is already under treatment for life altering medical conditions and treatment, the patient must be fully informed of the new estimated treatment, length and intensity of recovery, adding the cause and effect to the existing medications and prognosis.

Who should make the decision? The patient knows when his/her quality life is over. For me, it is when I can no long feel anything but the pain …when the world around me ceases to matter…before I can no longer take care of my personal needs and can’t recover…its time.

I know, understand and approve age and other limits on lungs and organ transplants. I don’t get mammograms, apps or colon tests simply because should any prove positive, I won’t do anything about it.

My doctor and I have already talked about quality of life and she is incredibly wise and informs, yet accepts my decisions about my own health care. My family knows exactly how I feel and it is not their decision, it is my life and my decisions.

It is not your decision either. I think the patient’s doctor and other medical professionals – NOT including the government – need to present the facts to the patient in a kind, straightforward manner and let the patient and medical team make the decision regarding treatment or no treatment.

IF the facts are presented properly and honestly in each case, very few, if any, senior patients would choose to undergo serious surgery, intensive recovery time, loss of ability to care for their own personal hygiene and waste what remains of their time on earth. Each situation is different and individual.

I was once present when an elderly patient was taken to the emergency room. He clearly had dementia, yet was given – it seemed – a test on every new and old machine in the hospital. One scene stands out in memory…the technician reading aloud the instruction booklet as she hooked the patient to the machine. None of the tests were productive. I’m sure it was an expensive visit.

Keep terminally ill folks comfortable … but all these things should be discussed with the PATIENT long before emergencies and urgency cloud the overall issue.

I doubt my grandmother had much quality of life after she entered the nursing home. Her false teeth were stolen along with other personal items. She fought to get out of bed and walk until she was drugged to keep her compliant and easy to care for. Soon she couldn’t get out of bed by herself and was eventually spoon fed and diapered.
Quality of life? She was over ninety, did not recognize anyone and had forgotten how to speak English. The grandmother I knew was gone.
Why hadn’t she been allowed to walk and maintain a quality of life? Too expensive?

Keep government out of health care and a single pay. Let the free enterprise system flourish and see the health care costs diminish and patient care increase. Let the insurance companies compete for business across the nation. Allow our system to work and use the system we already have in place to correct and make the needed changes. NOT GOVERNMENT.

Remember the $600 toilet seats government bought and regular folks only paid about $50 for the same seat? How about Social Security? How many years before its bankrupt and the people paying into it now will probably never get to use it?

How has the government run Clunkers worked out for our tax dollar and the economy? Well, a lot of folks bought, free, thanks to the Clunkers program, electric golf carts.

Medicare is government run…is it successful?
Please.
The government run Medicare and Medicaid is the reason the medical profession is the only profession I know of in this country that is penalized for being in health care and treating seniors and Medicaid patients.
Patients are cheated, physicians and health care professionals are cheated…and some cheat in return.
Keep government out of the health care business… for your kids’ sake.

No one in this country is denied health care…hospitals have shut their doors before or after the bankruptcy for treating patients without payment. No one is turned away. However, how long can any organization last without revenue?

In addition, ask yourself how long a civilization can last or should last, if their citizens are evaluated and cared for based on dollars not spent?

Frank and open honest discussion with the patient – educate them – will make a difference…not manipulation based on dollars. .

NO to government health care.

More later … Sharon O’Hara
This blog post was an answer to a post on Rob’s blog and tantalizing title: http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2009/oct/16/rob-woutat-a-dying-person-needs-death/

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It seems that a study for one thing led to a surprising discovery directly affecting the obese and the Swine Flu and I care because after quitting a forty-year smoking habit, I grew eligible to join the lofty, spread out and huge Tubby Club and have a personal health interest in this study.

“…the cases of 10 patients at a Michigan hospital … were so ill they had to be put on ventilators.
Three died. Nine of the 10 were obese, seven were severely obese, including two of the three who died”
(EFFORTS Newsletter 13 Autumn 2009)

I have been waiting for this news to become public beyond the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention weekly report, but if it has, I’ve missed it.

