Asthma Attacks

Warning: Facebook could be hazardous to your health. So says a team of Italian physicians writing in the Nov. 20 edition of the British medical journal Lancet . They describe the case of an 18-year-old man whose asthma had been in check until he logged on to the social networking site and discovered that his ex-girlfriend had gotten over him and become Facebook friends with several other potential suitors. Apparently, the patient took the break-up rather hard, leaving him in a “depressive state,” according to the report.

If you thought peanut allergies were bad, meet what may be a far worse affliction: Approximately 2% to 3% of the population suffers from severe allergies to spices, according to a presentation Friday at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting in Anaheim by its past president, Dr. Sami Bahna. Spices are everywhere. So while it may be possible to avoid peanuts and other common allergens when dining at restaurants, the ubiquity of spices makes eating out extremely difficult, and can also restrict the use of store-bought and processed foods, as spices are not always listed on packaging.

Virtually all asthma attacks are triggered by allergies, according to a new study that challenges the widely held belief that the condition in adults usually has non-allergic causes. Traditionally, experts have categorized asthma as having both allergic and non-allergic forms. Allergic asthma was considered to be the most common type in children and young adults, while older people were usually thought to have non-allergic asthma.

Re "Throwing cold water on the romance of beach bonfires," Aug. 10 Gale Holland's article about Newport Beach's ban on beach bonfires is all about provoking emotion with no mention of scientific research about wood smoke. Does Holland know that wood smoke is many times more carcinogenic than tobacco smoke? Wood smoke is known to trigger asthma attacks and can cause heart attacks and strokes. What about the research out of UC Berkeley linking wood smoke to pneumonia and poor cognitive development in children?

Children with asthma face quadruple the risk of an attack after stressful events in their lives, according to a study published last week in the journal Thorax. Researchers from McGill University in Montreal studied 60 children ages 6 to 13 who had suffered from asthma for at least three years. The children were asked to keep daily records of acute attacks and their breath strength for 18 months. Researchers regularly interviewed the children and their parents about stressful life events.

Asthma and adventure travel may not be a good mix, according to Israeli and U.S. researchers. The team evaluated 203 patients with asthma before and after adventure trips, including 147 who went on a high-altitude trek. Eighty-eight of the travelers reported asthma attacks; more than three-quarters of those who had attacks were high-altitude trekkers.

A drug widely used by itself to treat asthma may actually worsen symptoms if not taken with other drugs, according to UC San Francisco researchers. The drug is salmeterol xinafoate, sold as Serevent, from a class known as long-acting beta-agonists. It relieves asthma symptoms by dilating the airway and is generally recommended for use with inhaled steroids, but some doctors have begun prescribing it alone.

Never underestimate the power of children to teach their parents. That's the lesson of a school-based program that taught third-through fifth-graders to manage their own asthma attacks. Not only did the six hourlong sessions and homework help the kids better recognize and respond to signs of breathing distress, but the training also rubbed off on their moms.

Some 14.6 million Americans have asthma, a chronic lung problem that causes difficulty breathing, and 5,000 people die from it each year. Most sufferers know the disorder requires medical management, but too few realize that it is not just the symptoms that can be tackled but also many of the causes. Attacks can be triggered by internal factors such as stress and infections and external factors such as dust, pollen, tobacco smoke and pollution.

More than half of people with asthma have symptoms that are triggered by laughter, researchers have found. Laughter is "one more trigger in a long list of triggers" for asthma, said study author Dr. Stuart Garay of the New York University Medical Center in New York. However, among people with symptoms brought on by laughter, nearly half said they could laugh attack-free when their asthma was under better control.

To understand the latest brouhaha about safe levels of ozone, it helps to understand the difference between science and policy. First the back story. In 2008, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Stephen Johnson, reduced the allowable level of ozone in the air from 84 parts per billion to 75 ppb. Johnson said the change would lead to cleaner air and improve public health. However, the EPA's independent advisory panel had recommended that the limit be set even lower, in the range of 60 ppb to 70 ppb. Critics, including scientists, environmental advocates and medical associations, such as the American Thoracic Society, accused Johnson and the George W. Bush administration of prioritizing the economic concerns of polluters over the interests of the general public.

The rise in asthma rates has researchers a bit baffled. But while they focus on figuring out the reason, people with asthma have more practical concerns: preventing and controlling asthma attacks. Data released Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show an increase in the number of Americans with asthma despite better air quality and a marked decline in smoking rates, as reported in the Los Angeles Times . Doctors don't know how to prevent asthma because it's not clear what causes the disease - it may be caused partly by genetics and partly by exposure to irritants such as pollution and tobacco smoke.

About one in 12 people in the United States now has asthma, a total of 24.6 million people and an increase of 4.3 million since 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. The costs of medical care for these patients increased by about 6% between 2002 and 2007, totaling $56 billion in the latter year, according to information in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report . The increases come, surprisingly, despite improved air quality throughout most of the country and widespread decreases in smoking.

Warning: Facebook could be hazardous to your health. So says a team of Italian physicians writing in the Nov. 20 edition of the British medical journal Lancet . They describe the case of an 18-year-old man whose asthma had been in check until he logged on to the social networking site and discovered that his ex-girlfriend had gotten over him and become Facebook friends with several other potential suitors. Apparently, the patient took the break-up rather hard, leaving him in a “depressive state,” according to the report.

We read your article [“Dust Mite Hype,” April 21] with zeal because my daughter and I both have rather strong allergies to dust mites. The publication measured patient outcomes using a hard endpoint: asthma attacks. This may be a good metric from a scientific standpoint. There are other endpoints, however, that are important to patients' quality of life, such as sleeping through the night without coughing. I can tell you from experience that thorough vacuuming and use of high-quality dust mite pillow covers makes a tremendous quality-of-life difference in our family's lives.

Simply mentioning words such as "wheeze" can activate the brains of asthma patients, researchers have discovered, shedding light on the emotional underpinnings of the disease. The study of six patients found that asthma patients have extra brain activity in an area called the anterior cingulate cortex, which is associated with emotional responses.

If you thought peanut allergies were bad, meet what may be a far worse affliction: Approximately 2% to 3% of the population suffers from severe allergies to spices, according to a presentation Friday at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting in Anaheim by its past president, Dr. Sami Bahna. Spices are everywhere. So while it may be possible to avoid peanuts and other common allergens when dining at restaurants, the ubiquity of spices makes eating out extremely difficult, and can also restrict the use of store-bought and processed foods, as spices are not always listed on packaging.

About one in 12 people in the United States now has asthma, a total of 24.6 million people and an increase of 4.3 million since 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. The costs of medical care for these patients increased by about 6% between 2002 and 2007, totaling $56 billion in the latter year, according to information in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report . The increases come, surprisingly, despite improved air quality throughout most of the country and widespread decreases in smoking.

More than half of people with asthma have symptoms that are triggered by laughter, researchers have found. Laughter is "one more trigger in a long list of triggers" for asthma, said study author Dr. Stuart Garay of the New York University Medical Center in New York. However, among people with symptoms brought on by laughter, nearly half said they could laugh attack-free when their asthma was under better control.

Justine Sahli had a problem that seemed insurmountable. A single woman recently transplanted from a small Northern California town, she had discovered that dust-like allergens in the bedroom carpet of her Costa Mesa condominium were causing asthma attacks. "I was up five times a night," said Sahli, 52, who suffers from the effects of a 1987 automobile accident that prevent her from performing taxing physical tasks. "It was a serious problem, and very debilitating."