Whilst Geoffrey was hard at it on his bike, Barbara voyaged to the NZ Respiratory Conference. It culminated with the release of the latest Adult Asthma Guidelines, which our very own Dr Jim Reid of Caversham, took part in formulating: nzasthmaguidelines.co.nz. We are all very lucky to have a dedicated team at SDHB who keep patients well monitored and managed, and it was nice to catch up with them again there. The problem with asthma as in Melbourne recently, is that it still is very much a killer unless well managed, and with thunderstorms coupled with high allergen counts as there recently, people go from being well to acutely unwell fast, so it should never be taken lightly. Good management relies on preventer medicine use despite feeling well, and the newer drugs on the market that couple together in SMART regimes are making great gains. Check with your Doctor, if this is not something you are familiar with. Another very interesting presentation was on anaphylaxis, as NZ also has a really high level of severe allergy to shellfish, peanuts, and “unknown” triggers. It was good to hear there is a Pharmac review of epi-pens, and in the meantime we were advised that allergypharmacy.co.nz has epi-pens available for $120 with a 6 month use by date. They also suggested downloading a Travel Plan to show to airlines regarding severe allergies. One contentious issue discussed was e-cigarettes. Whilst the contents are questionable still, many of the reports from Europe are recommending these rather than cigarettes as it eliminates toxic second hand smoke. The Royal College of Physicians in UK is now advocating that every smoker in the UK should be switched to e-cigarettes. Unfortunately smoking in NZ is still a big problem: 15% of our population smoke on a daily basis, sadly with Maori having no reduction in usage over 9 years, despite Pakeha rates reducing steadily. We still have 40% Maori women and 37% males smoking, compared to 13% Pakeha women, and 17% male, so those strongly advocating e-cigarettes are those working predominantly with the Maori communities as “vaping” at least limits second hand smoke. There is no regulation in this domain though as yet, so watch this space, as medical communities and researchers confer. If you are a smoker though, do try one more time to give up – it is such a tough habit to kick, and on average it seems people have to attempt to quit around 7 times before they have success, but it is so worth it for your health. The key is to de-normalise it for children, so they don’t follow what their grandparents are doing – most grandparents would want to discourage their grandchildren from ever starting, as it is such a financial and health burden, so why not make that big effort again this summer, and stop one last time – you will be SO pleased when you have done it! All healing is delayed by smoking, so it won’t just be your heart and lungs who notice the difference, but all parts of your body will appreciate the boost to your health.
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