by tsar_robles 14 Replies latest watchtower medical
hey guys and gals,
well, i've recently been diagnosed with asthma. I just dont know if it is or not. It seems to be triggered at times by cold air or AC and sometimes just plain anxiety such as the one a person experiences just before meeting someone new, an interview, etc. That triggers my cough attacks. I've had the cough for about 7 months and the only break I've had was when I visited the LA area back in May... does anything work for any of you??? I am currently on albuterol...
Hey tsar! Sorry to hear about the asthma DX. I had it years ago, took Marax I think it was (?) and used to sit in the bathroom with the showers running to create steam (which is what the doc way back then said to do). I was living in the Rockies at the time, but after 5 years I moved back to humid-city FLA and quit the Marax and it went away.
Even so, just a FEW DAYS AGO I saw the "famous" Dr. Henry HEIMLICH ("Heimlich Maneuver") on Dr. John McDougall's TV program on the Christian channel. What a neat ol' guy, Dr. Henry. He's been at this a LONG time.
He was saying that everybody knows to use the Heimlich Maneuver for people who are choking, but he said it can also be used for people who have almost-drowned (got water in the lungs) AND for people with ASTHMA! How about that!
He said people with asthma can do the Heimlich Maneuver to themselves, by pressing up against a table ledge or the top/back of a chair, and that it helps get out the mucus plugs which is the bottom line for asthma. He said it works and people can either cut way down on their inhalers or some can stop using them altogether, eventually.
His website is here: http://www.heimlichinstitute.org/default.php
The front page says in part:
[...]
Henry J. Heimlich, M.D., president, is best known for the lifesaving Heimlich Maneuver®, for which he won the Lasker Award in 1984. But the technique has also been shown effective in saving drowning victims, asthma sufferers and cystic fibrosis patients. Dr. Heimlich also works to promote peaceful solutions to international problems through the "A Caring World" program.
[...]
In his MENU BAR at the site, click on HEIMLICH MANEUVER and then CHOKING - DROWNING - ASTHMA will appear, so click on that ...
http://www.heimlichinstitute.org/asthma.php
[...]
ASTHMA
The Heimlich Maneuver® has long been used to save the lives of choking and drowning victims worldwide. Research has now proven it to be effective for asthma and cystic fibrosis.
In performing the Heimlich Maneuver, you press up on the diaphragm. This action gently compresses the lungs, causing the trapped air to flow out through the airway, carrying away the mucous plugs, ending the asthma attack and allowing the individual to breathe freely.
--HM Saves Asthma Sufferers
--Allergy Hotline Article
--Hillary's story
--Quick Fact Sheet
--How to Do the Heimlich Maneuver for Asthma
[...]
See this page for drawings of how to do it:
http://www.heimlichinstitute.org/page.php?id=27
[...]
The Heimlich Maneuver® for ASTHMA
Perform the Heimlich maneuver on a person with an acute asthma attack who hasn't responded to medication, or is unable to take their medication. This method also works for persons suffering from cystic fibrosis. Follow these steps to help relieve an asthma attack:
If you are performing the maneuver on another, wrap your arms around the victim's waist from behind.
Make a fist and place the thumb side of your fist against your (the victim's) upper abdomen, below the ribcage and above the navel.
Grasp your fist with your other hand and press into your (the victim's) upper abdomen with a quick upward thrust. Do not squeeze the ribcage; confine the force of the thrust to your hands.
Repeat if necessary.
Alternatively, you can lean over a fixed horizontal object (table edge, chair, railing) and press your upper abdomen against the edge to produce a quick upward thrust. Repeat if necessary.
If the Victim has not recovered, proceed with CPR. The Victim should see a physician immediately after rescue.
[...]
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As for choking, on the TV program, he said he had to fight the RED CROSS for 14 years to get them to stop teaching that pounding people on the back while they are choking, will help him. He said that most everybody, if not all, people DIED from that because the pounding on the back had the OPPOSITE effect than what you would expect. Eventually the Red Cross listened to him and they started teaching the Heimlich Maneuver instead to dislodge whatever is making a person choke.
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Ditto for DROWNING Victims. He said he had to fight for years over that one as well. He said the LAST THING you need to do to a drowning victims, ESPECIALLY little babies and children, is CPR because they cannot TAKE IN AIR when their lungs have water, it just doesn't work. You need to get the WATER OUT of their lungs first, which is exactly what the Heimlich Maneuver will do, and fast.
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I'm looking to see if I can find a video of Heimlich on McDougall program... not yet found one...
http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/2004nl/041000puheimlich.htm
[...]
Meet Dr. Henry Heimlich
At the McDougall Advanced Study Weekend
January 28 to 30, 2005
“There are only two people I have ever met who I could hardly wait to hear the next word they spoke. One of them is Dr. Heimlich.”
John McDougall, MD
Henry Heimlich, MD is a friend of the McDougalls, he has attended the McDougall Live-in Program, and has been a guest on the TV show, “McDougall, MD”
Dr. Heimlich has saved more lives than any person who has walked this earth. In 1964, the Heimlich Chest Drain Valve was introduced. Dr. Heimlich is considered a hero in Vietnam and the U.S., where for the first time in history the lives of thousands of American and Vietnamese soldiers shot in the chest were saved by a device barely five inches long. In 1974, Dr. Heimlich published findings on what was to become the Heimlich Maneuver. A week later, the first choking victim was saved by the method. Since its introduction, the Heimlich Maneuver has saved 50,000 people from choking or drowning in the United States alone.
