Pinpoint YOUR Triggers - One Symptom at a Time!

On #WorldAsthmaDay2021 I want to explain what drives my passion for DailyBreath.  As I was developing an MVP version of DailyBreath in the summer of 2017, I came across an article that inspired a passion within me for bringing DailyBreath to market to ensure that even one life breathes easier.  It was the inspiration for the idea of pinpointing the when, where, and what of your allergy and asthma symptoms so that one could develop a personalized risk index based on their experience of triggers in their daily life.  The article was entitled, ‘Doctors Can’t Pinpoint What Triggered 15-year-olds Asthma Attack….’ 

The article went on to describe the day of a young girl who was on vacation with her family, spending the day in an amusement park in a state in the Midwest, enjoying dinner with family, and taking an evening swim in the hotel pool.  In the middle of summer, in this location, it was hot outdoors.  Besides air pollution, there is also fertilizer and pesticides from crops in the air.  And, at the hotel pool, there was probably a fair amount of chlorine in the pool, and chlorine gas in the air.  Airway inflammation is often cumulative in impact, so the article was clearly identifying that it was unclear what triggers ‘caused’ the asthma attack.  That is exactly what happened.  She experienced an asthma attack, stopped breathing, and was rushed to the hospital. 

This ‘asthma tragedy’ is but one of many occurring every day because of a potentially preventable asthma attack.  Just search ‘asthma tragedy’ on GoFundMe and you will be stunned to find hundreds of pages of campaigns seeking funds for asthma-related tragedies.  When you download DailyBreath and you see the pins represented on the DailyBreath Community Flare-Up map, remember what they represent. They represent someone recording their symptoms, flare-ups, asthma attacks. By recording them for their own benefit, they are contributing to helping everyone breathe easier.   If those most vulnerable are informed, aware, and prepared, perhaps we can reduce asthma attacks, trips to the ER, and tragic outcomes.  Perhaps if we try to ensure that even one life breathes easier, we can help everyone breathe easier. Download DailyBreath from the Apple App or Google Play store today and start pinpointing YOUR triggers.

The DailyBreath Risk Index for Allergic Asthma in the Top 31 Allergy Capitals in the US

To raise awareness during National Asthma Awareness Month in the US, each day I will be publishing a post that identifies a city ranked in the Top 31 Allergy Capitals list as reported by the Allergy and Asthma Foundation’s Top Allergy Capitals report released this spring.  Each day I will identify the DailyBreath Risk Index for that city for those with allergic asthma.  

The DailyBreath Risk Index estimates the risk associated with confluence of weather, pollution, and pollen in a particular location.  Weather conditions along with ozone, CO2, and PM 2.5 particulates and other pollutants all converge with pollen on any given day so a pollen count alone may not be sufficient to characterize how these conditions are impacting YOUR experience of the outdoors.

Your risk on any given day is also associated with the pollen count associated with YOUR offending allergen.  Therefore, a pollen count associated with only ‘trees, grasses, or weeds’ is insufficient when your offending allergen is a specific species of tree, for example maple or oak or mountain cedar. 

Understanding the species that are impacting you personally may support an allergy test or determine an allergen immunotherapy treatment path.  Certainly, as you understand where in your community you are experiencing symptoms, you will begin to understand where your offending allergen is present and take steps to reduce your exposure to that allergen next time you are at that location. With DailyBreath, you will begin to measure the weather, allergens, and irritants (pollution) that are impacting your symptoms so that you can manage your triggers. 

A unique feature of DailyBreath is the crowdsourcing of symptoms which shows you where others who have asthma are experience triggers which permits another lens through which you can plan your day outdoors accordingly.  Each day this month, we will be featuring an allergy capital and encouraging those with allergic asthma within that community to download DailyBreath and start recording their symptoms so that your community can begin to learn its exposure footprint as it impacts asthma sufferers.

This is what we mean by informed, aware, and prepared.  So download DailyBreath from the Apple App or Google Play store today and start pinpointing YOUR allergy triggers.

