Results tagged “asthma” from iVillage - Health beat
Last week I wrote about the high rate of depression among asthma patients and its connection to frequent visits to the doctor.
Dr. Paul Walters and his team from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London followed more than 11-thousand asthma patients for 10 years and noticed they had a 63% increased risk of developing depression compared to people without asthma.
They also noticed that the depressed asthma patients made more trips to the doctor each year compared to asthma patients who weren't depressed.
I've written before about how difficult asthma is to treat, and how more than half of asthma patients struggle with poorly controlled symptoms. No wonder many of them get depressed, and keep going back to their doctor!
At the recent meeting of the North American Primary Care Research Group, I listened to a British mental health expert discussing his recent findings about the high risk of depression among people with asthma. It was a surprising discovery, he said, with the first clue in one of his previous studies which revealed asthma was the third highest reason for antidepressant use in the UK. "We suspected chronic illness would be linked to antidepressant use, but not specifically asthma," said Dr. Paul Walters, from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.
In his latest study, Dr. Walters followed more than 22-thousand asthma and non-asthma patients over a 10-year period and found that asthma patients were 63% more likely to develop depression, and 87% more likely to die.
Those numbers are worrying, but not completely surprising. Many chronic illnesses are linked with depression.
What's less well understood is why that might be.
Osteopath Dave Campbell instructs me to lie on my back. Then he pushes his fingers under my ribcage and tells me to take a deep breath. This lift-and-stretch move will ease the tightness in my chest and free up my diaphragmatic muscles. For the past 12 years, osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT) has helped my asthmatic lungs breathe easier, not only when I am struggling through an acute asthma flare, but even when my asthma is under control.
I stumbled upon OMT by accident after running my first half marathon. Like most debut races, mine was hard. I was sore all over and was seeking Campbell's expertise as an athletic therapist. I was skeptical when he suggested OMT for my diaphragmatic muscles--but after that first session I left with a literal weight off my chest.
Lately Campbell has been doing damage control, since I spent the past two weeks coughing with bronchitis. A similar bout earlier this year ended in pneumonia.
With H1N1 influenza making daily headlines and seasonal flu just around the corner I am not taking any chances--getting the flu could quickly turn into a respiratory complication for me.
