Find yourself short of breath? Wheezing? Coughing? Or see these signs in a family member?
Consider attending the Asthma & Allergy Workshop from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Altoona Regional Health System Altoona Hospital Campus.
Betsy Hurst, executive director of the Blair County Respiratory and Disease Society, said the event will include free asthma testing from Baxter Health and Central PA Asthma and Allergy Care.
"It's an opportunity to listen to very qualified physicians speaking, especially sports asthma and opportunity to get these tests," Hurst said. "It's an incredible free clinic."
She said preregistration for the event is not required, and she expects between 150 and 200 people.
There will be discussions on asthma and allergy problem triggers, how to deal with them, how to be active and healthy and sports-related issues.
Dr. Jeffrey Rosch of Central PA Asthma and Allergy Care, Altoona, is offering one of the free tests, spirometry, a breathing test to measure lung volume and the force of breathing.
"Anyone who has a history of wheezing or asthma, or who feels they have trouble with breathing, we can at least get a baseline to see what their lung function is," he said.
The test itself isn't enough to make a diagnosis, Rosch said, but it is a way to screen for problems.
"In some people, even when they feel good, there is a significant change. In others, between (asthma) attacks, their breathing ... may look perfectly normal. We need to be very careful when interpreting lung function studies," he said.
Other reasons for breathing difficulties can include heart problems and reflux.
"People who have trouble (breathing) with exercise may have a lung problem, a heart problem or be (out of shape)," he said.
The spirometry takes about two or three minutes and requires the patient's cooperation.
"It is the gold standard in evaluating lung function in asthmatics," he said.
The other free test, offered by Baxter Health, is the blood test alpha-1-antitrypsin.
"It is an enzyme that controls the function of a different enzyme that is important in turnover of tissue in the lung. Our body is constantly replacing old tissue with new," Rosch said. "If it (the enzyme) goes haywire, it may destroy more lung tissue than it should. If people are deficient, they may end up looking like people with asthma."
That is called suboptimal lung tissue, a genetic disease that Rosch said isn't usually identified until adulthood.
"We can now replace that enzyme and stop that process," he said.
Hurst said results from the blood test will be sent to people later, and the asthma test will be read there.
The Asthma & Allergy Workshop "is really an important opportunity for people with asthma or people with family members with asthma. ... You need to be an educated consumer; you need to know if the care you are being given is optimal," Rosch said.
Life Editor Barbara Cowan is at 946-7454.