Increased Environmental Impacts on Human Health in a Changing Climate!

My vision for DailyBreath emerged in late 2015 and early 2016 as I realized environmental factors as a determinant of health were becoming a greater threat in a changing climate, and especially for those with respiratory conditions.  As I worked towards executing a prototype, I became aware of the groundbreaking 2016 Impacts on Climate Change and Human Health report.  This report was an output of the 4th National Climate Assessment produced by the US Global Change Research Program. (www.globalchange.gov)      

 Its key findings fit perfectly into the vision that I began to see for a platform dedicated to delivering personalized environmental insights for better asthma outcomes. In Chapter 3, Air Quality Impacts, 3 key findings provided the evidence that climate change would have an increasing impact on air quality.  It stated that climate change would;

1. exacerbate ozone impacts on health,

2. increase smoke impacts on health because of wildfires,

3. worsen allergy and asthma conditions; whether because of increased heat, changing precipitation patterns, or increasing CO2 contributing to increased impact of airborne allergens.

 And, in Chapter 9, Population of Concerns, the report framed the risk of climate change impacts in the context of vulnerable populations.

Key Finding #1 - People and Communities differ in their exposure, inherent sensitivity, and their adaptive capacity to respond to climate change related health threats.  Vulnerability to climate change varies across time and location, across communities, and among individuals in communities.  With individuals with respiratory conditions particularly vulnerable.

Key Finding #2 - People experience different inherent sensitivities at different ages and life stages.

Key Finding #3 - Climate change threatens the health of people by affecting exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity.  Social determinants of health may amplify, moderate, or otherwise influence health effects, particularly when these factors occur simultaneously or close in time or space.

Key Finding #4 is the Use of Geographic Data and Tools Allows for more Sophisticated Mapping of Risk Factors and Social Vulnerabilities to Identify and Protect Specific Locations and Groups of People.

These key findings have formed the approach that I developed for a DailyBreath Forecast, the DailyBreath Risk Index, and a goal of creating personalized symptom forecast based on real world evidence of a personal correlation of symptoms with the environmental conditions represented by a confluence of the weather, allergens, and irritant (pollution) exposures at a particular time and place.  

DailyBreath is an example of Key Finding #4, a Tool and the Use of Geographic Data that allows for sophisticated mapping of risk factors and social vulnerability to identify and protect individuals, vulnerable populations, and communities at large.  Download DailyBreath by texting DB4CAST to 72345 to be part of this unique innovation and community.

A Message to Those with Asthma about DailyBreath!

We recently released a new version of DailyBreath targeting broad adoption among the asthma community.  This version is available on iOS and Android smartphones.  This version reflects the UI/UX experience that we hope will appeal to our users and provides the functionality we hope will help them manage and control their asthma.  

However, it is not perfect.  Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good has governed our desire to get this app out in the hands of those who need it when many of them will need it most, during the brutal spring allergy season in the Northern Hemisphere (esp. US, Canada, UK, and Ireland to name several).  The last 3 weeks in May are going to be especially brutal, so it’s a good time to track YOUR asthma triggers.

We want to accelerate the use of DailyBreath and expand our DailyBreath community as rapidly as possible for the mutual benefit of all those who can now share their asthma journey.  We beg your indulgence while you encounter a good product that is perhaps imperfect.

The features that we have selected to be part of an initial premium version, DailyBreath Plus, for .99 cents yearly, are those that will personalize and customize DailyBreath for you.  It starts your journey towards an enhanced Premium version on the horizon that will provide you with a robust allergy and asthma learning and warning service delivering personalized environmental insights to avoid potentially preventable asthma attacks.  The more users that download the app, the more value all users will derive from the Community Flare Up Maps and in sharing their asthma journey.

We’ve created a tutorial to guide you through DailyBreath so that you may maximize its features and functionality as you begin to use it for managing and controlling your asthma.  As you encounter bugs and issues, feel free to share them with us by using the Contact Us feature in Settings.  We’re going to be updating the app as quickly as necessary to address these items.  We welcome your input on features you feel can be incorporated into DailyBreath to further support you.

