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Blog Archive

The Importance of Getting Your Flu Shot Early Oct 1st, 2023

As the seasons change and cooler weather sets in, so does the annual arrival of flu season. The flu, short for influenza, is a contagious respiratory illness. It ranges from mild to severe — and your risk of severe illness is higher if you’re over age 65 or you have...

Who Is Eligible for the RSV Vaccine? Sep 7th, 2023

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common viral respiratory infection. For most people, it causes mild cold-like symptoms, like congestion, cough, and sore throat. But for some, the infection can spread to the lower respiratory tract and become severe.  Because the symptoms of RSV infection are similar to those of...

How Cystic Fibrosis Affects Your Lungs Aug 4th, 2023

About 30,000 Americans have cystic fibrosis, a chronic genetic disorder that may impact your respiratory and digestive systems. It’s caused by a mutation in your CFTR gene, which triggers various organs in your body to produce thick, sticky mucus, which interferes with organs’ normal function. Your lungs are among the...

How Digestive Problems Affect the Respiratory System Jul 1st, 2023

The human body is an extraordinarily complex, interconnected system. In fact, it’s so interconnected that the health of one organ can have a profound impact on others throughout your body. One such fascinating connection exists between your digestive and respiratory systems. While we often think of these systems as separate,...

The Link Between Stress and Asthma Jun 6th, 2023

About 26 million Americans have asthma: a chronic respiratory disease that’s characterized by airway inflammation and difficulty breathing. Despite the availability to many asthma therapies, it is believed that over 50% of asthma patients remain poorly controlled. When you have asthma, your airways become inflamed, narrow and irritable. Your lungs...

Are Benign Lung Nodules Dangerous to My Health? May 1st, 2023

Lung nodules are small growths that form in your lungs. They are defined as  less than 3cm in diameter (less than one and one-fifth inches). They are separate from all other parts of the lung. They are found in approximately 1.6 million people per year in the USA. More than...

What Are the Differences Between Bronchiectasis and Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Infection (NTM)? Apr 1st, 2023

Bronchiectasis and nontuberculous mycobacterial infection (NTM) are two respiratory conditions that share similar symptoms, including cough, mucus production, shortness of breath, blood spitting, wheezing, fatigue, and even weight loss. Because their symptoms may be similar, it’s not always easy to distinguish between the two — but bronchiectasis and NTM are not the same,...

Is One of These Irritants Triggering Your Asthma? Mar 8th, 2023

Asthma is a chronic respiratory condition characterized by airway inflammation. When your airways become inflamed, breathing gets difficult, and you may experience symptoms such as chest pain or heaviness, wheezing, coughing, difficulty breathing, or some combination of these. Unfortunately, there’s no currently cure for asthma. Treatment is focused on reducing inflammation...

I'm Worried About My Spouse's Sleep Apnea Feb 24th, 2023

An estimated 30 million Americans have sleep apnea, a disorder that makes a person stop breathing repeatedly while they’re asleep. Sleep apnea is serious, and it contributes to a range of other problems, including daytime sleepiness, difficulty concentrating, and an increased risk of heart disease. Telltale signs of sleep apnea...

Respiratory Conditions That May Cause Shortness of Breath Jan 13th, 2023

Did you know the average adult breathes nearly 30,000 breaths each day? Your airways, lungs, blood vessels, and the muscles that control breathing all work together with every breath — bringing oxygen in, sending it to every corner of your body, and removing carbon dioxide. It’s a complex process, yet...

What Is COPD and Who Is at Risk? Nov 2nd, 2022

More than 15 million Americans have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is a group of inflammatory lung conditions, and it’s a leading cause of death in the United States. COPD damages your lungs over time and limits your ability to breathe. It’s a progressive condition without a cure, but that doesn’t mean...

Why Asthma Can Be Worse in Fall and Winter and Steps to Manage Attacks Oct 7th, 2022

Asthma is a chronic lung condition that affects about 25 million Americans. Having asthma makes the airways in your lungs (bronchial tubes) inflamed,hypersensitive and prone to episodes of gradual or abrupt spasm or further narrowing. . When your airways become more inflamed, they get narrower, breathing becomes difficult, and you...

