In particular, drinking caffeinated coffee in the situation of an emergency onset of asthma can allow the patient to breathe easily. Doctors have recommended coffee as an emergency way of treating asthma patients who find themselves with a sudden onset and no medication for many, many years.

I only started regularly drinking coffee four months or so ago (yes, at age 22, I’m a late bloomer). Coincidentally, during these past months, I haven’t had a serious asthma attack, and I have sparingly used my inhaler. Of course, this is an unscientific observation and we can’t make a direct connection; my improvement can be also attributed to other factors, such as getting rid of the carpet in my bedroom and installing an airconditioner.

Still, if coffee is indeed good for an asthmatic, then all the more better for me — as long as the caffeine is in moderation, just like everything in life.

Read the whole Coffee and Asthma article at Coffee Addict.

Assessment using hyperpolarized helium-3 magnetic resonance imaging (H3HeMR) suggests that focal changes in regional airflow obstruction tend to stay in the same location within the lungs of patients with asthma.

You can read the full article here.

Some 20 million Americans suffer from asthma, including 6.3 million children, and the various drugs they take — inhalers, syrups and often sugar-coated steroids — are typically taken repeatedly throughout the day. These medications can leave asthmatics with higher levels of enamel erosion and tooth decay, according to recent studies.

From my own experience, I have had relatively well-maintained teeth since childhood, despite using inhalers at least once a day (as of this writing). Though of course, my asthma left me midway through my childhood, only to resurface in college.

Here’s more from the same article:

“The nature of inhaled drugs means a natural side effect is to dry the mouth out,” said Dr. Kenneth Burrell, senior director on the Council of Scientific Affairs for the ADA. “Lots of inhalants are very acidic, with low pHs way below what will dissolve enamel.”

Hm, described that way, that’s not a very comforting thought. Anyway, if you’re a user of inhalers (or have asthmatic kids), just place more attention on oral hygiene. As the advice of CYH goes:

The tooth problems can be reduced if children rinse their mouths with water after using a puffer and if they clean their teeth at least twice a day with a fluoride toothpaste. Fluoride protects the surface of the teeth.

If you’re interested, iVillage has a question posed by concerned parent of a boy who uses an inhaler and suffers from tooth decay, and the doctor’s answer.

• puffer Tote design covers the entire inhaler
• struggle-free fit makes it easy to remove or replace your medicine
• discreet, hidden ID pocket on the inside with labeling lets paramedics and school nurses know where vital information is
• thoughtful Velcro closure pattern is specially designed for all levels of dexterity
• reflective pull-tab provides a visual queue to aid functionality
• specially treated, water-resistant Cordura© fabric (used in some of the best outdoor luggage and gear) lets water bead right off
• a carabiner allows for multiple ways to carry it

Maybe it’s just me, but I like the inhaler bag’s look. Credit that to its red and black finish (my favorite color combination).

Learn more about the puffer tote bag here.

The spacer acts as a holding chamber that keeps the medication from escaping into the air. Releasing the medication into the chamber gives you time to inhale more slowly. It decreases the amount of medicine that’s deposited on the back of your throat and increases the amount that reaches your lungs.

The website Asthma.ca agrees (take note of the emphasized sentence):

Spacers can make it easier for medication to reach the lungs, and also mean less medication gets deposited in the mouth and throat, where it can lead to irritation and mild infections. The Asthma Society of Canada recommends that anyone, of any age, using a puffer, consider using a spacer.

When I read that line, it made me consider buying a new spacer for my inhaler. Anyway, a visual guide on how to use a spacer, along with cleaning tips and important reminders, can be found at Asthma.ca.

• I am a freelancer, and I work from home. This means I go out less often, and exert physical effort less than I did back in my college days.




• When I commute, I now usually ride a taxi. Back in college, I used to ride open-air jeepneys and often got smothered by the smog and dust of Metro Manila — certainly a no-no for an asthmatic.




• An airconditioner has been recently installed in my room/home office. This has greatly improved the air quality in my otherwise dusty room (we live in a high-density residential neighborhood passed by a lot of cars as a detour route). Like most modern aircon units, ours has a couple of filters that minimize the dust and particles in the air.

In my opinion, the last one provided the greatest help among the three. You can say my living conditions improved with the aircon installation, though I still have to watch the temperature, as the cold can also trigger my asthma and necessitate the use of my inhaler.

