Better Breathers Club Meeting Dates and Places

BBCN Meetings
Idaho Society for Respiratory Care

Boise	Coeur d'Alene	Pocatello
Bonners Ferry	Idaho Falls	Twin Falls
	McCall

Boise/Better Breathers' Club
Date: 2nd Wednesday
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Place: ALA Office - 1111 S. Orchard St. #245
Contact: Kera Yost (208) 336-2373

Bonners Ferry/Perfect Puffers
No Information

Coeur d'Alene/Better Breathers' Club
Date: 2nd Tuesday
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Place: McGrane Center - KMC Campus
Topic: To be announced
Contact: Joyce Keratz (208) 666-2897

Idaho Falls/Easy Breathers' Club
Date: Last Thursday Free
Time: 11:30 a.m.
Place: Please RSVP - Complimentary meal and guest speaker
RSVP: Marilyn Miller (208) 529-6195

McCall/The Weezers & Geezers
Date: 2nd Wednesday
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Place: McCall Memorial Hospital
Contact: Michelle Butler, (208) 634-4061

Pocatello/Huff 'n Puffers
Date: Last Wednesday of the month
Time/Place: Please call
Contact: Bill Anderson (208) 239-1373

Twin Falls/Magic Breathers' Club--an educational support group for people coping with Asthma, Emphysema, and other chronic breathing problems.
Date: 3rd Tuesday
Time: 12:00 Noon
Place: Office on Aging Annex - CSI, 998 Washington St. N
Contact: Lisa (208) 734-4061

FACTS ADDICTION: You can become addicted to cigarettes after smoking only two cigarettes.
GARBAGE: Cigarettes are the most littered item in the United States and the World.
SMOKE: Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 substances including more than 40 carcinogens and 200 known poisons.
FIRE: More people die in fires caused by smoking than in arson-induced fires.
SECONDHAND SMOKE: Secondhand smoke is the third leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. killing 38,000 to 65,000 nonsmokers every year. Secondhand smoke caused lung cancer, other types of cancer, and heart disease in nonsmokers.

QUITTING Why Quit: (Information taken from the American Cancer Society's "When Smokers Quit")

Within 20 minutes of smoking your last cigarette - Your body will begin a series of changes that will continue for life.
20 minutes after quitting - The temperature of your hands and feet will return to normal.
8 hours after quitting - The carbon monoxide level in your blood will drop to normal.
24 hours after quitting - Your chance of a heart attack decreases.
3 months after quitting - Your lung function will increase up to 30%.
1 year after quitting - Your excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a nonsmoker's.
5 years after quitting - Your risk of stroke is reduced to that of a nonsmoker's.
10 years after quitting - Your risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidneys and pancreas decreases.
15 years after quitting - Your risk of coronary heart disease is that of a nonsmoker!

ASTHMA WHAT IS ASTHMA?
Asthma is a lung disease. It can be life threatening. Asthma is chronic. In other words, you live with it every day. Asthma causes breathing problems. These breathing problems are called attacks or episodes of asthma.

WHEN YOU HAVE ASTHMA
It's important to: Take your asthma seriously. Take you asthma medicines for asthma. When asthma symptoms don't improve, get help.

CONTROLLING ASTHMA
Asthma can be controlled. You can do it! When you know how to control asthma, it no longer controls you.

Click Here for ID Dept. of Health & Welfare's Asthma Patient Action Plan in PDF format.

SLEEP APNEA WHAT IS SLEEP APNEA?
Sleep apnea is a common breathing disorder in which your breathing periodically stops or gets very shallow for brief periods while you sleep.

WHAT DOES THE WORD APNEA MEAN?
Apnea is a Greek word meaning "want of breath."

HOW WILL MY DOCTOR KNOW IF I HAVE SLEEP APNEA?
Your doctor will do a physical exam, ask you and your family about your sleep habits, and recommend a number of tests, including sleep recordings, to diagnose sleep apnea.