In the meantime, the Swine Flu is here, real and we tub’ettes need to discuss these findings with our doctor and/or call the Health Department.

The following is taken directly from the autumn 2009 EFFORTS newsletter, verbatim. Thanks JJ and EFFORTS.
*************************************
OBESITY EMERGES AS RISK FACTOR IN SEVERE FLU
People who are obese but otherwise healthy may be at
special risk of severe complications and death from the new
H1N1 swine flu virus, U.S. researchers reported on Friday.

They described the cases of 10 patients at a Michigan
hospital who were so ill they had to be put on ventilators.
EFFORTS Newsletter 13 Autumn 2009
Three died. Nine of the 10 were obese, seven were severely
obese, including two of the three who died.

The study, published in advance in the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention’s weekly report on death and disease,
also suggests doctors can safely double the usual dose of
oseltamivir, Roche AG’s antiviral drug sold under the Tamiflu
brand name.

“What this suggests is that there can be severe complications
associated with this virus infection, especially in severely obese
patients,” said CDC virus expert Dr. Tim Uyeki. “And five of
these patients had … evidence of blood clots in the lungs. This
has not been previously known to occur in patients with severe
influenza virus infections,” Uyeki said in a telephone interview.

Dr. Lena Napolitano of the University of Michigan Medical
Center and colleagues studied the cases of 10 patients admitted
to the university’s intensive care unit with severe acute
respiratory distress syndrome caused by infection with H1N1.

“Of the 10 patients, nine were obese (body mass index more
than 30), including seven who were extremely obese (BMI more
than 40),” they wrote in their report.

Their study was not
designed to see if obesity or anything else poses a special risk
factor for flu. But the researchers were surprised to see that
seven of the 10 patients were extremely obese.

MULTIPLE ORGAN FAILURE
Nine had multiple organ failure, which can be seen in
influenza, but five had blood clots in the lungs, and six had
kidney failure.
None has fully recovered, the researchers said.

The H1N1 swine flu virus first emerged in Mexico in March
and was spreading out of control in the United States by the time
it was identified at the end of April. The World Health
Organization declared a pandemic in June.

While it is causing moderate illness, all influenza viruses can
be deadly and this one is no exception. It has killed close to 500
people globally, more than 200 in the United States alone.

However, the new virus has a slightly different pattern from
seasonal flu — it spreads in the summer months, attacks young
adults and older children, and may affect the body slightly
differently.

As with H5N1 avian influenza, which only rarely attacks
people, patients seem to survive better if they get Tamiflu for
longer than the usual five-day treatment course, Uyeki said. “We
don’t know if it is necessary for a higher dose of the drug to be
given to patients who are obese,” he said.

“The high prevalence of obesity in this case series is
striking,” the CDC’s commentary accompany the report reads.
“Whether obesity is an independent risk factor for severe
complications of novel influenza A (H1N1) virus infection is
unknown. Obesity has not been identified previously as a risk
factor for severe complications of seasonal influenza.”

http://tinyurl.com/nugz9h
http://www.emphysema.net/Newsletters/Autumn2009.pdf

Talk to you later… Sharon O’Hara

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I have a story to tell about this year’s 2009 American Lung Association of Washington’s Trek Tri Island’s three-day bike trip – but to tell it, you need to understand the beginning first.
I hope I am permitted to do this…the story is not about me, it never has been.
It is a story about a person who went from fit and health and physically active into a patient who couldn’t breathe and thought she was dying.
*****************************************************************************
Sharon’s Ride
September 2005
________________________________________
A dream come true. I worked hard for pledge dollars and LOVED EVERY MINUTE of it. For the first time since 1997 I dared to go on a trip… and had no idea how I would manage without my BiPap, my water pills … put up a tent, take it down… carry my stuff around…

At the start I felt like a breathless beached whale… wondering what I was doing with a group of – clearly – fit people on a three day American Lung Association of Washington three day bike ride on a trike I’d never ridden before. It seemed all my exercise work wasn’t enough. EFFORTS – thoughts of EFFORTS – all you – kept me going!

