Scientists have identified a genetic basis for determining the severity of allergic asthma in experimental models of the disease.

Wheezing is often thought as the key sign of asthma but we often tend to ignore other symptoms that might signal an asthma attack. Symptoms of asthma are not very consistent and can be different for different people.

Another reason for including asthma on the list of potential health risks posed by secondhand tobacco smoke, especially for non-smokers, has been uncovered.

New evidence linking the use of acetaminophen to development of asthma and eczema suggests that even monthly use of the drug in adolescents may more than double risk of asthma in adolescents compared to those who used none at all; yearly use was associated with a 50 percent increase in the risk of asthma.

Asthma is among the most common respiratory afflictions brought on by environmental pollutants. It is a chronic inflammation of the bronchial tubes that constrict the airways resulting in difficult breathing and wheezing.

A new study by researchers at the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center and the University of Puerto Rico may help explain some of the well-documented ethnic disparities in pediatric asthma.

Hunger and lack of food could make children and adults more vulnerable to chronic diseases like asthma, according to US researchers.

Babies born between 34 weeks and 37 weeks gestation are much more likely to have respiratory illness compared to infants born at full term, and their risk of respiratory illness decreases with each additional week of gestation until 38 weeks, researchers report.

Splashing around in a swimming pool on a hot summer day may not be as safe as you think. A recent University of Illinois study links the application of disinfectants in recreational pools to previously published adverse health outcomes such as asthma and bladder cancer.

Men who had a history of asthma or eczema generally had a lower risk of developing cancer, according to a study carried out by researchers at INRS–Institut Armand-Frappier, the Research Centre of the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, and McGill University. The findings, published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, show that male eczema sufferers had a lower risk of lung cancer while those with a history of asthma had a similar effect in relation to stomach cancer.

Breathing problems resulting from air pollution and asthma can lead to more suicides that are not directly linked to psychiatric ailments, new research has revealed.

Asthma can be a severely debilitating disease. Its increasing prevalence and the fact that most treatments do not control severe asthma well has stimulated intensive research into genetic susceptibility to asthma in the hope that the information gleaned will lead to new therapeutics.