Latest / Flourish- A Prisma Health Podcast / Breathing Easier: A Complete Guide to Asthma
Transcript
- 0:00Scott Webb: Asthma is a common condition, and despite the many
- 0:02triggers and limitations that it can cause, my guest is here to explain how
- 0:06he and the team at Prisma Health are helping patients to breathe easier.
- 0:09I'm joined today by Dr.
- 0:11Adam Shurtz.
- 0:12He's a pulmonologist, ICU medical director, and Oconee Memorial
- 0:16Hospital Clinical Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina
- 0:19School of Medicine, Greenville.
- 0:22Scott Webb (Host): This is Flourish, the podcast brought to you by Prisma Health.
- 0:25I'm Scott Webb.
- 0:26Scott Webb: Dot, it's nice to have you here today.
- 0:28We're gonna rely on you.
- 0:30We're gonna lean on you so that we can all breathe a little easier, right?
- 0:33And you're gonna give us this just sort of complete guide to asthma.
- 0:36What is it and how do you diagnose and how do you treat and all that good stuff.
- 0:40so thank you for being here.
- 0:41Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 0:41Thanks for having me, Scott.
- 0:43Scott Webb: Yeah, it's a pleasure to have you here.
- 0:44I love to have experts on and pick their brains and I might be
- 0:47suffering a little bit of asthma or allergies or whatever it is.
- 0:50So, good for me, good for listeners.
- 0:52Let's start there, Doctor.
- 0:53What exactly is asthma and what happens in the lungs during an asthma attack?
- 0:58Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 0:58So, this is a complicated question, and I think what I'll try to do
- 1:02is break it down into a metaphor that hopefully helps people
- 1:05Scott Webb: Yeah, sure.
- 1:06Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 1:06So, the respiratory system is kind of like this large tree that lives inside of us.
- 1:13The tree trunk is the trachea or the windpipe, and that trunk is firm, it's
- 1:19ringed with cartilage, and it's hollow, so, these are all just big air tubes.
- 1:24And so, that trunk, that air tube, splits into the main, two air tubes
- 1:32that feed our right and left lungs, and those are called bronchi.
- 1:36And then, those bronchi continue to split into more branch points, all
- 1:42the way down 27 branch points to the ... Those bronchi are just about
- 1:47the size of the thinness of a hair.
- 1:50And then, we're at the leaves, which are called the alveoli, and that is
- 1:54where the oxygen that we're breathing in from the atmosphere is exchanged
- 1:59into our body, and where the carbon dioxide that we're exhaling out first
- 2:04gets from our body into our lungs.
- 2:07And so, asthma is an abnormal inflammation in those air tubes,
- 2:13those branches of our lungs.
- 2:15It's not in the leaves, it's not where the oxygen and carbon dioxide diffusion
- 2:19happens, it's in the air tubes themselves.
- 2:23And so, this inflammation is an Overexaggerated response to
- 2:28something in the environment.
- 2:30Our respiratory system is always exposed to the environment, and some people have
- 2:36some predisposition to over-reactivity, and during an asthma attack, there's three
- 2:43separate but- related things that happen.
- 2:46The lining of those air tubes becomes inflamed or swollen, and then they start
- 2:52to produce this thick and sticky mucus in the walls that then, if you think
- 2:57about, you know, what I'm talking about on the microscopic level, start to fill
- 3:01in some of those really small airways.
- 3:04And then, there's rings of smooth muscle that surround those air tubes, and those
- 3:09become constricted, and that's what you get with an asthma exacerbation.
- 3:13You get inflamed airway walls, mucus production, and muscle
- 3:17constriction in the airways.
- 3:18Scott Webb: Right.
- 3:20Yeah, you did a great job explaining that without any diagrams.
- 3:23You know, we're in audio form only today, so I appreciate that.
- 3:26And you mentioned lungs there, so, let's talk about that.
- 3:29Like, how does asthma affect daily lung function, and maybe what are some of the
- 3:33most common and maybe even overlooked symptoms that folks might attribute
- 3:37to, like me, allergies, perhaps.
- 3:40Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 3:40So, it's really variable how much asthma affects any individual
- 3:45person on a daily basis.
- 3:48It ranges from what we'll call mild intermittent asthma, a-
- 3:52and that's occasional symptoms.
