The Importance of Starting a Dialog With Your Doctor

Saturday, August 29, 2009, 14:03
Asthma
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Andrew:: What advice would you give to people who may be hearing this who really don’t know whether their doctor is knowledgeable? How do they bring that up? How do they dialog, let’s say, with a primary care doctor about these treatments?
Dr. Ayars:: I think that what they can do is show their knowledge and go to their doctor, and ask them about it if they have heard from someplace, such as the press or hopefully even this interview here, that inhaled steroids are the place to be if you’ve got significant asthma or some of the other anti-inflammatory drugs may be appropriate, such as the anti-leukotrine drugs. So I would say go to your doctor, and say: “I’m having significant asthma, and I’ve heard that there are even better drugs than maybe what I’m using.” The other thing is they may find out they’re on inhaled steroids and not realize it, but then there are newer ones that are more potent that may be easier to use too.
Andrew:: So, Maureen, what advice would you give to another listener who’s maybe been suffering with asthma and their quality of life has been diminished and they’re thinking that really maybe they can’t be helped?
Maureen:: They need to talk to their doctor and if their doctor is not an asthma specialist, they need to get to an asthma specialist. Even though I’m calling you guys, I actually have an appointment with a specialist in my area on Wednesday because I would like to explore some of these questions further. But, it seems to me that they’ve just made some major, major strides. I’ve had asthma since I was a kid. Back in the old days they used to give you these little blue pills called Marax, and they used to make you feel like you had about 10 cups of coffee. They were horrible. And the improvements have just been remarkable. Such that I basically forget I have asthma most of the time. I just have to have my inhalers with me. But otherwise, it’s just not an issue in my life. So people need to go to their doctors, they need to tell them what kind of symptoms they have, and they need to be real clear about what they want, and then to follow the advice with the inhalers because they work.
Dr. Ayars:: I couldn’t give a better testimonial to that. That’s very good.

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