Here’s what the Mayo Clinic has to say about asthma and airconditioners (taken from this article):

Use your air conditioner. Air conditioning helps reduce the amount of airborne pollen from trees, grasses and weeds that finds its way indoors. Air conditioning also lowers indoor humidity and can reduce your exposure to dust mites. If you don’t have air conditioning, try to keep your windows closed during pollen season.

Elizabeth Taylor, famous Hollywood star and two-time Oscar awardee for Best Actress. If there’s anyone who believes that asthmatics are sickly, atrophied people, he should take a look at the beauty that is Liz Taylor. Some asthmatics don’t take too kindly to perfume, so it might also seem ironic that Liz Taylor launched two perfume lines late in her career.

Charles Dickens, one of the greatest novelists the world has known and author of Oliver Twist and Great Expectations. Arguably the most famous Victorian period author, Dickens was an asthma sufferer. According to Voices from the Past, “Dickens found relief from his ‘chest troubles’ only with opium, a popular asthma remedy of his day. Mr. Omer, one of the asthmatic characters in the autobiographical novel, David Copperfield, reflects Dickens’s own suffering.”

Dominique Wilkins, retired basketball great and NBA All-Star. The “Human Highlight Film” was first diagnosed with asthma around age 22 and was still able to play exemplary basketball despite the illness. According to Michelle Taylor’s interview with ‘Nique, strong emotions (such as the excitement found in basketball) seemed to set off the athlete’s asthma attacks.

As someone who’s been using metered-dose inhalers for most of my life (beginning with my pediatrician’s prescription way way back), I was kind of dumbfounded to know that I could’ve used, let’s say, a dry powder inhaler just as well!

This in-Pharma Technologist article says that new asthma treatment guidelines have concluded that there are no significant differences between the various types of asthma inhalers. Take note of this, folks — it’s all in the proper usage.

They conclude that doctors should not consider the type of device in prescribing decisions but focus instead on other issues, including device availability; cost; convenience; and the patient’s age, competence in using the device, and preference.

Another good point:

“Although there are advantages and disadvantages associated with each device and medication, when used properly, all aerosol devices can work equally well and can be interchanged,” said guidelines chair Myrna Dolovich of McMaster University in Canada.

So, inhaler usage, not type, is king. If you need help in using your inhalers, do read the previous articles here at AIC (how to use metered-dose inhalers, how to use dry powder inhalers). Read the entire article here.

In the previous article, we briefly discussed dry powder asthma inhalers, called DPIs for short. Here, we give an overview on how to use them.

Because there are many brands and kinds of dry powder inhalers in the market, there might be specific instructions for using each one. To ensure effective asthma treatment, please consult a medical professional. However, you can still rely on general instructions for using a DPI.

A good run-down can be found at Health A to Z. Another good source is the CCHS site. Basically, the main difference in using dry powder and metered-dose inhalers (MDIs) lies in how you inhale — DPIs require you to breathe quickly, whereas MDIs require slow inhalation.

If you want more specific instructions, Asthma.ca provides how-tos (with visual guides) for Turbuhalers, Diskhalers, and Diskuses.

Those image guides not enough for you? Then you can view a video demonstration on how to use a DPI at the Mayo Clinic website.

Several entries ago, we mentioned that there are two kinds of asthma inhalers. We’ve already discussed the first type, the metered-dose inhaler. It’s time you got acquainted with the second type, namely the dry powder inhaler.

Dry powder inhalers (DPIs for short) don’t use chemical propellants to release the medication, unlike metered-dose inhalers (MDIs). DPIs, as their name implies, use finely divided powder that is inhaled by the user more rapidly than he/she would with MDIs. A standard amount of the powder dose must be placed for the user to inhale, and this medication is directly delivered by DPIs into the lungs.

When using a DPI, you don’t need to coordinate the triggering (actuation) of the device with your inhalation. As such, dry powder inhalers are considered by some people to be easier to use than MDIs. However, some asthmatics complain that dry powder inhalers trigger coughs. Also, spacers can’t be used with DPIs.

Types of dry powder inhalers include powder tube inhalers and powder disk inhalers. The latter can be single or multiple dose DPIs. Registered trademarks of DPIs include the Turbuhaler (an easy-to-use, tube-shaped inhaler), the Diskus (has 60 doses), and the Diskhaler. The last one uses a disk containing small pouches of powder medication. To release the dose, the Diskhaler punctures the pouch.

Usually, asthma inhalers come in MDI form, but more and more people are using DPIs.

Next: How to properly use a dry powder inhaler