Asthma
Asthma (from the Greek άσθμα, ásthma, "panting") is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. It is thought to be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
Asthma Stories
- Workplace asthma costs the UK at least £100 million a year, and may be as high as £135 million, reveals research published online in Thorax.
- Italian doctors warn asthma patients in an unusual turn of events of getting an attack just because of a Facebook update.
- The metallic particles in the smoke emitted by fireworks pose a health risk, particularly to people who suffer from asthma.
- As choking smoke from the Tesoro Golden Eagle refinery drifted eastward, health officials in the Bay Area advised people with asthma or breathing problems to stay indoors.
- Evidence suggesting that the risk of childhood asthma associated with prenatal paracetamol exposure may depend on antioxidant genes in the mother has been found by a team of UK scientists.
- Risk of asthmatic attack on US children is directly related to their low social economic status (SES) and exposure to pests.
- What is common between your tongue and lung? As you struggle to find an answer, scientists have found recently that these two organs share the same bitter taste receptors. These receptors in the bronchial muscle may well be the answer for asthma and other lung diseases.
- Researchers from Tufts University pooled data from five previous epidemiological studies to investigate the prevalence of asthma in children in the Boston neighborhoods of Chinatown and Dorchester.
- Taste receptors in the lungs? Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have discovered that bitter taste receptors are not just located in the mouth but also in human lungs.
- Long term exposure to low-level air pollution may increase the risk of severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to researcher s in Denmark.
- Exposure to dirty air is linked to decreased function of a gene that appears to increase the severity of asthma in children, according to a joint study by researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.
- Mums who are often angry or irritated and those who suppress their emotional expressions can worsen the severity of their children's asthma symptoms, especially when the children are younger.