Manipal Hospital

Hello friends ! I am Dr. Piyush Goel. I am consultant Pulmonologist and critical care specialist.

Today we will discuss about one of the most happening topic which we are discussing in day to day life that is air pollution. Right, we talk a lot about air pollution.

What is air pollution? It can affect your lungs, it can affect your heart, you, beside living in daily NCR in wrong area, you have a large exposure of air pollution at most of the things, most of the allergies, most of the lung infections, and most of the heart diseases are because of this air pollution. You all know this. You all know about this thing. You have read all these thing in the newspaper, but we just have to know how it affects your body? What is, basically first, what is air pollution, what are the contents of this air pollution? What is smoke? What is particulate matter? We heard lot of particulate matter. PM 2.5 so you just have to know about all these thing and how it affect your lung, how it effect you heart and other body parts.

So we will discuss all these things and how to avoid exposure to air pollution .what are the things you have to do to avoid air pollution. Right, so air pollution is basically because of our day to day activities right. First and foremost is combustion of fossil fuels which we are using in day to day activities like when we drive a car. We are, we are emitting lot of gas. Our car, our scooter, our bike is emitting lot of gases which can lead to air pollution. By burning of petroleum products like diesel and other things. Right, so the burning of fossil fuels is one of the most important reasons. The other types of air pollution are the greenhouse gases which are emitting into environment like as emitting from you refrigerator and from your AC which we call as hydrofluorocarbon, then there are other chemicals also in environment like lead, mercury and dioxin's and benzene and other chemicals and other compounds which also lead into air pollution right!

Then there are other things which are not because of human that is basically the pollens. The presence of moisture in air leading to increase amount of mound and pollen in air which are also contribution for air pollution and all these things can lead to very harmful effects on your lungs, on you hearts, on your kidneys and other body parts like central nervous system and in children it can lead to liver diseases also and gastrointestinal disorders also. So many times you heard about levels of pm in your cities. Pm level in you surrounding .you have heard about pm level in newspapers.

So what’s this pm level ? This is basically particulate matter .how this particulate matter forms? Particulate matter is formed when the smoke ,dust, dust from the construction sites,dust from your pavement of roads and dust from other places where ever you do some exclamation. This dust with smoke with some other organic compounds and with some water vapors due to moisture in air .when they combine together they will form a pm means particulate matter and you heard about pm 2.5. So what is meant by pm 2.5? It is basically the diameter of that particulate matter that is 2.5 microns which is very small.

For example you have seen a single hair. It is 70 times less than that of a single hair the diameter is that .so this Pm 2.5 compound or this molecule can go directly into the lungs or in the deeper airways where it can go to the direct blood circulations and it can go to the heart , it can go to the valve, kidneys and brain which can lead to multiple problems.it can lead to heart diseases it can lead to stroke it can cause lung diseases asthma ,Copt and other lung diseases also . So this is what is PM 2.5. So how you avoid this pm 2.5. Right.

How you will, What are the precarious you take? First whenever you have pm 2.5 levels more than upper normal limits you can avoid going outdoor avoid doing physical activities right, outdoor. Right, avoid going to walk. Avoid. Stay inside. Stay inside your home. Right. Most of the times. And whenever you stay inside, you have to tool your doors. You, most of the, at least most of the time and the day. Right and you can use the mesh also you can invest in mesh. If you want to invest , There are some meshes which filter these particulate matter and other dust particle and also it will be a barrier for insects also such things will not enter into your home and then you can use some plants also this will adds to your decorum also.

There are some plants which are for this basic purpose to reduce particulate matter and dust into your house.so if you want to go out door you can use n95 mask. You can wear the N95 mask. Especially for those patients who are asthmatic patients, who have history of allergies and at this part of time I can only say this thing to you that if you have any allergies, if you have any breathing troubles, if you have any chest infections right now you can come to and contact me via Lybrate and you can come back to me at my hospital in Colombia and I'm seeing patients at my residence also so you can come and see me.

Thank you

Good evening friends,

I am Dr. Piyush Goel, I am a pulmonologist and critical care specialist in Columbia Asia Hospital, Behar, Gurgaon.