The Importance of COVID-19 and Influenza Vaccines Sep 1st, 2022

Vaccination is a safe and effective way to protect yourself from COVID-19 and influenza, two of the most common viral diseases in the world today. But whether you’ve gotten vaccinated or not, it’s normal to have questions. Do you need to get a flu shot every year? Is COVID vaccination...

How Does a Cough Become Chronic? Aug 1st, 2022

Coughing is a natural reflex to protect your lungs. When an irritant enters your throat or lungs, the nerves in your airways send a message to your brain, making you cough to expel the irritant. Coughs are a common symptom of illness, like the common cold and the flu, and...

Recognizing the Signs of Sleep Apnea Jul 1st, 2022

Snoring can be funny, which is why it makes its way into so many cartoons and sitcoms. It can also range from mildly annoying levels to relationship-wrecking magnitudes, depending on how loud it gets. One thing you may not realize, however, is that snoring can also be a sign of...

Is COPD on the rise? Apr 30th, 2014

Yes. That is what is so troubling. The American Lung Association, the European Respiratory Society and many international organizations declared 2010 the year of the lung. In the United States, the CDC, the Center for Disease Control, is the government agency that keeps track of the most common causes of...

What Are the Complications of Lung Disease? Oct 18th, 2013

We now in fact think of chronic obstructive lung disease as what we call a systemic disorder meaning that it has effect on and interactions with other parts of the body. People with chronic obstructive lung disease do develop with greater likelihood heart disease, they develop bone wasting, there is...

What Are the Causes of Lung Disease? Aug 14th, 2011

Not too long ago the statement was made that if a patient had chronic obstructive lung disease that it was related to cigarette smoking, period. And only with very rare incidence was it related to anything else. But again, we believe now that asthma in younger years can evolve into...

Dr. Kamelhar Awarded National Top Doc by New York Magazine Jun 5th, 2011

New York Magazine Best Doctors Jun 5, 2011 Dr. Kamelhar was awarded Top Doctors: New York Metro Area award, which lists those whom Castle Connolly has determined to be in the top 10 percent of the region’s physicians—more than 6,000 in all. For the past fourteen years, Castle Connolly has been...

How Do You Diagnose COPD? Jun 12th, 2010

The formal diagnosis of COPD is made with breathing testing or what we call “pulmonary function testing”. This is a series of tests which measures how fast air flows through the bronchial tubes, how much air one exhales with a full and forced exhalation, and how fast that air is...

What Are the Symptoms of COPD? Mar 17th, 2010

The most common symptoms of chronic obstructive lung disease are cough, mucus production, wheezing, and shortness of breath. And there may be any combination of those symptoms in any individual at a given time and one certainly has to recognize that the lung, like any other part of your body,...

Is Asthma Considered Part of COPD? Feb 19th, 2010

We started off with our definition of chronic obstructive lung disease, or COPD, by including the notion that it is a not reversible limitation of the flow of air. And we think of asthma as classically having reversibility and the ability to normalize or come close to normalizing the flow...

What Is the COPD Screening Questionnaire? May 22nd, 2009

In order to make various conditions more easily detected to patients and their physicians, different medical organizations have devised short questionnaires of 4 or 5 or 6 or 10 questions that’s easy for the patient to complete, and depending on how they score on that, get a relative likelihood of...

What Is COPD? Apr 26th, 2009

COPD or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is a disease that is characterized by what we call air flow limitation. Air flow limitation means the air flow through the bronchial tubes is less than it should be. The limitation of flow of air is not reversible. That means that if you...

Castle Connolly Medical Honors David Kamelhar With Top Physicians Award Mar 18th, 2009

Mar 18, 2009 – (HealthNewsDigest.com) – The fourth annual Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. National Physician of the Year Awards will take place on Monday evening, March 23, 2009 at the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City. Physicians profiled in the Castle Connolly “Top Doctor” guides...