Asthma

The asthma drug albuterol can ease the symptoms of multiple sclerosis and delay relapses when added to conventional treatments, but the effects apparently wear off after a year, researchers reported Monday. Multiple sclerosis is a disease in which the body's own immune system attacks the protective layer of myelin around nerve fibers, producing short circuits. Symptoms include visual disturbances, difficulty walking, fatigue, and loss of coordination, sensation, and bowel and bladder control.

Ozone generators are often used in hotel rooms, cars and private homes to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke, but new evidence suggests that this cure may be worse than the disease. Researchers at the Univeristy of California's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have found that ozone combines with nicotine and other components of cigarette smoke to produce chemicals that are a greater asthma hazard than the original smoke. In particular, the chemicals combine to form ultrafine aerosols that can carry dangerous chemicals deep into the lungs, where they trigger the development of asthma.

A major new international study released Friday has found that adolescents who take acetaminophen, better known under the brand name Tylenol, have a higher risk of asthma, allergic nasal conditions and the skin disorder eczema. Those who took the common painkiller as infrequently as once a month had twice the normal risk of developing the disorders. Experts noted, however, that the study does not show that the drug causes the problems. In fact, some said, it is equally likely that the children were taking the drug because they were already suffering from asthma.

"There's something I've never told you." We were in the middle of a follow-up exam — my patient in a gown on the exam table, I with a stethoscope in my hand — when she chose to reveal something she had kept to herself for the nearly 20 years of our doctor-patient relationship. She had come into my office with an acute asthma attack a week ago without an appointment. I had been treating her for asthma for two decades and had seen her regularly, never before with an emergency.

I have used Pycnogenol for almost two years for horrible hot flashes and night sweats. I started with 200 milligrams. It did stop the symptoms, but it felt like I was trying to restart an old engine. I dropped the dose to 150 mg and found that is a good dose for me. The flashes and sweats are minimal and tolerable. An unexpected and welcome side effect is that my asthma is so much better. I was on Symbicort, maximum dosage, and could not wean myself off. I realized my asthma was better after using the Pycnogenol for a short while, and I tried to taper down again.

California Breathmobile locations • Children's Hospital of Orange County, two Breathmobiles, (714) 532-7571 • Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, two Breathmobiles, (909) 498-6277 • Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA, one Breathmobile, (310) 794-5561 • County USC Medical Center, five Breathmobiles, (323) 226-3813 • Riverside County Regional Medical Center, one Breathmobile, (951) 892-1778 • Prescott-Joseph Center, one Breathmobile, serving Oakland and Alameda counties, (510)

When Tami Pickel, 43 and a single mom, was laid off from her job at a mortgage bank in 2007, she lost her health insurance too. Medi-Cal provided health coverage for her kids, but Pickel worried as asthma symptoms worsened for her son Ethan, now 11. In October, a nurse at Ethan's school recommended that Pickel take Ethan and his brother, Aaron, 9, who has milder asthma symptoms, to the local Breathmobile, a free, rolling asthma and allergy diagnosis...

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday called for putting new limits on powerful and long-lasting bronchial drugs that millions of Americans use to treat asthma -- a move designed to lower the risk of complications leading to hospitalization or even death. Physicians were urged to switch asthma patients away from medicines containing both long-acting beta agonists, commonly called LABAs, and inhaled corticosteroids. Instead, the FDA said, patients should use products containing only the corticosteroids or other asthma-relieving medication whenever possible.

More than a quarter of all U.S. children have a chronic health condition, new research suggests, a significant increase from the rate seen in earlier decades and a statistic that looms large for the nation's efforts to subdue rising healthcare costs. But the report doesn't suggest that children are less healthy. The comprehensive look at children from 1988 through 2006 also revealed that health conditions themselves have changed. Fewer children today are affected by congenital defects, infectious diseases and accidents than they were 50 years ago; instead, cultural, lifestyle and environmental conditions appear to be the root cause of many pediatric illnesses.

An infection of the uterine cavity during pregnancy combined with premature birth doubles the risk that an African American child will develop asthma, researchers have found. The combination also increases risk for some other ethnicities, though less severely. About 8% of pregnancies are marked by such bacterial infections, called chorioamnionitis, but it is not yet clear what proportion of asthma is induced by them, said the lead author, Dr. Darios Getahun of Kaiser Permanente's Department of Research and Evaluation in Pasadena.