The Asthma Podcast - Transcript July 2009

Luke: Welcome to the Asthma Podcast. Every month we’ll bring you news, research updates, asthma advice and ways that you can support us.

This month, find out how five minutes of your time could help our campaign to abolish prescription charges for people with asthma. Also we speak to one of the many volunteers who dedicate to their time to supporting Asthma UK. We have travel advice if you’re off on a summer break and we find out about the role Vitamin D could play in preventing asthma.

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Luke: For people with asthma in England, prescription charges remain a major financial burden. Asthma UK is campaigning to have them abolished and we're asking for your help.

We're joined by Kate Ravenscroft from our Policy and Public Affairs team. Kate, can you tell us a bit more about the prescription charges campaign that we're running?

Kate: Well what we’re asking people to do is go to our E-campaigns page and email their MPs, so they can ask their MPs to lobby ministers and also to sign an early day motion which is a kind of parliamentary petition specially for MPs all in support for free prescriptions for people with long-term conditions including asthma.

Luke: So why is there such a big focus on prescription charging now?

Kate: Well last September, Gordon Brown made a big promise that he would give everyone with long-term conditions free prescriptions. So really we’ve got a window of opportunity now to push him to keep that promise and that window of opportunity lasts right up until the election so we’ve really got to keep going  ‘cos this is the first time in a generation that there’s been such a good chance of getting free prescriptions

Luke: So sending an email, is that a time-consuming thing? How long will it take to do?

Kate: It shouldn’t take people longer than five minutes really. All you have to do is put your postcode in and it will find your MP for you and find their email address. And there’s a template email that you can just send and you can personalise it if you want to put things in about your own personal experience.

Luke: Some people might think that just sending in one email won’t have much of an impact in the grand scheme of things. How important is it that people get on board on with the campaign and send an email to their MP?

Kate: It’s hugely important and if we all get involved, we can all actually make a difference together. We’ve got over 100 signatures on that early day motion at the moment but really we need well over 200 to be taken seriously.

Luke: And there’s also a Facebook cause up and running around prescription charges isn’t there?

Kate: What we want people to do really is to get their friends and family involved in the campaign as well, just anyone who you think will feel strongly about free prescriptions for people with asthma and other long-term conditions. 

Luke: And to get involved, people can go to asthma.org.uk/prescriptioncharges

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Luke: Volunteers play a crucial role in supporting Asthma UK’s work and we’re delighted to be joined by one of our Speak Up for Asthma volunteers today, Daksha Kamda. Can you tell us how long you’ve been volunteering for Asthma UK and how you got involved?

Daksha: I have been volunteering for Asthma UK since the last four years. My son has asthma and that’s how I got in. he had a really bad attack. The second day was really bad, and it was like we almost lost him, and after that he kind of recovered and his situation got better and five days down the line we came home. And I was browsing through the local paper and I saw this advertisement that was placed by Asthma UK and the advert was for Speak Up for Asthma.

Luke: Can you take me through that first time you stood up in front of a crowd of people, that must have been daunting…

Daksha: It was and I did that one presentation and the joy that I saw on people’s face and the questions that they came and asked me… And I really loved the fact that I was able to volunteer and was able to make that difference in their lives.

Luke: And what have you learnt from volunteering?

Daksha: Volunteering has been very satisfying for myself. My guru says being a volunteer, you’re holding somebody else’s wellbeing well above your own. And when you are doing something like that it actually brings a very positive experience in your life.

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Luke: If you have asthma and you’re planning a summer holiday, it’s important to make sure you are prepared. We’re joined by Angela Jones, one of our asthma nurse specialists. What advice would you give to people with asthma who might be worried about travelling this summer?

Angela: Yeah, I think one of the most important things is.. if you know you’re going to be travelling on holiday, to book an asthma review with your doctor or asthma nurse so that you can make sure that your asthma under the best control it can possibly be. Make sure you have that appointment in plenty of time so if there needs to be any adjustments in your medication, that you can actually make the adjustments and then go back for a review to check the effectiveness of the adjustments that you’ve made.

As part of the asthma review you should ask your doctor or nurse for a written Personal Asthma Action Plan to give you all the information you need to keep your asthma in control while you’re in holiday. So that will give it details of the medicines that you’re on, how to recognise whether your asthma is getting worse when you’re on holiday and give you a plan of what you can put into action to help you get the control back again, and also, emergency information on what to do if you have an asthma attack while you’re away.