Today I throw light on the most important lung disease which we call as Bronchial Asthma. There is lot of stigma associated with Bronchial Asthma and there are, people need lot of clarification in view of asthma. How we can control this disease? How we can cure this disease and how we can prevent this disease and in today I will explain regarding this disease in a layman language so you can understand this disease well and I just want to remove some stigma associated with this disease also. This is my sincere effort. Right, so asthma is basically a part and parcel of allergic disorders. Most of the patients, most of the people in all over world are allergic to many things. The people can be allergic to dust, people can be allergic to smoke, people can be allergic to perfumes and other odors, people can be allergic to humidity, people can be allergic to temperature change and all these people who are allergic can get asthma. Right, so what do you mean by asthma? Asthma is basically lung allergy. If you are getting symptoms associated with lungs and the reason behind this is allergy then we call it as a, we scientifically we have given name to this thing, we call it Bronchial Asthma, so it is a part and parcel for allergy. Right, so you can get allergy of skin in scientific, in medical language we call it as dermatitis, allergic dermatitis. If you get allergy of a nose we call it as allergic rhinitis. If you get allergy of the throat we call it as allergic pharyngitis, and if you get allergy of the lungs, this means you are suffering from Bronchial Asthma. Right, so basically what is allergy, now you will ask me the question, what is allergy? Allergy is basically abnormal response of your body to some foreign substances of foreign stimulants. Right, like if the person is not allergic and he had a test exposure, right. The body of that person in subconscious way will tell that don’t worry. It will not do any harm, so don’t do any reflux things and don’t take any reflux actions, right so normal persons who are not allergic are absolutely fine if they have exposure to test. So the normal person will continue and there will be no symptoms in a normal person. If a person is not allergic. Now, if the person is allergic, suppose the person is allergic to dust then his body in a subconscious way will tell that we have to get rid of this dust particle and how this body can get rid of this dust particle? You start having sneezing, you start having rhinitis, that is watering of the nose, you start having coughing when this dust particle goes into throat and you can have a narrowing of your airways, right when it, this dust particle goes into the lungs and you feel difficulty in breathing and you see some vising sounds coming from your lungs, which we call it is as, which we call it as a lung allergy, that is Bronchial Asthma. So this is about basically a Bronchial Asthma. Bronchial Asthma is nothing, nothing beyond that. Right, so if you are allergic then how can you control this thing, how can you control this thing, right, first of all, first and the most important, the symptoms. As I discussed the physiology of the disease the symptoms are rhinitis, sneezing, sore throat, coughing, breathing problems and wheezing coming from the chest, so these are the symptoms of asthma. So how can you control it? You can’t avoid the exposures sometimes you are in a market and there is a dust going on, there is a dusty environment then you can stop taking breath at that time, you have to take a breath, and if you take the breath you can get an allergic symptoms or symptoms of asthma. So for you to controlling this first and foremost is to avoid the things, but you can avoid sometimes, so control these things you have to take some medications which includes anti allergic and bronchodilators which will open your airways when aver these is allergic manifestation. So most important thing in asthma is to control your symptoms. Right, treatment is something which we have to give every time, but in background you have to control the symptoms then you will remain disease and center free. Right, so to control you have to take the anti-allergic and the bronchodilators. Now a days bronchodilators we are using  an inhaler form that goes directly into the lungs and which will open the airways because, and this will, you will get rid of the symptoms at that tie only. Right, so bronchodilators, they are, there is some stigma associated with the bronchodilators, that the patient will become habitual after taking the bronco inhaler from inhaled bronchodilators, but I will say that you will not become habitual because if these inhalers. You will become good that is why you want to take inhaler again and again. You will feel much better. You confidence will be much better, your concentration will be much better, you will progress more in life if your asthma symptoms will get controlled with one single inhaler in a day, right, and that is for sure.  Right, there are no side effects. There are more side effects are analgesic, the tablet you are taking for headache. Right, because it goes into your stomach and from stomach it goes into your blood and from blood it goes into all parts of your body weather you have a headache, weather you have a leg pain, weather you have a hand pain. So there are more side effect of these drugs as compared to inhaler because inhaler goes directly into the lungs, where the problem is. Right, so it will produce only good effects not the bad effects. But somehow, there are some very subtle side effects of these medications. Every medication has their side effect. But in view of, if you see the pros and cons of each and everything and if you see the cost effective analysis, if you do the cost effective analysis of these medications you will see that you will become much better. Your symptoms will be much controlled. Your visits to hospital will be much reduced after taking inhalers. Right, so you have to take inhalers and anti-allergens also to get rid of these nasal and the throat symptoms of allergy.

Thank you.