After watching her gravity-defying performances, it’s hard to believe that pop music star Pink, 39, has struggled with respiratory problems and asthma since childhood. Ironically, you could even say Pink owes her career to asthma; she took voice lessons early on to help her breathing.

Pink also owes her lung power to lifesaving medications that provide long-term asthma control. These drugs are usually delivered through an inhaler. The first-ever study to evaluate inhaler technique in children ages 2-16 who were hospitalized for asthma found that 18% didn’t use a spacer with their inhaler. (It’s a plastic tube attached to the inhaler that helps a child take in the medication completely.) And 42% had faulty inhaler technique.

These inhaler snafus up the risk of an asthma attack and can put a kid’s life in danger. So, here’s what to do if your child has asthma:

>> Use a peak flow meter to measure lung function weekly.

>> Have your child use a spacer with the inhaler. It’s essential for any kid 6 or younger and for all children taking inhaled glucocorticoids or those who have problems coordinating proper inhaler technique.

>> Have your asthma doctor go over the best method (with or without spacer) with you and your child.

When not using a spacer, make sure your child follows these steps: Shake the inhaler five times to mix medication with propellant; exhale; put lips around mouthpiece; begin inhaling and then push canister to activate; breathe in deeply; remove inhaler from mouth; hold breath for count of 10. Done!

TAP CHILDREN’S DEFIANCE TO IMPROVE THEIR HEALTH

In 1955, when James Dean starred in “Rebel Without a Cause,” he made teen angst and defiance cool for a whole generation of kids. Well, now, researchers from University of Chicago Booth School of Business are suggesting that all that attitude can be used to make youngsters, especially adolescent boys, a lot healthier. You’ll never have to say “Eat your broccoli or no dessert” again.

The study, published in Nature Human Behavior, found that eighth graders can be turned off to fast food, junky snacks and sugary beverages if they’re made aware of how companies manipulate them and damage their health through exploitive marketing and deceptive messaging.

The researchers had boys and girls read a fact-based, expose-style article on big food companies, explaining that when candy and soda, for example, are equated with happiness, kids will get roped into believing it. The researchers then sent food ads on an iPad to the kids, who were asked to write on them, graffiti style, to change their message from false to true.

The result? Girls seemed to respond equally to standard healthy info and the more aggressive messaging about food companies. But boys responded more enthusiastically to the expose: They reduced daily purchases of unhealthy drinks and snacks in their school cafeteria by 31%, and the improvements persisted for the rest of the school year.

Your takeaway, Mom and Dad: Talk to your kids about how they’re targeted. Ask them to talk to their teachers about researching food ads. Now, that’s giving your rebel a cause!

Mehmet Oz, M.D., is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D., is Chief Wellness Officer and Chair of Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic. Email questions to youdocsdaily@sharecare.com.