The outstanding help and assistance I received from the volunteer crew enabled me to keep going, but it was a fellow trike rider, Dan… who must have seen I was struggling and rode up behind and asked if he could help. He patiently taught me how to shift gears, including the big gears until I could ‘feel’ the shifting… as well as see the speedometer computer jump to reflect speed… proof to me shifting pays off.

COPD has given me the opportunity to slow down and discover incredible kindness of folks that I never had time to notice before. EFFORTS gave me my life back – exercise lets me function…

Ferry schedules are kept – ferries wait for no one. The outstanding volunteer group helped me ‘keep up’… in particular, Don.

On the last day Don drove me and my trike far enough out to get a head start and I began pedaling the final 19.2 miles into Victoria B.C. and the Victoria Clipper. Pedaling up hills I stopped whenever I needed to – sometimes every couple of feet – for a minute or two. I sat on my trike until I could go again.

Foot by foot I pedaled to the top of the hills and barreled down the other side. Until…close to Victoria – a hill came into sight that appeared almost vertical. I couldn’t see the top. I stopped when I got to the bottom and stared up. I was outfaced. If I started up I couldn’t stop to rest until I got over it. It was steep, yes, but I was too close to stop now. I started up.

The top of the hill got closer until I was just below it my legs shook from the strain and I couldn’t breathe – I labored to keep going. All of a sudden the trike felt light and we raced upward. A voice yelled, “Keep pedaling”!

My feet flew –we hit the summit and started down the other side. I yelled back, “Thank you!” Someone saw I was in trouble and pushed me up! I let the trike race down until I could pedal and breathe again and my heart quit jumping and thumping.

It was Don one of the ALA of WA’s extraordinary volunteers … I’d passed him parked on the side of the road several times during the 19.2 mile ride. He’d ask if I wanted to stop? I”d answer, “No, I’ll keep going for now.”

Thanks to many people I rode my trike 19.2 miles into Victoria and when I got there I couldn’t stop tears from welling behind my sunglasses.

You did it, EFFORTS. You taught me how to live again, gave me my life back. And to see the bright red EFFORTS tee-shirt and meet the man inside, Chris, EFFORTS Ambassador to Canada and his lovely wife was pure joy. Chris is so EFFORTS oriented, so energetic, so giving… he gave me his watch when I said I didn’t have one. And our watch says it is now 3:49pm.

God Bless. Thank you for helping me live again. EXERCISE FOLKS please help yourself…. and join me next time?
Sharon O’Hara
http://www.effortsmembers.org/Happenings/shar_ride_p1.htm

More later… Sharon O’Hara

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A few comments and a challenge.
Be aware that a move is afoot to tax soda pop as a primary reason this nation is top heavy with obese folks causing increased Health Care costs. The idea is that the extra 12-cent or so tax will cut down on the fatty folks buying soda thus we would lose weight and need less medical care.

It is strange the authorities do not look elsewhere to find better high calorie items to increase tax. Perhaps they could take a hard look toward chocolate covered donuts, Prednisone, Big Macs, a Frosty, French fries, Sara Lee pastries, Colonel Sanders chicken, ChezeIts, Butterfingers, Almond Roca, Hershey bars and other high calorie waist expanders rather than look toward soda pop as the blimp builder.

Drug addicts can hide their addiction, drunks too.
The public, until caught, does not see the human predator. Most people can hide addiction or criminal ways from public view until caught.
Not so, the fatties of the world. They have no place to hide. The fat of the obese is up, down, front, back, and everywhere.

The public judgment is there, as well. A recent study according to two Mayo clinic nutritionists, Jennifer Nelson, M.S., R.D. and Katherine Zeratsky, R.D. showed the evidence of obesity stigma.

