Asthma+-+Essay+Beginning

Marshal Yong


 * Hold Your Breath: Asthma Education and Research Methods Strive to Pedagogically Branch Out**

There are approximately 300 million people globally with Asthma, and 20 million of those being Americans in this year. Asthma is an incurable disease that affects the lungs, and is caused by a poor immune system and severe allergies. When a person’s Asthma flares up through an allergic reaction the bronchial tubes within the lungs begin to close preventing any further circulation of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Wheezing occurs when the person struggles to reopen the bronchial tubes by taking deeper breaths. Phlegm accumulates in the throat and lungs blocking additional breaths of air. With each passing moment the airways continue to get smaller and smaller, and the patient begins to feel more lightheaded and in severe cases, turn blue. Coughing persists, although it does no good, except let out small portions of phlegm and cause pain in the chest. Every year hundreds of thousands of people die around the world from Asthma, and oftentimes from preventable cases. Programs such as the American Lung Association have been fighting lung related diseases for decades now, but their research pertains to medicine, not getting personal with the patients and understanding them other than their health situation. The “Beating Asthma” programs, one situated in Syracuse, NY and the other in Rhode Island, both were not founded under the same people, used the same name and similar methods of administrating research by conducting surveys and providing lectures. In Baltimore a trial community was created for children with Asthma, where the environments were controlled and the children were not only asked a series of questions but also tested for bodily changes. Although, all the intentions of these community research projects are for the good, lab research, surveys, lectures and community trials do not necessarily offer the best possible way of collaborating Asthma: a disease that changes from person to person. Instead patients are used more as guinea pigs and lab rats rather than people with different levels of Asthma whom can share their stories and ideas.

Allergies are a difficult health problem to solve because those who have allergies have a hypersensitive reaction to an allergen, due to some sort of damage or weakness in their immune system. This allergen triggers a reaction to a certain part of the body. In some it swells the tongue, causes a skin rash, and in other cases create Asthma. Because the level of intensity of an allergen affects people with Asthma and allergies differently it is difficult to document and create medicine universally. Therefore, Asthma discussions benefit both physicians and patients in understanding how to go about treating each person accordingly. Discussions could include whether the patient feels ready enough to exercise and build up a healthier lung or how to control one’s Asthma. Methods include taking slow deep breaths and long exhalations during a mild Asthma attack so as not to rely on inhalers and medication. In the long run, reliance on medication could do more harm, for there are steroids in the inhalers, which eat away at the lungs lining. However, they do bring about a quick relief from a sudden attack.

The “Beating Asthma” education initiative in Syracuse first took place in 1997 by a group of physicians. Although, the city isn’t known for having a high Asthma epidemic, its demographics called for a lesson on Asthma. In a period of six months, physicians and families of Asthma patients were contacted about an upcoming lecture on Asthma. The lecture was held near a local shopping mall early in the evening so that working class people could attend after work, and cost five dollars. Before the lecture a “pretest” was handed out for families to voluntarily fill out. The questions were true/false questions about a person’s knowledge on Asthma. The lecture was divided into three parts within two hours where physicians, licensed doctors and guest speakers spoke about their experiences and expertise. Afterwards a second test/survey was conducted, again voluntarily, with similar questions but asked more demographical questions, while remaining anonymous. The lecture in the end had people ask questions but the entire event was not collaborative, as for the surveys, not everyone filled out both forms even when free Asthma equipment and prizes were allocated.

The “Beating Asthma” program in Rhode Island conducted surveys, but this time through the help of visiting nurses. The program attempted to use bi or multi lingual and culturally educated nurses to gather as much information from their Asthmatic patients as they could. The only issue is that many of these patients suffer from severe cases of Asthma, don’t speak, read or write proper English and don’t understand the American culture. The surveys conducted are also more personal, because the environment in which these nurses work in are within close quarters. A lot can be learned from these patients and having multi lingual physicians may further more research. For instance, a patient could describe how they felt after trying a Western drug compared to their cultures generic brand.