asthma •

Patients must receive more instructions on how to use an inhaler to prevent emergencies

STATES CHRONICLE – There are many people in the world and the United States who suffer from asthma. Most of the patients are using inhalers when they are experiencing breathing difficulties. The inhalers are small devices which help deliver medicine in a quick way. The medicine delivered into the system is steroids, which should help the patient breathe more easily.

However, a very large number of people who suffer from asthma seem to be having trouble using the inhaler, in other words, they have no idea of how to use the device. This means that when they experience shortness of breath they might wind up in a hospital, although the problem could have been solved with an inhaler.

The same issue is also common among people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, also known as COPD.

Researchers assigned patients with COPD and asthma to receive instruction on how to use inhalers. After receiving the instructions, 91 percent of the patients managed to use the devices properly. From the ones who didn’t receive instructions, only 40 percent were able to use inhalers correctly.

Moreover, after being released from the hospital, from the ones who received personal instructions, only 17 percent had acute flare-ups, whereas 36 percent of the other group experienced problems.

Most of the instructions are not given by doctors per say but rather they listen to the patients reading the instructions aloud and go on talking about the disease. It is recommended that doctors and nurses demonstrate to the patients how an inhaler must be used and watch the patient use the inhaler afterwards to be able to correct any mistakes until the patient gets it right.

This procedure should take only a few minutes and could help save lives. There are many people who have low health literacy and might need more education than the others to understand their condition and how they must behave or what they must do in case of an emergency.

Although it might be difficult for medical staff to take up a few extra minutes of their time to demonstrate how an inhaler should be used, it will definitely improve the patient’s health in time, and fewer people will have to be hospitalized just because they didn’t know how to use an inhaler.

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Hydrolyzed formulas might not protect against allergies after all

STATES CHRONICLE – Products get verified and have to pass many tests and meet many requirements, but there are still many labels out there that try to trick us. Some of them don’t mention the risks of consuming that said product, and others boast having effects they don’t actually have.

Such products can often be dangerous, and when it comes to the ones directed at children, the problem becomes even more concerning. There are several infant formulas claiming they protect kids from autoimmune disorders such as allergies, asthma or type 1 diabetes.

Learning that these formulas could protect their infant, many parents turn to them as alternatives. However, the latest research shows the “hydrolyzed” formulas don’t really have a protective role.

The study was conducted by a team of researchers at the Imperial College London. Despite the belief that hydrolyzed formula should be consumed by infants with a family history of allergies, the scientists didn’t manage to find the benefits of such formulas.

In other words, although the FDA approves of hydrolyzed formulas, it appears that data supporting these formulas is inconclusive and not compelling. And the FDA is not the only organization supporting these types of formula, but also agencies in Europe and Australia share their view.

In order to see whether hydrolyzed formulas work or not, the researchers put together data from 37 studies which included over 19,000 subjects. The studies were conducted from 1946 to 2015. It turned out that the infants fed with hydrolyzed milk did not show a lower risk of allergies, asthma or type 1 diabetes in comparison with the infants who consumes standard formula or human breast milk.

Since it appears that hydrolyzed cow milk does not fulfill its supposed role of protection against allergies and autoimmune disorders, it is recommended that both scientists and the FDA revisit the guidelines which made them support this type of formula in the past.

However, the formulas showed no side-effects, so they can be safely used in the future, except parents shouldn’t expect their children to be protected from allergies.

All in all, no matter how good formulas can be and how much they can offer, they will never compare to the advantages that breast milk brings. Therefore, mothers should take into consideration breastfeeding and that for as long as possible.

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