- 3:53This is basically less than twice a month, and this is usually provoked by some
- 3:58kind of identifiable trigger, which we'll
- 4:00I think we'll get into more, and that can ... So, that's that mild to
- 4:04intermittent category that can move all the way along the spectrum to
- 4:08what's called severe persistent asthma, which is basically daily symptoms
- 4:11that aren't controlled, despite being on, you know, multiple inhalers.
- 4:16I think as part of this portion of the discussion, it's really important to know
- 4:21that fatal asthma exacerbations don't only occur in people with the severe asthma.
- 4:28About one in five asthma deaths are actually seen in people with mild asthma.
- 4:32And so, it's not that people have daily symptoms are necessarily going to then,
- 4:38you know, die from this, but it is to say that this is a condition that can
- 4:41lead to death and that even people with mild asthma can have a trigger so severe
- 4:45that they can end up hospitalized.
- 4:47Common symptoms of asthma, just taking on that second part of the
- 4:50question there, chest tightness, wheezing, shortness of breath, cough,
- 4:55those are the big ones that we see.
- 4:57Basically everybody I see who has asthma ask them, what if any, and usually all
- 5:01those symptoms they're experiencing, and then things that are overlooked
- 5:04typically, recurrent bronchitis, right?
- 5:07So, some people are like, "God, I just get sick and get bronchitis a couple
- 5:11times a year, predictably every year around this time, I get this bronchitis
- 5:15and this cough that doesn't go away."
- 5:17And that can be asthma.
- 5:18Exercise intolerance, I think particularly in younger people, tightening of the
- 5:22airways, difficulty breathing with, you know, any kind of, ah, moderate
- 5:27exercise, and then chronic cough is another thing we see even without
- 5:31the other typical asthma symptoms.
- 5:33Chronic cough can be caused by asthma.
- 5:35Scott Webb: Sure.
- 5:36Yeah, let's stay with the triggers.
- 5:38I feel like there's probably some surprising or unusual triggers
- 5:41that people need to be aware of.
- 5:42I know you mentioned one before we got rolling, but give us a sense, like,
- 5:45what usually triggers asthma in folks?
- 5:47Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 5:47So, we'll start with the common ones and then I'll kind of deepen,
- 5:50deepen into the unusual ones.
- 5:52Commonly, upper and lower respiratory infections, so, typically viral
- 5:56infections, common cold, anything like that will be a major trigger
- 5:59for anybody who has asthma.
- 6:02Other things to think of, these are really common triggers.
- 6:04So, smoke, , this is cigarete smoke, but also, you know, think of smoke from a fire
- 6:08pit, any smoke that's getting out there.
- 6:10Environmental allergens, so, like, pollen, dust, pets, molds, those
- 6:15sorts of things, can be triggers for people, strong scents, cleaning
- 6:19supplies, perfumes, season changes, weather changes, hot air, cold air.
- 6:25Scott Webb: So pretty much everything
- 6:27Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 6:27Yeah, so I'm, I'm running down the list of all things that
- 6:29Scott Webb: I'm just so pret- pretty much everything everywhere.
- 6:32Got it.
- 6:32All right, good.
- 6:33Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 6:33Um, yeah, exercise, occupational exposures, chemicals, cotton
- 6:37fibers, metal dust, all sorts of particulate matter, too, right?
- 6:41So, like I said, our airways are continuously exposed to the environment,
- 6:45and so, we have this really, incredible immune system in the, in the airway
- 6:51specifically that helps to deal and filter with these things, but for some
- 6:54people, we have an overactive immune reaction, and so, basically, everything
- 6:57in the atmosphere and the environment can
- 6:59Scott Webb: Yeah.
- 7:00Yeah, it sounds like it.
- 7:01Yeah..
- 7:02Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 7:02So, some, we were talking about some surprising or unusual
- 7:05triggers, and I think this is wh- there's a few fun ones out there.
- 7:09I shouldn't say fun.
- 7:09There's a few interesting ones out there that, people wouldn't think about.
- 7:12So, a common one is aspirin or any non-steroidal anti-inflammatories.
- 7:18So, aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, any of those, can
- 7:23be associated with
- 7:24Scott Webb: something that's supposed to help us, righ
- 7:26Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 7:26Exactly, exactly.
- 7:27And so, some people can have this negative reaction to those.
- 7:30thunderstorm asthma, this is a really interesting one.
- 7:32This is when there's pollen and grass.
