To check your best reading, test yourself with the meter every day for 2-3 weeks. Record the highest number each day. When you finish the whole series of tests, the highest reading of all will be your personal best. This can be a kind of benchmark.
You and your doctor will use it to develop a plan for managing your disease with medication and other therapies. Many of these plans use a colour-coded system, like the traffic lights you see when you drive. Diaphragmatic breathing uses awareness of the diaphragm muscle, which separates the organs in the abdomen from the lungs. The American Lung Association offers Better Breathers Clubs throughout Illinois and across the country.
Visit the American Lung Association website or call (800) LUNG-USA (586-487) to find one near you. A home pulmonary function test uses a peak flow meter or home spirometer to monitor and evaluate any breathing problems you may have on a day-to-day basis. A peak flow meter allows you to measure your peak expiratory flow. A home spirometer allows you to measure your forced expiratory volume at 1 second (FEV).
Two clinical trials funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are testing different treatments for LAM. These trials have patients regularly check their lung function with home spirometers. Spirometers assess the health of the lungs by measuring how much air someone can breathe in and out. People with a rare lung disease called lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) need to visit their doctors regularly to check their lung function.
Since regular daily activity does not help to use the lungs to their full potential, it is necessary to challenge the lungs with more intense activity. People with asthma or other chronic lung problems can usually only measure their lung function at the doctor's office a few times a year by blowing into specialised equipment. Group health insurance and health benefit plans are insured or administered by CHLIC, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company (CGLIC) or its affiliates (see a list of legal entities that insure or administer group HMOs, dental HMOs and other products or services in your state). It is important to pay attention to these symptoms, as they could be early signs of lung disease, including COPD, asthma and lung cancer.
Home spirometry can help patients with ELM and other lung diseases track their lung function.
