How healthy is your home?

Before answering that question, make a mental picture of your utility closet, or the cabinet under the kitchen sink. There are probably a few old dishrags, some all-purpose cleanser, maybe a can of roach killer. And if you own a car, you’re likely to have a container of antifreeze and transmission fluid sharing a shelf with the extra can of gasoline. The fact is, if you’re like most people, your home is chock-full of toxic household chemicals.

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If you’re having a severe asthma episode, do you know when it’s time to ask for help? Maybe you’re not sure what an asthma emergency feels like. Maybe you’re hoping that a really bad asthma episode will get better on its own. If you have questions about when it’s time to seek emergency treatment for asthma, don’t wait to ask. Take the time now to learn how to recognize the warning signs of an emergency. It could save your life.

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Do you like your doctor? That’s great. Let him or her know. On the other hand, do you have problems with your doctor? While that’s not so great, you’ve still got to let him or her — or at least your parents — know. The key to working successfully with your doctor is good communication. The fact is, your ability to exchange information with your doctor can mean the difference between being wheezy or well.

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You’ve had a nagging cough and trouble breathing for a few weeks now. Is it just a cold or is it asthma? The only way to find out for sure is to get a diagnosis from your health care provider. Here’s what you can expect during that first doctor’s visit, and how you can work with your doctor — and your family — to make sure you get the proper diagnosis and the best treatment.

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Gardens have always been considered places of peace and beauty. And gardening is a pastime with thousands of years of history. If you’re one of the millions of people who have pollen allergies, however, an afternoon tending to lawns or pruning shrubs can seem anything but peaceful. Instead of an invigorating breath of fresh air, you’re opening yourself to symptoms such as sneezing, coughing, itchy eyes, and upper respiratory congestion.

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Ever wonder if you’re getting the right amount of inhaler medicine? Using a metered dose inhaler by itself isn’t necessarily the best way to get the correct dose into your lungs. That’s why your doctor gave you a spacer. The Allergy & Asthma Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, offers these general instructions for using a spacer with your inhaler:

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As your child grows, his or her role in taking medicine slowly changes from passive to active. Eventually, your child will “graduate” from you giving the medication, to taking medication on his or her own. In real terms, that means moving from a nebulizer to a metered dose inhaler, or MDI.

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In 1995, almost 2 million Americans sought emergency help for an asthma episode. Many of those millions were diagnosed with status asthmaticus, defined by the Journal of the American Medical Association as a severe, life-threatening asthma episode. It happens most often when asthma is undiagnosed and untreated. But anyone with asthma can experience status asthmaticus. It doesn’t matter whether your usual asthma classification is mild intermittent or moderate persistent. All it takes is the wrong circumstances to put you in real danger.

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