Word: asthma
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...more attention to the quality of the health care they are subsidizing. The Pacific Business Group on Health, an association of 35 companies that collectively buys $3 billion in health insurance each year, has begun paying for studies comparing health outcomes among various managed-care plans with respect to asthma care and bypass surgery. "It's shameful that people not in the [health care] business have to initiate these studies," says Patricia Powers, the group's executive director. "But we don't see the health-care industry taking on these kinds of projects...
Even some managed-care companies have begun to see the light. After Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in Boston initiated a quality-control program for pediatric asthma, hospital admissions for critical asthma episodes plummeted more than 80%. The health plan teamed nurses and doctors to show kids how to use a device that measures lung capacity and lets patients regulate their own dosage. Properly informed and prepared, the children and their parents were able to head off life-threatening asthma crises that would otherwise have required hospitalization...
...stomach, the esophagus has no protective lining against corrosion. Repeated bouts of reflux eat away at its inner wall, triggering excessive scarring and bleeding. Sometimes the acid reaches the vocal cords, causing hoarseness. Other times it spills over into the lungs, triggering a potentially serious condition that mimics asthma...
...must you flee from milk entirely? Yes, says Cohen, who holds that skim milk is the devil's brew. It's full of--are you sitting down?--protein. And here's where the ADC starts twisting the facts to reach wild conclusions. Allergies are frequently triggered by proteins (true); asthma is an allergic condition (true); it's been increasing draatically (true); doctors don't know the cause (true); therefore, the protein in milk must be the culprit...
...receive more focused advice from registered dietitian Cindy Moore than do men. First, she would want to know if any factors other than hormonal changes have contributed to bone loss. An eating disorder during adolescence, for instance, or chronic inadequate calcium intake diminishes total bone mass. Steroids taken for asthma and immunosuppressants reduce bone density. Even a lack of vitamin D, which is most easily acquired through exposure to half an hour of sunlight a day, diminishes the ability of bones to absorb calcium, a main building block. Moore would recommend an increase in the daily intake of calcium...