The “July 2008 “International Journal of Obesity” …study developed a tool that could be used to measure bias, and to also rank biases from being a strong bias relative to others that are weaker. The three targets of bias that were chosen to measure and compare were: obesity, homosexuality, and Muslims. …The authors chose these three because each are widely known minority groups — …, they are documented targets of discrimination.
…
What emerged was that that there was strongest prejudice against obesity, followed next by bias against homosexuals, and then against Muslims. (If you wish to see the statistical details and strengths of the rankings you may access the using the link below.)

Laws and other protective policies have been put into place over the years to discourage — even punish — discrimination against race, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. It is pointed out that there is widespread documented evidence of weight bias in employment, educational, interpersonal — and yes — in medical settings. However unlike these other targets, no laws or protective policies are in place to discourage or punish bias against obesity.

The study concludes that weight bias is significantly stronger than bias against homosexuals and Muslims. It also concludes that much more research is needed in the area of prejudice and its causes and solutions.
For now, at the least, don’t you think social advocacy is needed to decrease the disproportionate attitude — and acceptance — of bias toward obese individuals? The authors — and I — applaud the efforts and progress made in protecting other minority groups against prejudice and discrimination. And, I also agree with the authors that “it is unacceptable that the obesity stigma is still so pervasive, strong and under recognized.”

It is time to prove – again – that most patients, if educated to what may well be their medical future if they do not change personal habits WILL make the changes needed to avoid future medical conditions.
After smoking forty years, I quit and discovered the true meaning of addiction and a gut-wrenching craving to smoke.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/comments/MY00586_comments#post

Losing the excess pounds will not change the lung diseases or add a lubricant between the bones of my left hip…but it will make a difference for one or more of the other medical conditions.

I am committing here publically to begin the Dash Diet http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/new_dash.pdf on Thursday, September 24, 2009.

Women100 pounds or more overweight are welcome to join in the weight loss quest to the healthiest we can be through good nutrition, fewer calories and exercise.

I will meet with anyone interested, weekly or whatever works to make the goal for better health AND for the challenge that the first of us to lose the 100 pounds and keep it off for six months will win $1,295.

We can work out the details.

The beginning is Thursday, 24 September 2009. My plan is the Dash Diet but yours can be anything your doctor approves. Let me know…and change our health lives. It is time to take those lemons and make lemonade.

Can I do it this time? I bet I can.

http://www.wiredprnews.com/2009/09/14/obesity-a-focus-of-health-care-reform_200909145726.html

More later… Sharon O’Hara

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The following message is important and can save lives through early detection. Dr. Tom’s comment, “COPD is associated with numerous co-morbidities, and indeed, the entire body may become involved” is spot on….believe it… YES!

Since COPD diagnosis, then landing in the hospital in 1997, I have gone from being healthy and fit into my fifties to COPD and another EIGHT medical conditions. Each has its own set of ‘rules’. If I take pain pills for the Cellulites, I know that my respiratory system will be adversely affected….not a good thing with two lung diseases. The latest medication, Diovan, adds to the mix.

The point is that a COPD diagnosis is only the beginning of a medical adventure that need not happen with early detection…the simple Spirometry test.

Please, read Dr. Tom’s comments.
*****************************************
COPD Progress and Challenges 2009

By Thomas L. Petty, MD
…
In the four decades I’ve devoted to lung health, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has been slow to excite the practicing physician. Yet COPD should create great enthusiasm because we have made so many advances in identification and treatment. Many new therapies are available that are effective and favorably influence the disease.

COPD is associated with numerous co-morbidities, and indeed, the entire body may become involved.1It is now regarded as a systemic disease.2Traditionally; COPD has included emphysema (loss of alveolar walls and loss of elastic recoil), chronic bronchitis, inflammation in the small and large airways, and various degrees of lung inflammation throughout the lung parenchyma.

