Laughter may be the best medicine unless your airways are raw with inflammation - the kind associated with asthma. Researchers in Australia found that as many as one in three people with asthma start wheezing, coughing or feeling short of breath when laughing!
Laughing asthma is really just another form of exercise-induced asthma and both are signs that airway inflammation is out of control and I'm not joking. Need more convincing evidence?
Your allergist can measure various aspects of lung function using a machine called a spirometer. But to know if allergic asthma is causing airway inflammation, there is a new test now approved by Blue Cross Blue Shield that measures exhaled nitric oxide (eNO), a by-product found in your breath (no, it doesn't smell bad) if your airways are inflamed. The test is non-invasive, easy to do for kids and adults.
This new technology takes us just one step closer to customizing asthma action plans to meet your specific needs...such as laughing until your sides hurt but without asthma symptoms!
To learn more about eNO, visit AANMA's website and search eNO. You can also visit Aerocrine or Aperion websites. And no, they didn't pay for these links but if I'd asked them to help sponsor this blog, I would tell you that, too.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
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