Asthma in Old Age

Aging and increasing attacks–what can you do to control them?

Camille:

I have asthma attacks quite often now that I’m getting older. One thing I don’t understand, I can live with the asthma, but I have this rattle in my chest all the time, and I was wondering, will that death rattle ever go away?

Rick:

I’m curious. You say you have attacks or episodes quite often. How often is that?

Camille:

It used to be once every two or three months. Now, it’s like once every other day. Sometimes twice a day, three times a day.

Rick:

What are you taking for it?

Camille:

I have four inhalers, aerochamber and a pill–Beopolyn.

Dr. Redding:

One of the things we know about asthma is that it not only produces constriction of muscle around the airways and inflammation and swelling of the airways, but it also increases the mucus production that people have. And the rattle usually reflects mucus production. And as one gets older, it’s harder to get that mucus out. Especially if your asthma is active or under inadequate control.

Rick:

And Camille, I’m curious, you talk about things that might exacerbate the problem with the mucus, is diet a factor at all that you know of?

Camille:

Yeah. I notice that if I eat foods with less fat and less oils, I have a tendency to breathe a lot better and the mucus will die down. But if I were to eat a cheeseburger for dinner tonight, tomorrow morning when I wake up, it’s there.

Dr. Stempel:

One of the things that a lot of people have that is a problem is an increase in mucus after eating a very large meal. One of the things that you might want to do is be certain that you don’t eat for several hours before you go to sleep. The other question is that a lot of people with asthma also have something that we call reflux or what you might interpret as heartburn, where you get a little bit of stomach acid going up your esophagus, and this frequently will produce some of the symptoms of asthma and make asthma worse.

Dr. Redding:

One of the things that you can think about is if you have what’s called gastroesophageal reflux or what Dr. Stempel called heartburn or regurgitation, that you can take an antacid for that and often help your symptoms, not only of your heartburn, but also of your asthma. We know that people who have severe asthma tend to have more heartburn than the usual person on the street. We also know that heartburn tends to make asthma worse. So it’s a positive feedback cycle.