Search for DailyBreath in the Apple App or Google Play store or download DailyBreath directly to your smartphone by texting ‘DB4CAST’ to 72345.

The DailyBreath Team

dailybreathforecast@gmail.com

www.dailybreathforecast.com

‘Sit Rep' for Asthma: Pinpointing Asthma Triggers, Data for the Public Good

Contact tracing for tracking the spread of COVID-19 has brought up concerns about privacy.  Perhaps that is because it involves the tracking of who we have been in contact with not just where we have been.  This seems to be quite an intrusion.  Americans have accepted that many apps geo-locate where they are at any given time but pairing that with who I am with seems to be a bridge too far for some.

DailyBreath performs a type of contact tracing, but in this case, it is tracking contact with environmental exposures.   And, because these environmental exposures include pollution and pollen, where a person experiences these is important for an understanding at an individual and community level of where risk is highest for experiencing symptoms. 

Geo-location revolutionized how we anticipate traffic using various apps and now DailyBreath aims to revolutionize how those with asthma anticipate risk of experiencing symptoms based on the environmental conditions they may encounter during their day. By informing people of the when, where, and what of THEIR symptoms through symptom tracking (‘a situation report’), DailyBreath enables vulnerable populations to anticipate exposure risk in their community, but individually, it allows them to understand uniquely how they experience exposures daily; what they experience and where?  Armed with this situational awareness, they are empowered to be health prepared for the environmental conditions they may encounter in their daily asthma journey.

When users track their symptoms, they are contributing to the crowdsourcing of flare-ups that provides a community-wide view of areas where others like them may be at risk. This use of data is for the public good.  It informs others who have asthma like you where there may be exposures that are problematic.  In the case of pollution, it provides community stakeholders an understanding of where specific pollutant risks like exhaust from traffic corridors, smoke from wildfires, or pollution from industrial areas are impacting vulnerable populations.  This may give communities a roadmap for mitigation, resilience, and adaptation efforts to reduce pollution and its impacts., and subsequently the health of all in the community.

Download from either the Apple App or Google Play Store or text “DB4CAST” to 72345 directly from your smartphone.  Pinpoint your asthma triggers; for yourself, for others, and for the good of all, but it starts with you!  

Authored by Eric Klos, CEO and Founder, DailyBreath, a cloud based SAAS company delivering personalized environmental insights for better asthma outcomes. DailyBreath is a mobile app that helps those with asthma pinpoint THEIR triggers.

Why a DailyBreath Forecast? Informed, Aware, Prepared!

As we introduce DailyBreath this week to the broad market, during Earth Week, today on Earth Day it is important to convey the fundamental hypothesis of our new approach to tracking outdoor triggers that impact onset asthma symptoms and often, attacks.  It was our hypothesis that it is the confluence of triggers; weather, allergens, irritants, whether in the form of pollution, pollen, mold, wildfire smoke, etc. that contributes at a time and place to a person’s experience of their immediate environment as it relates to them experiencing symptoms.

If that was the case, then we could certainly track a person’s interaction with these triggers in relation to the conditions at the time and the location where they experience symptoms.  In this manner, we could begin to associate triggers for the user to create a personalized risk index.  In this manner, a person would begin to understand how a specific confluence of these conditions impacts them personally.  As the Earth’s average annual temperature increases, and a worsening confluence of these exposures occurs, it is increasingly important to understand our individual sensitivity on any given day. 

So, for those who are most impacted by outdoor conditions, instead of just a weather forecast, or an air quality or pollen forecast in isolation, how about a forecast based on personalized environmental insights that have been gathered from their own experience of symptoms to provide them with a personal symptom forecast.  On what type of days have I experienced symptoms?  So, this is what DailyBreath does at its core; it tracks the when, what, and where of your symptoms to translate this real-world evidence into a symptom forecast that can inform the preventative action steps that you can take to ensure that you avoid potentially preventable asthma attacks.  DailyBreath makes you informed, aware, and prepared.  This is a journey in introducing daily environmental insights based on how you experience your environment every day.  You can’t manage your triggers, if you don’t measure them. 

