I remember reading this for the first time when I was 15 years old in my high school English class, at the time I begrudgingly worked on interpreting the works of T.S Eliot, Ezra Pound and the like, carefully dissecting words and sentences storing them away in my subconscious.

“Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity”

Feeling anxious about my child’s wellbeing allowed me to take matters into my own hands, to pause and to reassess my purpose and as a result to refocus my efforts towards improving not only his sleep, but as a result the sleep of thousands. 

Do you feel anxious about the quality of your sleep, or the condition of a loved one?

Let’s break it down to a few simple thoughts to help all of us gain clarity and turn our anxiety into creativity. 

• First if you are experiencing allergy symptoms go see an allergist and ask that your doctor determine what it is you are allergic to.

• Dust mite waste is the leading allergic trigger world wide, and no matter how clean your home is, dust mites and their waste can be found in your bed, mattress and carpets.

• Work with your allergist to design an avoidance program to keep yourself away from the allergic triggers that are making you or your loved one sick.

• Get smart and proactive about your bed room, encase your pillows, mattress and box spring to start, and then begin to examine the remaining areas of your sleeping environment.  Can carpets be removed? Have pets been allowed to enter your bed room? Is your sleeping environment properly maintained, cleaned and kept clutter free? 

Your anxious energy refocused on a creative solution will allow you to wake up rested and provide you and your loved ones the opportunity to reach their maximum potential, leading to an improved quality of life.

     According to a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a small variation in the CHI3L1 gene increases the risk of asthma and bronchial hyperresponsiveness.  Researches originally studied the Hutterites, a genetically isolated population in South Dakota, but expanded their efforts to include three genetically-diverse populations around the globe to in order to examine the behavior of the gene variation.
     The discovery is a huge step in the study of asthma — it may lead to the ability to identify the susceptibility of asthma, as well as lead us to a treatment to prevent it.

Kids can outgrow asthma, right? Well, some can. According to a Canadian study, more than half of children who develop asthma during their first 6 years will continue to have the respiratory disease when they are at age 12.Of the 34,216 asthmatic children in the study, about 54% experienced an asthma attack the following year, and nearly 75% had attacks within three years of being diagnosed with the disease. The study also revealed that children who were diagnosed between ages two and five were more likely to have asthma at age 12 than children who were diagnosed before age two. Of the children studied, persistent symptoms were more common among boys.

Researchers recognized a difference between children who lived in urban areas as opposed to rural areas. Persistent symptoms were more common among asthmatics from cities, thought there was not a difference between socioeconomic class. What does that tell us? If kids in cities have more persistent symptoms, regardless of class and living conditions, pollution must play a large roll, considering it effects everyone.

Asthma camps are providing the education children need about their asthma, and it’s improving their condition. A new study has shown that children who have attended camps that center around asthma management skills had fewer visits to the emergency department and the doctor’s office, as well as fewer hospitalizations, than those who had never been to such a camp before.Researchers evaluated nearly 1,800 children at 24 separate asthma camps (about 120 asthma camps exist in the United States) that are sponsored by the American Lung Association (ALA). The ALA tries to reach out to children in poorer neighborhoods who are less likely to be receiving the care that they require for their condition.

The study showed that about 44% of the children had already visited the emergency room at some point, and 76% required additional visits to the doctor. It concluded that 37% of children with asthma were inadequately controlling the condition.

The numbers were different when researchers looked at children who had previously attended an asthma camp. They had fewer emergency room visits, fewer doctors visits and displayed much better management skills than others.

Asthma is very manageable, and the study does a lot to show that educational camps like these can help children manage the disease more effectively.

The American Asthma Foundation recently conducted a research breakthrough that explains why a common allergen; dust mites, triggers asthma attacks.  The American Asthma Foundation’s Strategic Program for Asthma Research (SPAR) established that the common “dust mites found in every household, trick the immune system into believing that it is facing a bacterial infection. Thus misinformed, the immune system mounts a strong allergic response to mites, a response that can trigger asthma attacks.

American Asthma Foundation Annouces Breathrough Discovery:  Full Press Release