Asthma

Understanding Allergy and Asthma
Allergic to Pets? The Breakthrough Guide to Living with the Animals You Love
by Shirlee Kalstone
Avoid Allergic Outbreaks-Not Animals! Allergic to Pets? addresses the problem that plagues allergic animal lovers everywhere: how to live with a pet you love when you (or a family member) are allergic to it.

Asthma
Ask a Nurse
by Geraldine Bednash Ph.D., RN, FAAN, American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN)
Asthma is a disease in which the air passages in the lungs periodically become narrowed, obstructed, or even blocked. The airways usually narrow in reaction to certain stimuli, typically something inhaled. These stimuli are commonly called triggers.

Papers on Health
by John Kirk
Asthma exists in various forms, having equally various causes. One of these causes, giving rise to a comparatively simple form of the disease, is cramp of the ring-muscle of the windpipe, so contracting the windpipe that breathing is rendered difficult.

Chronotherapy: Asthma, Arthritis
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Successful treatment of diseases may depend on the time of day or month that a medicine is taken or surgery performed. Asthma and arthritis pain are among conditions now being treated by the clock or calendar.

Childhood Asthma : Medications: Bronchodilators, Cromolyn, Corticosteroids
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Medications for asthma have come a long way since the days of the ancient Egyptians, who treated the disease by administering camel or crocodile dung, or by burning herbs on a hot brick and having the asthma patient inhale the fumes.

Controlling Asthma: Inflamed Airways
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Asthma can be a mild condition or a deadly disease, with much depending on the care a person with asthma gets. Though there is no known cure, most asthma can be controlled and new information is changing the way health experts view the role of drugs.

Asthma's Impact on Children and Adolescents
by CDC
Asthma is a major public health problem of increasing concern in the United States. From 1980 to 1996, asthma prevalence among children increased by an average of 4.3% per year, from 3.6% to 6.2%.

Childhood Asthma
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
While some children eventually outgrow asthma as the size of their breathing tubes increases, Updike's disease grew worse in maturity. He describes an acute episode that occurred on a visit to his parents' farm in Pennsylvania on a summer day

Childhood Asthma : Care of the Asthmatic Child
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Many factors can trigger an asthma flare in a susceptible child, but the most common are allergens, colds, flu, and other respiratory infections. Exercise is also a common trigger in children, as well as adults. Irritants such as perfumes, cigarette smoke

Asthma : Minorities, What Causes Asthma?
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Black Americans have only a slightly higher prevalence rate of asthma than whites (8.5 percent versus 7.1 percent), but blacks are three times more likely to die or be hospitalized because of the disease.

Basic Facts about Asthma
by CDC
What Asthma Is. Asthma is a disease that affects your lungs. It is the most common long-term disease of children. It causes repeated episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and nighttime or early morning coughing.

Asthma : Common Triggers, Types of Medication
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Common asthma triggers include dust, pollen, cockroaches, cold air, smoke, and other strong odors, such as paint, cleaning fluids, perfume, hair spray, and powder. For some people, the problem is animal dander, flakes of skin and dried saliva from furry

Teens: Being a Sport with Exercise - Induced Asthma
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
With proper medical management, which may include drug treatment, teens with exercise-induced asthma need not stay on the sidelines. Asthma is a lung disease that is either inherited or may develop as a severe allergic reaction to pollen, viruses, dust

Controlling Asthma: Diagnosing, Drugs
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
The diagnosis of asthma is based on repeated, careful measurements of how efficiently the patient can force air out of the lungs and on a thorough medical history and laboratory tests to find out what triggers the patient's acute attacks.

Asthma : Monitoring Symptoms, Using Medicine
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
According to the NAEPP Expert Panel Report, peak flow meters may be most helpful for people with moderate or severe asthma. A meter reading will tell you your peak flow zones, which are based on the colors of a traffic light.

Genetics and Response to Asthma Drug
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Genes affect how people with asthma respond to albuterol, the most commonly used drug for quick relief of asthma attacks, according to a new study of adults with mild asthma. Asthma causes the airways to be inflamed or swollen and the surrounding muscles

Keeping Asthma in Check
by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Asthma causes the airways to be inflamed or swollen, and the surrounding muscles are tight. When people with asthma react to various triggers, such as dust, pollen or smoke, their airways become narrow, which causes labored breathing, wheezing, chest

Asthma Symptoms among Inner-City Children
by National Institute of Health
A program that targets allergens and tobacco smoke in the home resulted in fewer asthma symptoms in children participating in the intervention than in those who were not, according to a new study

Understanding Asthma
by Health Canada
With the right information, treatment and support, most people with asthma can control their symptoms and lead active, healthy lives. Asthma is a chronic lung disease that can be fatal.

Asthma: Home-Based Interventions
by National Institute of Health
New data suggest that a home-based environmental intervention program is a cost-effective way to improve the health of inner-city children who have moderate to severe asthma. The program successfully decreased allergen levels in the home and reduced