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Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!
According to Cancer Research UK, passive smokers are 20 to 30 per cent more likely to develop lung cancer than people not exposed to smoke, with several hundred deaths occurring as a direct result in the UK each year.
Second-hand smoke is harmful and hazardous to the health of the general public, and particularly dangerous to children. It increases the risk of serious respiratory problems in children, such as a greater number and severity of asthma attacks and lower respiratory infections, and increases the risk for middle ear infections. There is also the risk of coronary heart disease in non-smoking adults.
In 2005, it was estimated that exposure to second-hand smoke killed approximately 46,000 adults non-smokers from coronary heart disease, more than 3,000 from cancer of the lung and an estimated 430 newborns from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
In the long term, passive smoking could cause lung cancer amongst healthy non-smokers. It is estimated that people who have never smoked and live with a smoker have a 25% increase in the risk of developing lung cancer compared with people who have never smoked and live with a non-smoker.
INFANTS AND CHILDREN
Infants and young children are more sensitive than adults to the effects of cigarette smoke. Children exposed to cigarette smoke have a greater frequency of sore and/or watery eyes, sneezing, coughing, asthma, chest tightening, wheezing, slower lung growth and decreased lung function. These children are also more likely to suffer from respiratory infections such as pneumonia, bronchitis, bronchiolitis, ear infection, tonsillitis and sinusitis.
A 28 Year Old Waitresses Tale
“I started smoking when I was in high school due to peer pressure. I started to smoke only because I wanted to be a “somebody”. I got married in 1998 and my husband did not seem to bother about my smoking habit.
“In 1999, I was pregnant with my first child and thought that it was not necessary for me to quit smoking even though I was pregnant. My daughter was born almost perfect and her birth was without complications. This further enforced my self-delusion that smoking cannot harm my family, despite what everyone else said.
However, during my second pregnancy, I still didn’t want to stop, even after doctors advised me against lighting up. The ‘best’ part was, I began to smoke even more due to stress.
“Then everything changed when I was seven months pregnant. My baby girl was born prematurely. She was so tiny! The doctors put her on a life support system as her lungs were not fully developed. Her heart was beating irregularly and the nurse told us to prepare for the worst.
“The nurse explained that my smoking habit had increased the risk of my baby’s premature birth, probably also harming the foetus in the womb. From that moment on, I knew that I had to quit smoking. I could not bear the thought that I could have been the primary cause of my child’s death.
“By some miracle, my second daughter survived and I am grateful to have been spared the guilt of having ‘murdered’ my own daughter. I took it upon myself to quit. Immediately!
According to the World Health Organization, children’s passive smoking increases their risk of developing heart disease and cancer as an adult. In some children, it may also be a contributing factor in learning and language difficulties, and behavioural problems.
If a mother smokes during pregnancy, the unborn child is exposed to the same high levels of poisons as the mother. Evidence shows that smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage, baby not growing well in the womb, low birth weight baby, stillborn, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and illness in early infancy.
Children cannot choose not to inhale nor resist this dangerous cigarette smoke from the smokers as they receive it involuntarily.
Passive smoking induces similar health damaging effects as active smoking. In fact, studies indicate that passive smoking is more harmful than active smoking. Children face higher health risks as compared to adults. They are more sensitive to smoke as their bodies are still growing and developing. Children exposed to tobacco smoke at home develop asthma, cough, feelings of dizziness, headache, and poor concentration at double the rate. Their sleep disturbances also triple.
Opening a window in a room or in the car cannot protect your child from passive smoking. Even smoking outside your house doesn’t provide any insurance for your child. The only sensible way is to quit smoking completely. This will remove almost all dangers on your child.
Many people are not aware of the harmful effects of passive smoking. Pro-smoking lobby groups claim that second hand smoking poses no danger at all. However, evidences show that passive smoke can dent your children’s health.
Quitting smoking can give your children’s health a good start.
So, the next time you want to smoke, look around you. Are there any babies or children? Do you want to harm them with your cigarette smoke? Don’t be selfish!!!!
Quit smoking Today!! for the sake of your loved ones.
Smoke damage links – babies
http://www.bloggingbaby.com/2007/03/26/california-jumps-on-ban-wagon-re-smoking-in-cars/
http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060512_smoke_urine.html
http://www.rhahealthcare.org/newsrelease.php?id=130
Other info links
http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060418_cigarette_chems.html
COPD TAKES YOUR BREATH AWAY
The following are my thoughts on the importance of addressing the breathing techniques of those of us who have COPD. This aspect of our treatment is, unfortunately and sadly, most highly neglected by our medical community. It deals in general terms and not all aspects of it will apply to all COPD’ers, as we are all different. I have tried to keep it simple, yet provide some of my insights, (Right or wrong!) into our breathing distresses.