More recently, bronchiectasis has been added to this spectrum, although there are significant differences in manifestations and pathogenesis with repeated bacterial infections playing a more prominent role in bronchiectasis than with emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Spirometry’s significance

COPD is characterized by irreversible airflow obstruction as judged by simple spirometry. Only the FEV1is needed to judge the severity of airflow obstruction, although a number of other measurements of airflow volume and gas transfer (diffusion test) are commonly undertaken to assess the disease states in more detail.

Spirometry is used to monitor the course of disease. All physicians who treat COPD should have immediate access to spirometers, including primary care practitioners because of their growing involvement in COPD managment.

The benefits and barriers to spirometry have been summarized.3For some reason, there appears to be an unfortunate bias against spirometry, particularly in the diagnosis and assessment of early disease. This is where treatment has the opportunity to do the most good. It is astonishing that only 37 percent of hospitalized patients had a spirometric diagnosis of COPD at the time of a hospitalization for an exacerbation.4

Established therapies

Early diagnosis can change outcome of disease through smoking cessation and the selective use of a growing body of pharmacologic agents.5The pathogenesis of COPD relates to interaction of a complex array of genetic abnormalities under current study, interacting with environmental factors, most notably smoking, other dusts, and volatile compounds involved in various industries on a worldwide basis. Treatment focuses on eliminating these environmental factors.

Medications that are most useful in COPD are comparable to those used in asthma with reversible airflow obstruction. Thus, inhaled beta-agonists, corticosteroids, and in selected cases, anticholinergics are widely used in achieving better scientific scaffolding. Oral corticosteroids seem particularly effective in slowing the progress of disease.6

Active patients

Oxygen is established as an effective method of increasing not only the length, but quality of life for patients with COPD. At least 140,000 people with COPD and related disorders benefit from oxygen therapy in the U.S. alone. Ambulatory oxygen systems allow full activity, and they should be equipped with a pulse oximeter in order to monitor therapy’s effectiveness.

Portable oxygen concentrators are now approved for air travel. Most weigh about 10 pounds and deliver oxygen only by the demand mode; however, one exception weighs 17 pounds and gives up to 1 to 3 Liters of continuous flow.

Pulmonary rehabilitation is established as improving the exercise tolerance of many with COPD. Controlled clinical trials show pulmonary rehabilitation improves depression, anxiety, and somatic preoccupation, which are particularly common in the early stages of disease.7Most pulmonologists can provide the necessary breathing training, assistance in graded exercise, and other components that are key to patient and family education.

The future involves increased awareness of COPD among patients, physicians, and other health care providers.

COPD is the only disease increasing in morbidity and mortality among the top five killers, and by 2010, it is expected to become the third most common cause of death in the U.S. It resulted in direct and indirect losses of $30.4 billion to the U.S. economy in 2001. Approximately 16 million adult Americans have COPD, and it is very likely that a similar number have asymptomatic or even symptomatic lung disease that is neither diagnosed nor treated.
…
Thomas L. Petty, MD, MACP, Master FCCP, is chairman emeritus of the National Lung Health Education Program, Denver.
http://respiratory-care-sleep-medicine.advanceweb.com/Article/COPD-Progress-and-Challenges-2009.aspx

My next blog post will put money where my mouth is in a challenge to join me to prove that patients educated about their disease/s WILL make whatever lifestyle changes needed for the best health possible.

More later… Sharon O’Hara

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The following message is important and can save lives through early detection. Dr. Tom’s comment, “COPD is associated with numerous co-morbidities, and indeed, the entire body may become involved” is spot on….believe it… YES!

Since COPD diagnosis, then landing in the hospital in 1997, I have gone from being healthy and fit into my fifties to COPD and another EIGHT medical conditions. Each has its own set of ‘rules’. If I take pain pills for the Cellulites, I know that my respiratory system will be adversely affected….not a good thing with two lung diseases. The latest medication, Diovan, adds to the mix.

The point is that a COPD diagnosis is only the beginning of a medical adventure that need not happen with early detection…the simple Spirometry test.

