Respiratory Conditions

COPD is a lung disease that makes it hard for the patient to breathe. It is caused by damage to the lungs over many years, usually from smoking.
Among Canadians aged 35 to 79 years, 4% reported having been diagnosed by a health professional with COPD, chronic bronchitis or emphysema. Women (5%) were significantly more likely to report a diagnosis than men (3%). There were no significant differences between 40 to 59 year-olds and 60 to 79 year-olds in reported COPD.
In 2007 in Canada there were 22,865 new lung cancer cases, and most of these people (80% to 90%) were previously diagnosed with COPD.
COPD is often a mix of two diseases:
✓ Chronic bronchitis. In chronic bronchitis, the airways that carry air to the lungs (bronchial tubes) get inflamed and make a lot of mucus. This can narrow or block the airways, making it hard for you to breathe.
✓ Emphysema. In a healthy person, the tiny air sacs in the lungs are like balloons. As you breathe in and out, they get bigger and smaller to move air through your lungs. But with emphysema, these air sacs are damaged and lose their stretch. Less air gets in and out of the lungs, which makes you feel short of breath.
COPD gets worse over time. You can’t undo the damage to your lungs. But you can take steps to prevent more damage and to feel better.
COPD is almost always caused by smoking. Over time, breathing tobacco smoke irritates the airways and destroys the stretchy fibers in the lungs.
Other things that may put you at risk include breathing chemical fumes, dust, or air pollution over a long period of time. Secondhand smoke also may damage the lungs.
It usually takes many years for the lung damage to start causing symptoms, so COPD is most common in people who are older than 60.
The main symptoms are:
✓ A long-lasting (chronic) cough.
✓ Mucus that comes up when you cough.
✓ Shortness of breath that gets worse when you exercise.

Asthma is a chronic disease of the airways that makes breathing difficult. With asthma, there is inflammation of the air passages that results in a temporary narrowing of the airways that carry oxygen to the lungs. This results in asthma symptoms, including coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness. If it is severe, asthma can result in decreased activity and inability to talk.
There are three major features of asthma, and these are:
1. Airway obstruction. During normal breathing, the bands of muscle that surround the airways are relaxed, and air moves freely. But in people with asthma, allergy-causing substances, colds and respiratory viruses, and environmental triggers make the bands of muscle surrounding the airways tighten, and air cannot move freely. Less air causes a person to feel short of breath, and the air moving out through the tightened airways causes a whistling sound known as wheezing.
2. Inflammation. People with asthma have red and swollen bronchial tubes. This inflammation is thought to contribute greatly to the long-term damage that asthma can cause to the lungs. And, therefore, treating this inflammation is key to managing asthma in the long run.
3. Airway irritability. The airways of people with asthma are extremely sensitive. The airways tend to overreact and narrow due to even the slightest triggers such as pollen, animal dander, dust, or fumes.
Asthma may occur at any age, although it’s more common in people under age 40. People who have a family history of asthma have an increased risk of developing the disease. Allergies and asthma often occur together, along with eczema. Smoking with asthma, a dangerous combination, is still seen commonly with some patients.
Asthma is increasingly prevalent among children. The rate of childhood asthma has more than doubled since 1980.
Prevalence rates for asthma, world-wide, continue to rise by 50% with every decade. In 2014, 8.1% of Canadians aged 12 and older, roughly 2.4 million people, reported that they had been diagnosed with asthma by a health professional. This rate has remained fairly consistent since 2001.
People with asthma have very sensitive airways that react to many different things in the environment called “asthma triggers.” Contact with these triggers cause asthma symptoms to start or worsen. The following are common triggers for asthma:
✓ Infections such as colds, flus and sinusitis
✓ Allergens such as dust mites, mold spores, pet dander, and pollens
✓ Irritants such as strong odors from perfumes or cleaning solutions, and air pollution
✓ Tobacco smoke (first hand and second hand)
✓ Exercise (known as exercise-induced asthma)
✓ Weather; changes in temperature and/or humidity, cold air
✓ Strong emotions such as anxiety, laughter or crying, stress
✓ Medications, such as aspirin-sensitive asthma

Sinusitis is an inflammation, or swelling, of the tissue lining the sinuses. Normally, sinuses are filled with air, but when sinuses become blocked and filled with fluid, germs (bacteria, viruses, and fungi) can grow and cause an infection.
Conditions that can cause sinus blockage include the common cold, allergic rhinitis (swelling of the lining of the nose), nasal polyps (small growths in the lining of the nose), or a deviated septum (a shift in the nasal cavity).
There are different types of sinusitis, including:
✓ Acute sinusitis: A sudden onset of cold-like symptoms such as runny, stuffy nose and facial pain that does not go away after 10 to 14 days. Acute sinusitis typically lasts 4 weeks or less.
✓ Subacute sinusitis: An inflammation lasting 4 to 8 weeks.
✓ Chronic sinusitis: A condition characterized by sinus inflammation symptoms lasting 8 weeks or longer.
✓ Recurrent sinusitis: Several attacks within a year.
In children, common environmental factors that contribute to sinusitis include allergies, illness from other children at day care or school, pacifiers, bottle drinking while lying on one’s back, and smoke in the environment.
In adults, the contributing factors are most frequently infections and smoking.

There is two types of coughs: acute chough and chronic cough.
An acute cough is defined as lasting less than 3 weeks. A chronic cough has lasted more than 8 weeks (two months). A chronic cough in a cigarette smoker is called chronic bronchitis, and usually disregarded by the smoker. The cure for a smokers’ cough is simple, but rarely employed – quit smoking!
The most common causes of a chronic cough in a non-smoker are asthma, rhinitis with sinusitis and post-nasal drainage (PND), and GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease). Most people with a chronic cough just try OTC (over the counter, non-prescription) cough remedies, many of which suppress the brain’s cough reflex (as do opiates like codeine and morphine), but no OTC medication treats the underlying cause of the cough as a Naturopath will do for you.

Cystic fibrosis is a rare genetic disease that causes mucus in the body to become thick and sticky. This glue-like mucus builds up and causes problems in many of the body’s organs, especially the lungs and the pancreas. People who have cystic fibrosis can have serious breathing problems and lung disease. They can also have problems with nutrition, digestion, and growth. The disease generally gets worse over time.

The life expectancy for people with cystic fibrosis has been steadily increasing.

Cystic fibrosis is one of the most common genetic disorders in white children in Canada and the United States. It’s caused by a change, or mutation, in a gene. The changed gene is passed down in families. To pass on this disease, both parents must be carriers of the changed gene.

Cystic fibrosis is usually diagnosed at an early age. The symptoms aren’t the same for everyone. But some common symptoms in a baby who has cystic fibrosis include:

• A blocked small intestine at birth. This prevents the baby from passing his or her first stool.
• Very salty sweat or skin.
• Diarrhea.
• Not growing or gaining weight the way that other children do.
• Breathing problems, lung infections, a cough that does not go away, and wheezing.
• Clubbing (rounding and flattening) of the fingers.
• Rectal prolapse (when part of the rectum protrudes from the anus).
• Growths (polyps) in the nose or sinuses.

Babies in the United States and Canada are tested for cystic fibrosis right after birth. Screening tests look for a certain health problem before any symptoms appear. The doctor may also notice the signs of cystic fibrosis during a routine exam.

If your child has a positive newborn screening test or symptoms of cystic fibrosis, your doctor will order a sweat test to see how much salt is in your child’s sweat. People with cystic fibrosis have sweat that is much saltier than normal. The doctor may also suggest a genetic test.