Maintaining Peak Lung Health: Essential Tips and Medical Insights with Dr. Mark J Pamer

What Are Some Tips To Keep Your Lungs Healthy?

Unlock the secrets to pristine lung health with your host, Dr. Mark J. Pamer, and co-host Garfield Bowen, as we navigate the essential practices for keeping your respiratory system robust. Tune in and get ready to be armed with knowledge about the arch-nemesis of lungs—smoking—and the undeniable benefits of steering clear. From discussing vaccines that are critical in warding off serious respiratory infections to emphasizing the power of a healthy lifestyle that encompasses balanced nutrition and exercise, this episode is your guide to a breath of fresh air.

Listen as Dr. Pamer, a vanguard in pulmonary medicine, illuminates the advantages of pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation for those grappling with lung conditions or heart complications. In this episode, the insights on medical interventions unfold; these include not only groundbreaking prescription medications and anti-inflammatory treatments that promise to alleviate symptoms in asthma, COPD, and pulmonary fibrosis patients but also strategies to thwart exacerbations and halt the degradation of lung capacity. This episode is more than just an informative session; it's an invitation to a healthier life, one breath at a time.

To learn more about Dr. Pamer, go to:
https://www.markpamerdo.com/

Dr. Mark J. Pamer DO
573 NW Lake Whitney Place, Suite 105
Port Saint Lucie, FL 34986
(772) 785-5864

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Dr Mark J Pamer podcast, a doctor who uses his heart to treat your lungs. Here's your host, Dr Mark J Pamer.

Speaker 2: 0:13

Breathing easy isn't just a figure of speech, it's a lifestyle. Dive into an exclusive chat with one of Ports and Looses' leading lung doctor for insider tips on keeping your lungs in top shape. Welcome back everyone. Garfield Bowen, co-host slash producer, back in the studio with Dr Mark Pamer. Dr Pamer, how you doing today, I'm awesome. Garfield, let's do this. So, dr Pamer, what are some tips to keep your lungs healthy?

Speaker 3: 0:43

Well, let's see. Number one through 573 would be don't smoke. That would be the top of the list. That'd be the first 200 pages in the book. Don't smoke, don't inhale smoke. You know, smoke really causes a severe inflammatory reaction in the lungs. The immune system sees every smoke particle as a foreign invader and attacks it and your lungs can get destroyed in the process of that. Can I didn't say will Kind of comes down to some interplay between your ability to combat the inflammation. But not smoking is really, or inhaling smoke is really the big thing in keeping the lungs healthy. That's absolutely Two vaccines, you know, get yourself your influenza vaccine.

Speaker 3: 1:31

That can really help. It can prevent influenza. It can certainly lessen the course of influenza. You know, if you've ever had influenza A, you know how bad it was. You don't want to do that again. If you haven't had influenza, you don't know yet, but it's horrid. So vaccines for influenza, for streptococcus pneumoniae, that's the pneumococcal vaccine, the Prevnar 20 is the new one out, the RSV vaccine, respiratory syncytial virus, for those adults who are over 60, especially who've got some lung disease, I would highly recommend that. The vaccines are important.

Speaker 3: 2:11

Staying healthy in general is important. The healthier you are, the better your immune system is, the easier it is for you to fight off infectious disease once it presents itself to you. Because I mean, think about it You're inhaling stuff all day long, including viruses and dust particles and stuff that's got bacteria on it, so it's in your lungs all day. So if your immune system is not good, sometimes that stuff can set up shop and next thing you know you're getting infected. So staying healthy, good nutrition, that's important. Part of that lifestyle modification of good nutrition, that's important. And part of that lifestyle modification of good nutrition comes down to exercise. We know exercise absolutely increases your immune functioning. You know you're ventilating, you get better cardiovascular fitness, you're less short of breath, everything's. You know Everything physiologically seems to get better with exercise.

Speaker 3: 3:07

For the majority of people On our side of the fence, for those who have lung impairment, whether it's COPD, fibrosis, asthma, post-covid et cetera we do pulmonary rehab in our office and we see tremendous improvements in people's shortness of breath with pulmonary rehab. And you know it's our hope that we're getting somebody from a quite debilitated state to being able to walk in a much, much more, sometimes over a mile. And then, you know, hopefully they keep that up For patients who've got a number of cardiovascular issues, whether severe heart failure or they've had a valve replacement or a stent or some other conditions. We've got cardiac rehab. We have intensive cardiac rehab in my office. In fact we're one of the only Medicare certified sites for intensive cardiac rehab here. We're the only one south of central Florida, which is a very rare program that really helps people with their breathing and their cardiovascular fitness and getting them on the right road.

Speaker 3: 4:09

For people who've got lung disease, other tips for healthy lungs you know, let's not forget, there are medications for lung disease that can not just improve lung function but prevent exacerbations. Whether you've got asthma, copd, pulmonary fibrosis, these drugs can be life-saving. They can certainly, as I said, improve symptoms, improve lung function, prevent exacerbations, prevent the loss of lung function. Those are super important. Anti-inflammatory therapy you know it can be great for the lung. There's some of it's prescription, some of it's not prescription. N-acetylcysteine, nac, 600 milligrams twice a day has been shown to decrease flare-ups of COPD. You know when it's taken twice a day. You know people. There's people who take glutathione. I've got evidence on on N-acetylcysteine. You know the glutathione. Not as much but stands to reason it should be in the same ballpark.

Speaker 3: 5:10

But really, you know, nutrition, lifestyle, exercise, vaccines, medications avoiding sick people is a big one. I mean, you know, let's face it, if somebody's got tuberculosis, stay away. You know, if they've got active influenza, stay away. If they've got active influenza, stay away. Grandparents, if your grandchild is sick with something and they want to come over and play with you, probably best to just say why don't you wait until you're healthy? Because you don't want that. You don't want that. So try to stay away from sick people. That really helps. It's common sense. But staying away from smoke, stay away from sick people, healthy nutrition, lifestyle, diet, exercise, meds for lung disease that's pretty much it. You know. It's all common sense. You know, see your doctor, we've got stuff. We can help, believe it or not, we're better than Facebook. We can do our job. That's all we get paid to do. Let us help.

Speaker 2: 6:04

Great stuff. We got some great tips for healthy love from Dr Pamer. Dr Pamer, wish you the best rest of the day. We'll see you in the next episode. Thanks, garfield. Best rest of the day. We'll see you in the next episode. Thanks.

Speaker 1: 6:17

Garfield, thanks for listening to the Dr Mark J Pamer podcast. To learn more about the doctor who uses his heart to treat your lungs, go to markpamerdocom or call 772-785-5864. Once again, that's 772-785-5864.