Time for Change, Time for a Personalized Approach to our Environmental Triggers

Climate Change has amplified the discussion about environmental triggers, but health care has not changed.

While I appreciate that climate change has amplified a discussion about the environmental determinants of health, the origin of my zeal for DailyBreath was a desire to bring a personalized approach to managing the specific allergen and pollutant exposures that impacted a person’s health. Even Aristotle observed that the air we breathe impacts our health. While climate change policy may be implemented over the next twenty-five years, every day in the US over 30,000 asthma attacks occur, leading to 5,000 ER visits, of which 1,000 result in long term hospital stays, and 11 people die of an asthma attack.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

Our health care system continues to fail in integrating environmental determinants of health into its delivery of medical care to the most vulnerable when it comes to allergen and pollutant impacts. People with specific conditions like asthma and COPD are often impacted directly by experiencing acute symptoms because of exposure to allergens and pollutants that produce a physiological response that leads to respiratory distress, some level of breathing difficulty. We need to start addressing the very real threats associated with pollutants and allergens on individual health every day.