For many of us, it's hard to believe the summer is over. Actually, those of us in the Midwest and Northeast regions of the United States aren't certain when summer 2009 began. October is typically my busiest month for managing patients with asthma. The return of children to school, the arrival of cold and flu season, the use of forced air heating... Read more
This is a common question in my office and invariably leads to several minutes of discussion with asthma patients and parents. There is no cure for asthma and, contrary to widely held belief, people do not "outgrow" asthma. It took a long time for me to convince my asthmatic wife that asthma is life-long but, with good treatment, it may go into... Read more
"Doc, I don't have cockroaches. Why is my skin test to cockroach positive?" A downtown Chicago businessman who owns a home in an upscale Chicago suburb asked this question earlier this year.
I'll start with an update on this topic
Recent asthma research has focused on a common allergen often briefly discussed in reports on indoor... Read more
There are more than 400,000 tobacco-related deaths annually in the U.S. Health statistics estimate about 3,000 teenagers try and then regularly smoke cigarettes on a daily basis. It's been well documented that passive exposure to tobacco smoke increases the risk of asthma attacks, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, lung cancer, upper-respiratory tract... Read more
Asthma has impacted the lives of millions of people for centuries. Many millions of research dollars have unlocked some of the mysteries of how and why the lungs make you cough, wheeze, short of breath or feel tight. Several medications have been developed to remedy this sometimes life-threatening disorder yet many people still... Read more