How can I reduce smoke’s impact on my lungs at home? Aliaksandr Ramaniuk, DO, Physician in Cardiac Intensive Care, Pulmonology, and Pulmonary Rehabilitation at Summa Health - Radio, outlines actions to create cleaner indoor air: set your air conditioner to recirculation, use air purifiers or filters, close windows and doors, and avoid indoor pollutants such as burning candles or using gas stoves. He also recommends coordinating a breathing action plan with your medical team.
Selected Podcast
How to Protect Your Lungs from Wildfire Smoke
Featured Speaker:
Aliaksandr Ramaniuk, DO
A specialist in pulmonary and critical care medicine, Alex Ramaniuk, M.D. has special interests in advanced asthma and COPD, eosinophilic lung diseases, pulmonary infections, diagnostic bronchoscopy, fibrotic and cavitary lung disease, bronchiectasis, pulmonary hypertension, lung cancer, critical care medicine, and post-ICU recovery. Dr. Ramaniuk is a graduate of Ohio University College of Medicine in Athens, OH. He completed an internal medicine residency at Ohio Health Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, OH, and a pulmonary and critical care fellowship at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. Dr. Ramaniuk is fluent in English, Belarusian Russian, Ukrainian and Russian.
Transcription:
How to Protect Your Lungs from Wildfire Smoke
How to Protect Your Lungs from Wildfire Smoke
Rachel Vadaj (Host): Poor air quality like what's caused by wildfire smoke impacts our respiratory health. And here to tell us more is Summa Health pulmonologist Dr. Aliaksandr Ramaniuk. Doctor, tell us what happens with that bad air and what we can do to protect our lungs.
Dr. Aliaksandr Ramaniuk: We're walking around breathing air. And recently, we're all talking about what is this air quality and what is causing the respiratory problems that we're all seeing and talking about.
It's the small particle sizes from all the wildfires and things and air quality changes day to day. These small particles get inside your lungs into the blood and cause inflammation and sometimes can exacerbate breathing problems. What can we do about these things that are being in the air and we're breathing all the time?
And the couple of key strategies that we have to address right now is when we're checking the air quality on your weather app and that air quality says dangerous or bad or high risk, limit those outdoor activities, especially during the hot periods of the day. Close the windows, close the doors, set your air conditioner to a recirculation system, filter the air with an air purifier or an air filter in your home. Create a clean environment or a clean room in your house. Avoid adding additional indoor pollutions like burning candles or using gas stoves or stirring up other things that can impact your breathing. And get together with your medical team, your providers, your physicians, your nurse practitioners to discuss a breathing action plan.
And here at Summa Health, we're here to help you navigate and keep you breathing healthy through no matter what comes in the wind.