- 7:34So, think now this time of year, in the springtime, pollen and grass
- 7:38can get sucked up into clouds, and you can get this pollen rain.
- 7:43And this is something that, that I think there was a well-documented case in
- 7:46Australia, , some probably 20 years ago where there was just an enormous amount
- 7:51of hospitalizations because there was such bad air quality that got sucked
- 7:55into rain clouds and got dropped over people, and this causes, you know,
- 8:00pre-negative respiratory symptoms.
- 8:01There's perimenstrual asthma, so, some women get worsening of respiratory
- 8:06symptoms around the time of menstruation.
- 8:08And then another one, a red wine, I think pretty well-documented that, that there's
- 8:13sulfites in, in wine, mostly red wine.
- 8:15And so, some people have, you know, allergies or sensitivities to these
- 8:18sulfite additives, and those can also provoke some respiratory symptoms.
- 8:22Scott Webb: Yeah.
- 8:22I feel like, doctor, that, you know, in the hands of a qualified and expert
- 8:26pulmonologist diagnosing asthma is probably pretty straightforward.
- 8:31Y- they come in and they, you start checking all the boxes.
- 8:34But give us a sense of how do you diagnose asthma and when should someone
- 8:38consider seeing a pulmonologist?
- 8:40Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 8:40So, I mean, it's basically a clinical diagnosis.
- 8:42There's not objective criteria that necessarily makes somebody have a
- 8:47diagnosis of asthma, but those symptoms that we talked about, shortness of
- 8:51breath, wheezing, chest tightness, cough, any and, or all of those
- 8:57are typical symptoms of asthma.
- 8:59And, although it's not a diagnostic, something that's diagnostic for asthma,
- 9:04we'll often do pulmonary function testing where we have a respiratory
- 9:09therapist, instruct you on these breathing techniques where we can look
- 9:13at, , how much air you can blow out, whether or not there's obstruction in
- 9:17the air that you're blowing out, what's your overall amount of air in your body?
- 9:21Is there any limitation in airflow?
- 9:23And so, we can look at all those things with pulmonary function testing.
- 9:26During that pulmonary function testing, we can give medicine to relax the
- 9:29muscles in those air tubes that we talked about, and see if there's a
- 9:32difference when we give that medicine, that's called a bronchodilator challenge.
- 9:37Once again, not diagnostic for asthma if there is a positive response, but just
- 9:40kind of pushing us in that direction.
- 9:43There's a separate test, a more advanced test that we can do where we
- 9:48give somebody an inhaled substance to provoke a response in the airway, , but
- 9:53it's called a methicoline challenge.
- 9:55There's also some of the Manitol Challenge, same basic thing.
- 9:58We look to see that there's a decrease , in airflow associated with that medicine.
- 10:03Scott Webb: Yeah..
- 10:04Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 10:04And then, we can have people exercise and look to see if there's a difference
- 10:07in airflow before exercise and after exercise, that's to look for what's
- 10:11called exercise-induced asthma.
- 10:13But once again, I, I, usually, you can make a clinical diagnosis kind
- 10:16of based off of people's history,
- 10:18just listening
- 10:19Scott Webb: history.
- 10:19Sure.
- 10:20Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 10:20The second part of that question there is, you know, when should
- 10:22somebody see a pulmonologist?
- 10:24You know, I think not all asthmatics need to see a pulmonologist, but I think if
- 10:29somebody's asthma's not well-controlled on an appropriate inhaled medicine or,
- 10:33you know, if we're needing steroids one or more times a year for asthma symptoms,
- 10:37or if anybody goes to the emergency department or the hospital because of
- 10:41asthma, those are times to, you know, make sure we see a pulmonologist, and
- 10:45then the last one would be if there's kind of continued unexplained respiratory
- 10:49or breathing problems, that's always a good time to come see a lung doctor.
- 10:53Scott Webb: Right.
- 10:54And this is anecdotal at best,Doctor, but it seems to me when I was a kid,
- 10:57I grew up in the '70s, so everything seems to have been different and maybe
- 11:01worse because we just weren't as far along with science and medicine and
- 11:04all that, but anecdotally, it just seemed like every other kid that I knew
- 11:07growing up had an asthma inhaler, right?
- 11:09And we talked about asthma and everybody seemingly had asthma.
- 11:12I'm exaggerating, of course.
- 11:14But it seems to me that through my own kids, right, going through school and
- 11:18ones, you know, already out of college, the other ones going to college next
- 11:21year, I don't hear about it much anymore.