Please, read Dr. Tom’s comments.
*****************************************
COPD Progress and Challenges 2009

By Thomas L. Petty, MD
…
In the four decades I’ve devoted to lung health, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease has been slow to excite the practicing physician. Yet COPD should create great enthusiasm because we have made so many advances in identification and treatment. Many new therapies are available that are effective and favorably influence the disease.

COPD is associated with numerous co-morbidities, and indeed, the entire body may become involved.1It is now regarded as a systemic disease.2Traditionally; COPD has included emphysema (loss of alveolar walls and loss of elastic recoil), chronic bronchitis, inflammation in the small and large airways, and various degrees of lung inflammation throughout the lung parenchyma.

More recently, bronchiectasis has been added to this spectrum, although there are significant differences in manifestations and pathogenesis with repeated bacterial infections playing a more prominent role in bronchiectasis than with emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Spirometry’s significance

COPD is characterized by irreversible airflow obstruction as judged by simple spirometry. Only the FEV1is needed to judge the severity of airflow obstruction, although a number of other measurements of airflow volume and gas transfer (diffusion test) are commonly undertaken to assess the disease states in more detail.

Spirometry is used to monitor the course of disease. All physicians who treat COPD should have immediate access to spirometers, including primary care practitioners because of their growing involvement in COPD managment.

The benefits and barriers to spirometry have been summarized.3For some reason, there appears to be an unfortunate bias against spirometry, particularly in the diagnosis and assessment of early disease. This is where treatment has the opportunity to do the most good. It is astonishing that only 37 percent of hospitalized patients had a spirometric diagnosis of COPD at the time of a hospitalization for an exacerbation.4

Established therapies

Early diagnosis can change outcome of disease through smoking cessation and the selective use of a growing body of pharmacologic agents.5The pathogenesis of COPD relates to interaction of a complex array of genetic abnormalities under current study, interacting with environmental factors, most notably smoking, other dusts, and volatile compounds involved in various industries on a worldwide basis. Treatment focuses on eliminating these environmental factors.

Medications that are most useful in COPD are comparable to those used in asthma with reversible airflow obstruction. Thus, inhaled beta-agonists, corticosteroids, and in selected cases, anticholinergics are widely used in achieving better scientific scaffolding. Oral corticosteroids seem particularly effective in slowing the progress of disease.6

Active patients

Oxygen is established as an effective method of increasing not only the length, but quality of life for patients with COPD. At least 140,000 people with COPD and related disorders benefit from oxygen therapy in the U.S. alone. Ambulatory oxygen systems allow full activity, and they should be equipped with a pulse oximeter in order to monitor therapy’s effectiveness.

Portable oxygen concentrators are now approved for air travel. Most weigh about 10 pounds and deliver oxygen only by the demand mode; however, one exception weighs 17 pounds and gives up to 1 to 3 Liters of continuous flow.

Pulmonary rehabilitation is established as improving the exercise tolerance of many with COPD. Controlled clinical trials show pulmonary rehabilitation improves depression, anxiety, and somatic preoccupation, which are particularly common in the early stages of disease.7Most pulmonologists can provide the necessary breathing training, assistance in graded exercise, and other components that are key to patient and family education.

The future involves increased awareness of COPD among patients, physicians, and other health care providers.

COPD is the only disease increasing in morbidity and mortality among the top five killers, and by 2010, it is expected to become the third most common cause of death in the U.S. It resulted in direct and indirect losses of $30.4 billion to the U.S. economy in 2001. Approximately 16 million adult Americans have COPD, and it is very likely that a similar number have asymptomatic or even symptomatic lung disease that is neither diagnosed nor treated.
…
Thomas L. Petty, MD, MACP, Master FCCP, is chairman emeritus of the National Lung Health Education Program, Denver.
http://respiratory-care-sleep-medicine.advanceweb.com/Article/COPD-Progress-and-Challenges-2009.aspx

My next blog post will put money where my mouth is in a challenge to join me to prove that patients educated about their disease/s WILL make whatever lifestyle changes needed for the best health possible.

More later… Sharon O’Hara

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Tweet This Post