You need to think about immunisations that you might need for travel. Also might be a good idea to carry an asthma attack card with you and also you might want to consider wearing personal identification jewellery such as wristband or necklace and you can get details about this from the charity Medic Alert.

Luke: How much medicine should people bring? Should they bring more than they perhaps need to have some spare? And what’s the best way to carry it, can it go in your case or in the hold or does it need to go as hand luggage?

Angela: Work out how many inhalers or tablets you need for while you’re away then take some extra. We really advise people to carry all their asthma medication in their hand luggage if they’re allowed to. It depends on the different airlines as to what rules they have so it might be a good idea to check that.

If you’re not allowed to carry all your asthma medication in your hand luggage, make sure you’ve got enough in your hand luggage for the duration of the flight as well as a spare reliever inhaler. And make sure you tell check-in staff that you’ve got medication in your luggage so that if it’s put into the baggage hold it can go into a special area where its not frozen because that might actually affect the efficacy of the medications.

Luke: Would you reckon that people with asthma get travel insurance before they go away?

Angela: I think it’s really important for people with asthma travelling abroad, they should get travel insurance. Even if they’re going to the European countries where they can use their European health insurance card, it’s still a good idea to get travel insurance because this would cover repatriation. which is often really costly. It’s quite difficult for some people with asthma to get travel insurance and also it can be really costly as well. But it’s so important to make sure when you do find an insurer that they will cover you for your asthma. If you’re not covered for it in the agreement then they’re most certainly not going to cover it when you’re there.

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Luke: Eating healthily is of course important for everyone but a recent study has stirred debate whether one particular supplement can reduce asthma symptoms in children. To find out more, we’re joined by Dr Elaine Vickers from Asthma UK’s Research Team. Can you tell us a bit more about this supplement, and what the debate is.

Elaine: So this is all about Vitamin D which is often hitting the news in one way or another and this time it’s the link between Vitamin D and asthma symptoms.

Luke: So why do we need Vitamin D?

Elaine: Vitamin D is essential for our bones and teeth but the more controversial aspect of it is whether it’s also essential for our immune system and if so, how much do we need to stay healthy?

Luke: Where does it come from? What sort of foods is it found it?

Elaine: Well the majority of Vitamin D is actually made in our skin and it’s only made in our skin when we’re exposed to sunlight so scientists think we do need to get out in the sun to some extent to have enough Vitamin D although you can get some from your diet and especially in foods like fish, and eggs and in fortified margarines and cereals.

Luke: How much do we need and how do we know if we’ve got enough?

Elaine: The problem with Vitamin D is we just don’t know how much we need. Everyone has a different opinion. We think we should get enough in our diet and through fairly limited sun exposure but all the evidence to date is about the amount we need for healthy bones and teeth and there’s a lot of debate about how we much we need for a healthy immune system.

Luke: So we know its important but how is it connected to asthma?

Elaine: A number of studies have now connected low Vitamin D levels in pregnant women with an increased risk of asthma in their children, although sometimes those studies show the absolute opposite as well. There’s also a definite link between Vitamin D levels and asthma symptoms, and that’s what this recent study has highlighted. Looking in Costa Rican children and showing that low Vitamin D levels are linked with much more severe symptoms and a higher risk of ending up in hospital with asthma symptoms. And there’s also a suggestion that Vitamin D might be a way of making current asthma treatments more effective so actually using a combination of Vitamin D with steroid tablets for example, might make those treatments more effective.

Luke: So there’s obviously still a huge amount to learn about this. What are the next stages in research and what are scientists doing at the moment?

Elaine: The tantalising possibility that you might be able to reduce cases of asthma by giving pregnant women supplements is being investigated. There are two huge studies that have just started, in the US and in Denmark. Giving pregnant women quite high levels of Vitamin D and seeing if their children have a lower asthma risk in consequence. But those studies won’t report until 2014.

A study which should give much sooner results is an Asthma UK funded study to see if Vitamin tablets, alongside steroid treatments, make those treatments more effective and we should know the results from that hopefully in the next year or two so hopefully that will be cleared that and we’ll find out whether Vitamin D tablets could be a potentially, quite – well, very cost effective way of increasing the usefulness of steroid treatments.