- 11:23I don't hear about everybody having asthma and having their inhalers and
- 11:26where's my inhaler and all that stuff.
- 11:28So I just wanna get a sense from you, like, can asthma be cured and maybe what
- 11:33are some of the main treatment options?
- 11:34Like how far have we come?
- 11:35Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 11:35it's a really good point.
- 11:36So, I, you know, I'm not sure that the prevalence of asthma has changed, but
- 11:39I'll tell you that the treatments have changed, dramatically over time where, you
- 11:44know, if, if you were a kid in the '70s, you know, there was not much out there.
- 11:48There were some older medicines that could be used depending on
- 11:50how severe, but nowadays, you know, there are much better treatments
- 11:55out there for kids and, and adults.
- 11:58I think taking the, first part there, kind of leads me to, like, the, A discussion
- 12:03of why asthma happens in the first place and what kind of things predispose
- 12:07people to having asthma, and a lot of it has to do with the way we grow up.
- 12:12a huge difference between the way people grow up now versus
- 12:15the way they did in the '70s.
- 12:16I think smoking indoors in particular, but parents smoking
- 12:20indoors has changed dramatically.
- 12:22Scott Webb: indoors, smoking in cars, smoking everywhere.
- 12:25Yeah, of course.
- 12:25Yeah,
- 12:26Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 12:26So, secondhand smoke is one of the major, major risk factors for
- 12:31development of childhood asthma.
- 12:33If you think about it, it's because our air quality, both indoors , and
- 12:36also with the smoke, is causing that inflammation in the airways.
- 12:41Similarly, you know, you'll see differences in, in asthma rates in, like,
- 12:45inner cities versus country air, right, where there's more pollution in inner
- 12:48cities and maybe, you know, decreased pollution over that span of time as
- 12:53well over that 50 years has also kind of changed development of asthma in kids.
- 12:59So, those are kind of two things that I think of.
- 13:00And then, I think you mentioned something about, like, you know, curing asthma.
- 13:04Um, sort of, a lot of kids grow out of asthma anyways, so even kids that have
- 13:10asthma or bronchitis is, you know, when they're younger, will often grow out
- 13:13of it, and it's because those air tubes that we talked about get bigger as we get
- 13:18older, and so, that, that inflammation or that overexaggerated response becomes
- 13:24a less problematic as those air tubes get larger, because small changes in
- 13:29the air tube caliber, at the size of those air tubes, from inflammation or
- 13:34thickening, don't cause as much of a problem with airflow as we get older.
- 13:39And then, you know, there's some evidence to suggest that bronchial muscle sensit,
- 13:43you know, that smooth muscle contraction that we're talking about lessens a
- 13:46bit over time, although I will say a lot of children who are asthmatics
- 13:50do have some persistent bronchial muscle overreactivity, even if they
- 13:54technically grow out of their asthma.
- 13:57Scott Webb: Okay.
- 13:59Yeah, wondering, I assume that the gold standard, if you will,
- 14:02for either controllers or rescue inhalers, like, like it's still
- 14:05inhalers, in other words, right?
- 14:07Like, is that still the go- to?
- 14:08Are there some other things?
- 14:09Are there other options, pills, like, what are the treatment options?
- 14:12Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 14:12So, the mainstay is still inhaler therapy.
- 14:14The most recent guidelines that were released in 2025, these are
- 14:19global guidelines for asthma, have put out a new recommendation
- 14:23for primary asthma treatment.
- 14:26Beforehand, most of what we're saying is, have your rescue
- 14:30inhaler albuterol available.
- 14:34What we've seen over the last seven, eight years has been a paradigm shift
- 14:39in thinking around that particular topic, to say that, yes, some kind of
- 14:46sm- smooth muscle relaxer like albuterol is useful, but that needs to be paired
- 14:53with an inhaled steroid, either in the same inhaler, which then becomes a
- 15:00different kind of inhaler than albuterol, or as a separate, you know, extra
- 15:04inhaler and another inhaled steroid.
- 15:07this is because, if you think about what albuterol does, kind of what
- 15:10we talked about, albuterol works on that muscle contraction, but it
- 15:13doesn't work on the inflammation part.
- 15:15The steroids work on the inflammation part in the
- 15:18air tubes.