For normal people, breathing is as easy as inhaling and exhaling, without consciously giving their breathing any thought at all. For the vast majority of us with COPD, breathing can sometimes be an adventure, and for some of us, most of the time it is an adventure. It is my belief, that anyone who deals in the care of COPD’ers in their later stages should try a little experiment as suggested by Dr. Rick Hodder, a noted Canadian respirologist, in his book, “Every Breath I Take “ A guide to living with COPD. Quote: “Take in a deep breath but don’t exhale. Take in another and another. You’re hyper inflated. Hold it! Now run upstairs. You’ll soon appreciate what it feels like to have COPD or asthma."
We as COPDers have to deal with our breathing on so many levels:
(1). The psychology of breathing – How stress and anxiety affect our breathing.
(2). Dealing with Shortness of Breath (SOB)
(3). Learning to pursed-lip breathe (PLB).
(4). How we breathe. Are we shallow breathers or diaphragm breathers?
(5). Inspiration. (Inhaling)
(6). Learning to exhale properly.
(7). Learning to relax our auxiliary breathing muscles
(8). Learning to pace ourselves so we dont become (SOB).
(9). The importance of proper nutrition and proper exercise in combating SOB
(10). Pulmonary Rehab
Why do we become short of breath? In a nutshell, and simplified, in most of us COPDers, our DLCO or diffusion rate is compromised so that our lungs are no longer able to efficiently exchange O2 and CO2. The O2 in our blood starts to drop and the CO2 level increases. Our brain signals our lungs and heart to speed up and try to get our level back in balance. We then become short winded. Then anxiety kicks in. When we become anxious, our body releases adrenaline which causes our heart to beat faster. The brain then tells the lungs that the heart is working harder and needs more oxygen. So we start to breathe faster and harder. The brain then tells the heart that the lungs need more blood to process, and so the heart starts to beat faster again. And so on, and so on, until we are Short Of Breath. We are then hyperventilating, breathing too fast and too shallow.
What is Pursed Lip Breathing (PLB)? PLB is the first line of defense used by most COPDers when trying to recover from shortness of breath. It involves breathing in through the nose and exhaling with the lips pursed as if you were going to whistle. How hard do you blow out? I find that blowing out with the same force that you would use to cool hot soup on a spoon to be the perfect force. Blow hard enough to cool it but not hard enough to blow it off the spoon. Many sites advocate blow like you were blowing out a candle, but I find that if I simulate blowing out a candle, I tend to puff, instead of a slow exhale and I tend to exhale with too much force and find it harder to relax. How does PLB help? When we PLB properly we create a back pressure in the mouth and throat and this back pressure actually blows the airways open. Now that we can breathe in easier we have to concentrate and breathe out for at least 4 seconds or longer if possible. This helps expel CO2 and trapped air and we begin to breathe easier yet. I have been trying something for the last month or so that helps me. It may not help everybody. After I exhale for four seconds or more, I pause and let the body inhale naturally. The reason I pause is two-fold. First of all, it tells me that I am regaining control of my breathing, which allows me to relax easier and secondly, I find that if I consciously try to inhale right away, I will invariably gasp. When I inhale naturally, I make sure I do not try to top off the air already in my lungs.
Topping-off is when we inhale once and then inhale again before we exhale. This will cause you to use your auxiliary breathing muscles in your shoulders and neck. This will in turn cause you to expend more energy and use up more oxygen. Also with the pausing after exhaling, I would suspect that it gives the lungs a little more time to exchange gases, (CO & CO2). Now that we are breathing rather easily, the anxiety subsides and all is well in our wonderful little worlds. Practicing these techniques is very important so as to be completely trained on how to recover from being Short Of Breath.
I can’t begin to tell you the difference diaphragm breathing has made in my life. I don’t know when it started but I became a shallow breather (chest breather), not using my diaphragm. If your neck and shoulder muscles are constantly sore after a bout of SOB, then you are a chest breather and you have to learn to diaphragm breathe. About eleven months ago I was having a very hard time, being continually SOB. If I went upstairs to the washroom, even using PLB, it would sometimes take me hour to get my breath back. To make a long story short, I searched the web and learned how to diaphragm breathe and my life turned around 180 degrees! When I go upstairs now I am winded when I reach the top as opposed to severely SOB.
I now know that my last hospital stay for respiratory failure was due mostly from being a shallow breather. I was cleaning out my shed, and because of my low FEV1 (10%) and low DLCO (19%), I would work for 30-40 seconds and then I would have to sit and catch my breath. I would PLB and huff and puff for 3-5 minutes in order to catch my breath. After doing this for a couple of days, 2 or 3 hours a day, I eventually exhausted my breathing muscles to the point that they were not functioning properly and not able to rid my body of CO2. Eventually this caused respiratory acidosis (lowering of blood pH) which led to a very severe exacerbation and respiratory failure. Now that I know how to diaphragm breathe, hopefully, this will never happen again! My next exacerbation will be infection induced! Probably the most aggravating thing to me through all of this, is that I suffered undue breathing hardship for a long, long time because nowhere down the line was my method of breathing ever checked and corrected! I did a lot more panting and sucking for air than I ever had to!
