An international team of researchers has discovered a direct link between eating fish, fruit and dairy products with improved lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The study, which is being presented at the American Thoracic Society (ATS) 2014 International Conference, specifically examined COPD patients’ lung function within 24 hours of consuming…
A group of drugs commonly prescribed for insomnia, anxiety and breathing issues “significantly increase the risk” that older people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, need to visit a doctor or Emergency Department for respiratory reasons, new research has found. Benzodiazepines, such as Ativan or Xanax, may actually contribute to respiratory problems, such as…
A significant knowledge gap about smoking cessation practices among perinatal substance abuse staff at a single center means pregnant women are often not being counseled about the dangers of tobacco and encouraged to quit, new research suggests. Perinatal substance abuse counselors from the Johns Hopkins Center for Addiction and Pregnancy in Baltimore, Maryland, fared significantly…
The International Journal of COPD has published the review, “The role of microparticles in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease”. As corresponding author Dr. Kubo says “Endothelial damage is believed to affect the pathophysiology of COPD, however, the influence of COPD exacerbation on the endothelium is not clearly understood. In this manuscript, we evaluated the influence of…
The spread of poor diets with large amounts of processed food, fat and refined sugar could be leading to increasing levels of inflammation in the body and, as a result, contributing to increased asthma prevalence, say researchers. The researchers looked at the Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) in people with asthma compared with healthy controls…
Exercise might help reduce the risk of hospital readmission in people with a progressive lung condition called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a new study finds. “Our findings suggest that regular physical activity could buffer the stresses of hospitalization,” said study author Huong Nguyen, of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Department of Research and…
On Friday, March 28, 2014, researchers stated that bans on smoking in public and the workplace led to a 10 percent drop in premature births and in emergency asthma treatment for children. The evidence, based on the records of more than two million children, comes from 11 published investigations into the impact of local…
Reuters Health reports that mold exposure in the home raises the risk of asthma symptoms, researchers found. Men were especially vulnerable after recent exposure to visible mold. “The mold exposure that we were talking about is the typical mold that we all see in our homes from time to time, that is, mold that…