- 15:19So, when you combine those two things together, we get better asthma
- 15:22control and less flares that, occur.
- 15:25There are a few inhalers on the market that are available that
- 15:29currently meet this criteria, right, based off these 2025 guidelines.
- 15:33So, Airsupra, that's a new one that's albuterol and budesonide.
- 15:38There's Symbicort, which is an older one, but that's formoterol and budesonide.
- 15:42Budesonide's a steroid.
- 15:43Fomoterol is basically another smooth muscle, a relaxer, it's
- 15:46just slightly longer-acting.
- 15:48And then there's another one called Dulera, which is fomoterol and momasone.
- 15:52So, momedicine is another steroid, but these all are combined smooth muscle
- 15:56relaxers that are fast-acting plus a steroid to be used as kind of primary
- 16:01asthma therapy, and they work really well when we're using these optimally.
- 16:06Scott Webb: So as you say, it's not so much, curing asthma, it's controlling
- 16:10it better, , through advances.
- 16:12And, and I wanted to stick with the, the medications, Doctor, the, how maybe
- 16:16controller medications differ from rescue inhalers and maybe what are some
- 16:20of the common mistakes despite their best efforts that patients make when
- 16:23they're trying to manage their asthma?
- 16:24Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 16:24So, for some patients, they can do just fine with these on- demand inhalers,
- 16:31Scott Webb: Okay..
- 16:31Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 16:31but it has to be the right class.
- 16:33So, we talked about it, you know, if we have a muscle relaxer plus a
- 16:37steroid, not every asthmatic is gonna need to be using those every day.
- 16:41If their symptoms are well enough controlled using those
- 16:44as-needed, that's ideal.
- 16:46Some people will have symptoms most days of the week or every day, and
- 16:51for those people, it's important to use a daily inhaler, just so they're
- 16:56staying ahead of that inflammation, because the thing that is important
- 17:00with asthma is that you never know when you're gonna be exposed to a trigger.
- 17:04You can plan on, you know, walking through Macy's and avoiding the perfume
- 17:09counter, but you can't always plan on, you know, walking into a building and there
- 17:15being a cleaning crew out there, and you get a heavy bleach smell or something
- 17:18that's gonna trigger your asthma, right?
- 17:20There's some things that are just unavoidable when we live in this world.
- 17:23And so, for those people, that's important.
- 17:25It's really important to not only have a on- demand or rescue inhaler available,
- 17:29but also to be taking, a daily inhaler.
- 17:33And then, on that topic, there's a new class of medicines for asthma.
- 17:37So, for people who are symptomatic consistently and still have exacerbations
- 17:42that require treatment with steroids or require hospitalizations, there's
- 17:47injectable medicines that we have now called biologics, and these range from,
- 17:52you know, subcutaneous doses every other week to every six months, and these work
- 17:58to decrease those inflammatory factors that cause these asthma responses.
- 18:05And so, this has been a huge game-changer in asthma control, because there's
- 18:08some people out there who have such an overreactive inflammatory, what we'll say,
- 18:15inflammatory milieu in their airways, rig?
- 18:17So much inflammation triggered by environmental exposures that
- 18:20they basically have constant symptoms, and this really helps
- 18:23to dampen down those inflammatory responses, these biologic therapies.
- 18:27And so, we've been starting these kind of earlier and earlier, but of course,
- 18:31you know, the- these are medicines that are injectable, these are medicines
- 18:34that most people wouldn't want to take unless their asthma control is such
- 18:37a state that this is a much better option for them, and it really has made
- 18:42a huge difference in people who have just very difficult to manage asthma.
- 18:46Scott Webb: I'm sure, yeah.
- 18:47And there's such a range, and it's, you know, patient by patient, and it's
- 18:51great that we have experts, of course.
- 18:53Let's just finish up here today, doctor, and good stuff.
- 18:55How does asthma compare to other lung conditions, let's say like COPD or
- 18:59chronic bronchitis, and what may be practical steps can you recommend to
- 19:03help folks to protect their lungs, to have better lung health, if you will?
- 19:08Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 19:08this is a really complicated and nuanced question.
- 19:10I'm gonna try to keep it as simple as I can.
- 19:13So, bronchitis is kind of a catch-all term.
- 19:15, This just means inflammation in those air tubes, and we usually think of
- 19:18it as, related to an infection, you know, like a viral infection, right?
- 19:21It causes inflammation and bronchitis.