Every COPDer should be individually checked for proper breathing techniques.
Exhaling: A tremendously neglected part of therapy by our medical community! Our problem as COPDers is not getting good air (O2) in, it’s getting bad air (CO2) out. Extending our exhale time helps us on two fronts. First of all, it gives our lungs a much better chance of ridding our bodies of CO2. Secondly, I believe extended exhaling is the main reason that I have been exacerbation free for the last 1 year. I realize the immune system helps, but I was getting pneumonia, probably every three months before I learned to breathe and exhale properly. The more stale air you exhale, the more fresh air you can inhale, which gets deeper into the lungs and does not give all the little creepy crawlies a moist, damp environment in which to multiply.
Extending our breathing time is not easy because it goes against what our mind is telling us. Our body is telling us to get rid of CO2, but our mind is telling us we need more O2. It’s listening to our mind that causes us to hyperventilate as we gulp for air. The nature of PLB causes us to slow down our exhale as well as opening our airways, but it also restricts the amount of air we can exhale. After 4 or 5 PLB’s we can actually exhale normally. So we should exhale for 4 seconds and then let our lungs refill naturally. That is, do not consciously inhale. I find if I consciously inhale I invariably want to top off my lungs, which increases my O2 input and that is counter-productive. When I was learning to PLB, they all said to breathe in through your nose, although nobody had a definitive answer as to why. Everybody said for added moisture or infection control. I finally found an acceptable answer for myself a few months back. I noticed that when we inhale through our nose, it is very hard to top off the air in our lungs. If we breathe in through our mouth, the tendency is to "top off" our lungs and that is not what we want when we are SOB. So if you mouth breathe, be conscious of topping off.
Relaxing: If you exhibit any muscle soreness after a bout of SOB, it is probably because you are either over-breathing or not breathing correctly. With a combination of PLB, diaphragm breathing and exhaling for 4 seconds, you should be able to talk yourself into relaxing all those muscles used to breathe. Something I have used sometimes for the last year or so is to start humming a tune. Myself, I hum to “Amazing Grace“. Humming it right it forces me to extend my exhale, take small inhales and gets my mind off of my SOB and allows me to relax. Relaxation is very important. Pick your own song !!
Exertion causes us to be SOB and as COPDers we have to learn how to pace ourselves to try and cut down on the episodes of SOB. We also have to exercise regularly to keep our muscles as well toned as possible as well-toned muscles use a lot less O2. Pulmonary rehab is highly recommended for all who have not been there.
As a final note, most of us know how important it is for us to address our breathing problems properly. Unfortunately, the medical community has not seen that need, as yet. We have medicinal therapy, physical therapy, nutritional therapy, but no breathing therapy as such. Somehow we have to reach out to the medical community to see how this can be changed. I presently go to three different COPD forums on a regular basis, and it is through these forums that I have developed most of my breathing techniques. Anyone who has COPD should join these forums and learn how to cope with the various aspects of COPD. Many will be surprised how manageable it is. The forums are:
http://www.copd-international.com/COPD/forum.htm – http://copd.proboards31.com/index.cgi – http://members.boardhost.com/COPD/
Philip J. Cable
Lower Sackville, N.S.
philcable@hotmail.com
Permission granted to re-produce
For non-profit distribution.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, and please don’t buy anyone cigarettes as a present, you could be helping them add to the already number one killer disease in the world
A store owner was tacking a sign above his door that read “Puppies For Sale.” Signs like that have a way of attracting small children, and sure enough, a little boy appeared under the store owner’s sign.
“How much are you going to sell the puppies for”? he asked.
The store owner replied, “Anywhere from $30 to $50.”
The little boy reached in his pocket and pulled out some change. “I have $2.37,” he said. “Can I please look at them”?
The store owner smiled and whistled and out of the kennel came Lady, who ran down the aisle of his store followed by five teeny tiny balls of fur. One puppy was lagging considerable behind. Immediately, the little boy singled out the lagging limping puppy and said, “What’s wrong with that little dog”?
The store owner explained that the veterinarian had examined the little puppy and had discovered it didn’t have a hip socket. It would always limp. It would always be lame. The little boy became excited. “That’s the little puppy that I want to buy.”
The store owner said, “No, you don’t want to buy that little dog. If you really want him, I’ll just give him to you.”
The little boy got quite upset. He looked straight into the store owner’s eyes, pointing his finger and said, “I don’t want you to give him to me. That little dog is worth every bit as much as all the other dogs and I’ll pay full price. In fact, I’ll give you $2.37 now, and 50 cents a month until I have him paid for.
The store owner countered, “You really don’t want to buy this little dog. He is never going to be able to jump and play with you like the other puppies.”
To this, the little boy reached down and rolled up his pant leg to reveal a badly twisted, left leg supported by a big metal brace. He looked up at the store owner and softly replied,