This is not a comprehensive asthma app at the outset.  DailyBreath is focused predominantly on environmental insights that lead to trigger management: trigger education, awareness, reduction, and avoidance.  However, as we identified certain gaps in allergy and asthma care, we have begun to target those gaps and develop functionality that will close them.  Whether its allergen evaluation, allergen immunotherapy, medication adherence, or the correct usage of inhalers, our app aims to educate, inform, and support the asthma community in ensuring that even one life among you breathes easier.

DailyBreath may not be perfect in addressing your asthma needs.  But, presuming not to make the perfect the enemy of the good and with your help, we hope to make it a staple of your daily asthma management and control.  We hope you will let us be part of your asthma journey by downloading DailyBreath by visiting the Apple App or Google Play stores or texting DB4CAST to 72345.  And, if you don’t have asthma, but know someone who does, please pass our message on.

Personalizing Public Health

Personalizing Public Health - Crowdsourcing Environmental Insights - Better Asthma Outcomes

Last week was National Public Health Week, so it is fitting that we are launching this week the go-to-market version of DailyBreath, which aims to ‘personalize’ public health, following several prototypes and MVP’s that provided customer validation and valuable insights.  DailyBreath introduces the innovation of ‘exposure’ (weather, allergens, and irritants, including air pollution) contact tracing for the public good. Tracking the environmental factors associated with an asthma patient’s condition based on their location allows them to focus on adjusting behavior and preventing the most severe and costly outcomes.

To date weather and environmental exposure information, a matter of public health is distributed in a broadcast model and treats a population within a common zip code as if they are all impacted in the same way no matter where within that zip code they are located.  However, weather, and environmental exposures are more granular and the confluence of them, not each exposure in isolation, impacts us individually.  We measure exposures separately, but we experience symptoms based on this confluence.

Hyper-local geo-location is now available via our phones.  With the advent of proliferating fixed sensors and wearables, the trend is towards capturing even more granular or hyper-local data related to weather and environmental exposures.  Tracking individual susceptibility to weather and environmental exposures in a person’s immediate environment is within reach. 

Your experience with asthma is personal, but the exposures you experience are local and may also impact others.  So, what if you were able to contribute your symptom (flare-up) data to a map where symptoms are crowdsourced, a way for all nearby members within the DailyBreath community to understand risk in the context of where they may be going. 

DailyBreath is ‘personalizing public health’.  We are collecting patient-generated data to support a shared asthma journey while supporting the community in achieving improved public health.  As pollution is local, we want to empower communities to know where populations at risk are vulnerable to exposures so they can take action to improve overall air quality.

Our location is extremely important in our individual health and wellness and yet we are not ‘monitoring to manage’ the weather and environment factors daily in relationship to our health.  It is now time to leverage weather and environmental data to deliver personalized environmental insights for better asthma outcomes.  It is time for DailyBreath.

Authored by Eric Klos, CEO and Founder, DailyBreath, a cloud based SAAS company delivering personalized environmental insights for better asthma outcomes.  DailyBreath is a mobile app that helps those with asthma pinpoint THEIR triggers.

Text ‘DB4CAST’ to 72345 to download DailyBreath to your smartphone (iOS or Android).

Allergens in the Winter, and the COVID Symptom Confusion

Who says that spring and fall are the only time to track allergens? While winter is not a prime allergy season, there are certainly people who suffer from allergies to tree pollen found in specific regions of the country.  DailyBreath is uniquely suited to track allergens all year, and given our concerns around COVID, it is important to be able to pinpoint allergic reactions versus potential COVID symptoms.  Determining your allergen triggers can help you to avoid asthma attacks.

