Unit 5 Feedback

Hi Erica and Paige,

Overall you have done a really nice job on the layout and content of your section on complementary medicine. Since asthma is not a condition that has personally touched my life, I have admittedly given little consideration to the dietary implications for natural management of the disease manifestation.  It does seem highly logical to emphasize a diet that would enable the body to be the most robust in order to fend off potential ailments.  The area of nutritional management is really a fascinating topic.  Particularly when considering the interactions of each individual’s gutmicrobiome and the unique triggers for gut inflammation that may not be easily noticeable within the rest of the body.  

For the lay reader who may not be familiar with the presentation of an asthmatic attack, it may be potentially beneficial for content to include the baseline presentation of an individual compared with an acute exacerbation response, and the course of action that is required in the acute phase versus a preventative approach. It appears that your content has focused primarily on maintaining healthy body systems in the baseline manifestation of asthma, rather than addressing the acute phase of an asthma attack.  Despite your one statement of “While there is little scientific evidence to support the efficacy of CAM in children with asthma, surveys have reported that 59% of parents believe that CAMs are effective, and 44% admitted to using CAM before bronchodilators in the initial home management of asthma flares,”I am left feeling confused as to what the actual course of action that was taken by these CAM users were to address ‘asthma flares’.  And whether or not that form of complimentary and alternative medicine was nutrition based. 

What is the efficacy of these interventions in comparison to the traditional treatment for an acute asthmatic response?  Have you found any randomized-controlled trials that conduct a side-by-side comparison?  Does the evidence suggest utilization of these methods to be statistically significant?  You do mention that there is lack of rigorous trials as a whole, but what of the existing body of evidence?  Is it significant?  Does it warrant further controlled trials?  If there is a lack of efficacy pertaining to management of an acute phase response, it is important to mention so as to mitigate the expectations of unaware consumers that likely they will require a more medically rigorous intervention in the event of an asthmatic attack.  

I imagine that any parent with a child diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening condition will be anxious and eager to find solutions that are both accessible and empowering for them to execute control over the situation.  It is important that as healthcare professionals we provide the clearest and most sound information so support that quest, as they are looking to us for trustworthy answers.  

And just a friendly word of caution, you may want to consider adding in sources that support your content in certain sections as to minimize the risk of plagiarism.  I ran your content through Grammarly with the plagiarism seeker enabled, and there are few statements that warrant a supportive citation.  Remember, if it is not an original thought or idea, and it’s not ‘common knowledge’ (ie: plants consume carbon dioxide for nutrition and give off oxygen as a byproduct), you must give credit to the original source of information.  

APA citation requires a comma separate the name and date, and that an ampersand should always be utilized within the brackets.  There are a few citation changes to make in your content: 

·     (Yonas 2012) should read (Yonas, 2012)

·     (Boulet 2011; Cazzola 2011) should read (Boulet, 2011; and Cazzola, 2011)

·     (Erzurum and Zein, 2015) should read (Erzurum & Zein, 2015)

·     (Kynyk, Mastronarde, and McCallister) date is missing, if not date available use “n.d.” should read (Kynyk, Mastronarde, & McCallister, DATE)

·     (Torres-Llenza, Bhogal, Davis,& Ducharme, 2010, p. ) page number missing

Keep up the good work ladies! – Heather