- 19:24COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and chronic
- 19:27bronchitis are related conditions.
- 19:29So, COPD is, almost entirely, in the United States, a
- 19:32smoking-related condition.
- 19:34There's a small percentage of COPD that's related to occupational dust
- 19:38and fume exposure, biomass, fuel combustion, like wood-burning stoves,
- 19:41but a much smaller proportion of COPD.
- 19:44So, with COPD, there's prolonged exposure to smoke and toxins and cigarette smoke
- 19:50that leads to chronic inflammation in the ear tubes, but unlike asthma, COPD
- 19:54also affects those air sacs, righ?
- 19:56Those leaves in the tree.
- 19:58And so, over time, this chronic inflammation can cause destruction in
- 20:01the air tubes or air sacs, and it can cause chronic bronchitis, and that's,
- 20:06you know, a person who coughs every day for three months of the year and
- 20:09produces phlegm with that cough, and then also causes emphysema where those air
- 20:14sacs themselves are getting destroyed, and now, that air is going to these
- 20:18dead-end spaces in, in our lungs where it's not getting into our body, right
- 20:22oxygen's not getting into our body.
- 20:24The air is just siting in these dead sacks, these defects in the lung where
- 20:29there's, there's nothing going on there.
- 20:30The air's just sitting behind, and that's emphysema.
- 20:33Bronchitis and emphysema will often coexist in long-term smokers, and
- 20:37there's genetic factors that, you know, are a- at play as to how
- 20:40much emphysema somebody develops.
- 20:43Long-term asthma, uncontrolled asthma.
- 20:45So, if we have poorly controlled asthma long-term, it can lead to
- 20:48similar chronic changes in the airway, like the chronic bronchitis, right?
- 20:52Those air tubes can become inflamed, and, there could be obstructed
- 20:55airflow over time, but honestly, with modern treatment methods, asthma
- 20:59doesn't tend to lead to obstruction.
- 21:02And so, that, that's the big distinction, is that asthma is really a disease of
- 21:06those air tubes from a overreactive immune response, whereas COPD is
- 21:09this chronic prolonged inflammation that affects both the air tubes and
- 21:13the air sacs and is irreversible.
- 21:15And then, I think Just taking the last question, what
- 21:17practical steps can people take?
- 21:19So, what, what things can we do to protect our lungs?,
- 21:22This is the most important thing we're gonna talk about.
- 21:24Number one is don't smoke.
- 21:25Number two, on the same basic, front is get your partners,
- 21:28parents, family, friends, everybody you know to stop smoking.
- 21:31Number three, regular exercise.
- 21:34Number four is gonna be, if you're sensitive to air quality, invest in air
- 21:38purifiers, good air filters for your HVAC units, this is like MERV 13 or higher
- 21:44is usually what I recommend to folks.
- 21:46If you're looking at your app on your phone and you're seeing what the air
- 21:49quality numbers, the AQI or the air quality index looks like, if there's
- 21:52a bad air-quality day, you know, maybe think about staying indoors.
- 21:56If you work around hazardous chemicals or fumes or if you weld,
- 22:00you're gonna be exposed to things, you know, wear a respirator mask.
- 22:03And then the last one, and this is not necessarily an asma thing, but just
- 22:06important for everybody to know, is that, consider checking your house for radon,
- 22:10um, because although it doesn' affect your lungs on a day-to-day basis, it is
- 22:13a known cause of lung cancer, and it's something that we would not be a- aware
- 22:17of unless we were testing, our basements or a homes to make sure that we don't have
- 22:22kind of continued chronic radon exposure.
- 22:25Scott Webb: Yeah.
- 22:26Yeah, that might an entirely separate podcast.
- 22:27Another thing from the 70s seems like folks always were talking about radon
- 22:31back in the day and we don't talk about that much, but, really good stuff
- 22:34today, good suggestions from an expert.
- 22:36I appreciate your time, your expertise, all of that.
- 22:38Thank you so much.
- 22:39Dr. Adam Schertz:
- 22:39Thank you for having me, Scot.
- 22:40Scott Webb: And for more information, go to prisma.health/asma.
- 22:44Host: For more information and other podcasts just like this one, head
- 22:47on over to prismahealth.org/podcast.
- 22:50This has been Flourish, a podcast brought to you by Prisma Health.
- 22:53I'm Scott Webb.
- 22:54Stay well.