For example, there is a particular tree that is pollen producing during the winter months in a specific area of the US.  The mountain cedar tree most notably located in south and central Texas, and some parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri, produces abundant pollen between November and February. This pollen is so prevalent in this region that folks in Texas refer to the resultant impacts or allergic reaction to this pollen explosion as ‘cedar fever’.  Many transplants to this part of the country are surprised when they experience allergy symptoms during the winter.  However, mountain cedar will often strike those who also experience spring allergies related to tree species like cedar, juniper, and cypress. 

Given the lack of predictability in 2020, as if on cue, ‘cedar fever’ may have arrived early in Texas, as folks on social media report allergy symptoms already.  As most of the country, especially the Southwest, has experienced warmer temperatures than normal recently, this isn’t too surprising. As a result, the early blossoming of mountain cedar cones is already well underway, and a peak is expected in December this year.

Texas mountain cedar is just one example of asthma triggers in the winter.  Just because this area of the US is impacted by the mountain cedar pollen allergen doesn’t mean the rest of the country gets a free pass. There are multiple airborne contaminants indoors and pollutants outdoors during the winter that can cause asthma symptoms to appear. Even cold weather, often accompanied by dry air, or a rapid transition from warmer temperatures to cold, can be a trigger for asthma.  During the fall and winter, damp wet weather may create more mold outdoors, another source of a trigger. Understanding your personal allergy and asthma triggers is an essential line of defense against experiencing symptoms.

DailyBreath was developed to help individual’s pinpoint triggers one symptom at a time, one location at a time. When you begin to understand when, where, and what level of mountain cedar pollen, or any other allergen, impacts you, you are empowered to reduce or avoid your symptoms.  By pinpointing your triggers, you will learn what allergens, irritants, and weather conditions impact YOUR asthma. 

Respiratory Illness and Disease, Air Quality, and our Future

Now that its clear that COVID-19 is going to be with us well into 2021, and its likely not the last coronavirus that will emerge in the future, perhaps we need to react not to an isolated incident of monumental impact, but respond with actions to mitigate and adapt to our changing world.  Its clear that air pollution threatens our future and it’ clear that airborne transmission of a coronavirus will always pose a threat to our health. 

If our outdoor and indoor air quality is negatively impacting our health, everyone’s health, but uniquely those with respiratory disease, perhaps its time we begin to tackle the problem head on.  While we mitigate the upstream production of pollution, these impacts are being felt every day.  When a coronavirus emerges, we may be able to mitigate spread, but not totally, and thus how do we create indoor and outdoor air conditions that are less likely to cause negative outcomes?  How do we adapt our outdoor and built environments so that we can mitigate the worse impacts of poor air quality?

DailyBreath is going to help those with respiratory conditions to pinpoint their triggers one symptom at a time, but we know that it is impossible to completely avoid exposures like pollution, pollen, the weather, and viruses.  Part of a strategy to address exposures upstream must include implementing solutions that create a cleaner outdoor environment for us all and a cleaner indoor environment in our homes for each of us.

Our mission is to ensure that even one life breathes easier.  Our vision is one in which those with asthma experience less symptoms, less attacks, less ER visits, and less hospital stays.  With this vision, we aim to address many of the upstream opportunities to support the management and control of one’s asthma.  Though we are focused on trigger education, awareness, reduction, and avoidance, we consider it our duty to work to reduce the impacts of poor indoor and outdoor air quality.  One basic example is the changing of the air filter for your air conditioning.  For those with asthma it is probably a good practice to change at least once a month, perhaps even every other week.  But, at the minimum change it more frequently so you can assess how quickly it gathers particulates circulating in your indoor air.

In this spirit, we will partner with innovative companies bringing solutions to market that support cleaner indoor and outdoor environments.  Molekule was founded to address the adverse impacts of polluted air.  Molekule is using the power of science to destroy indoor air pollution.  Through a breakthrough purification technology, Molekule air purifiers destroy pollutants at a microscopic scale, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and viruses.  DailyBreath is partnered with Molekule to bring its innovative technology to allergy and asthma sufferers who would benefit from a cleaner indoor environment.  Consider a purchase here and let us know whether you feel a difference in breathing cleaner air.  We hope you breathe easier.