[...]
Longer article re: Heimlich from a 1998 McDougall newsletter:
[...]
From July/Aug '98
Interview: HENRY HEIMLICH, M.D.
The Man Who Has Saved More Lives Than Anyone
]
http://web.archive.org/web/20000819051540/http://drmcdougall.com/Newsletter/july_aug1.html
[...]
THIS PAGE has a REAL VIDEO of the McDougall TV program with Heimlich - scroll down to find it:
and here
http://74.125.45.104/search?q=cache:3sb0WWUQzHMJ:www.lifestyle.org/weekly_md.php+Video+-+Heimlich+on+McDougall&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us
[...]
McDougall M.D.
is now available Nationwide on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) Tuesdays at 8:30 a.m. PST
DR. HEIMLICH: Dr. Henry Heimlich, developer of the world-famous Heimlich Maneuver, shares other life-saving uses for this exercise, such as saving drowning victims and stopping or preventing asthma attacks. Dr. Heimlich also discusses how he is using Malaria therapy to help fight diseases such as AIDS and cancer.
28.8 Real Audio
28.8 Real Video
[...]
SCROLL even FURTHER down that SAME page and it is listed again in REAL STREAMS ( is that a video program?) :
[...]
Dr. Henry Heimlich, developer of the world-famous Heimlich Maneuver, shares other life-saving uses for this exercise, such as saving drowning victims and stopping or preventing asthma attacks. Dr. Heimlich also discusses how he is using Malaria therapy to help fight diseases such as AIDS and cancer.
Real Streams :
112k 256k 384k
512k 56k 768k
[...]
Here's another site showing how to do in:
http://www.cammarata.com/reference/heimlich.html
[...]
Heimlich Maneuver Real Video
Now you can watch Jerry Cammarata teach you the Heimlich Maneuver over the Internet
in just three, fifteen minute REAL VIDEO clips.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
[...]
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=YouTube+-+Heimlich+Maneuver&btnG=Search
Hope this helps!
/ag
PS: Water fasting will cure asthma at its roots if you're interested in that sort of thing.
Ginger will help the cough part of it. You can make it by adding some to regular tea, or buy the japanese pickled ginger that they give w sushi. I often have a chronic light cough, and it stops it for a day or two.
S
OK, I've been a nurse for many years. PLEASE don't believe that will cure, or really help.
There might be isolated cases of this helping. The best thing you can do is talk regularly with your doctor.
shit.
Crazy
Did i discourage him from seeing a doc for asthma? I addressed the coughing part of it w something that i know that works.
S
NO...you didn't. My bad.
I
thanks Abagail for the thorough info, I was taught the heimlich maneuver in cpr class 12 yrs ago so it's totally forgotten now but I guess that's what youtube is there for lol oh and where in the rockies did you use to live? I live in the denver area so that is part of the problem... high altitude and dry air...
Sat, thanks for the tea suggestion, at this point I am willing to try anything but of course as a supplement to my MD visits as suggested by craz-y
Hi tsar, yup, the Denver Brown Cloud... can't be good for asthma... ;-/
I was in Aspen for 5 years way back when '75-'80... I thought I'd never forget their exact altitude... (had to go look it up, higher than I remembered: 7,822 feet elevation per weather underground site). Currently 49 degrees there with 77% humidity on 9/20/08, past 11 pm -- well 9 pm their time. Wow, 49 degrees, and it's not even halloween yet!
Those were the asthma days, which actually first started before I got to Aspen when I was in California for a few months at my sister's, some little town near Gilroy, and we went hiking in the woods, had an acute onset, couldn't breathe for 2 weeks, had to hang my head off the bed every night trying to breathe. Finally my sis said she'd pay for me to go to the doc and he DX asthma and gave me the first marax RX. I hated those things, they made me tremble inside and my hands would shake, never did like them or take them much, only when in dire straits.
I left there and drove to Aspen w/$60 bucks in my pocket (IRS income tax refund that year, lol, those were the good ol' days). I was also hanging out in the bars and smoking -- before I learned the "Jw-version" of truth and began to "clean up" in '79. Then in mid-80 moved back to FLA. I'd much rather live in dry climate, loathe the humidity here, but maybe it did help get rid of the asthma, hanging on the beach a LOT back in those days after I came back here. Tried drinking WINE in those beach-bum days, but it made me wheeze even in FLA so I never have liked it since.
It is 72 degrees where I am right now, 86% humidity, at 25 foot elevation, lol. Praise God for A/C! (which there was no such thing in Aspen, wasn't needed, not even in short summers there.)
Maybe a humidifier would help???
As for Heimlich, doesn't look like much fun as a regular for asthma-control, it's so physical, but then again, it'd be better than drugs, and like riding a bike, I'm sure you would re-learn-it fast.
Whatever you decide, wishing you health and success at it.
/ag
wow! that's a thread of its own Abbagail! lol things havent changed much around here and yes... I'm also looking at the possibility of moving :)
haha tsar! yeah I tend to ramble on once i get started, lol.
So where ya thinking of moving to?
