Asthma Alert

In the past ten years, asthma cases among children have nearly tripled. Five million kids under age eighteen are now afflicted with the disease. Maurice knows their struggle. His mom used to keep Maurice inside to protect him from air pollution, but experts say what kids breathe inside may be more dangerous than outside air.

In fact, one British study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine showed kids with a predisposition for the disease were less likely to get asthma when parents kept the home dust free.

“The children who grew up in the dust free home, even though they were at risk for asthma, had less allergy to dust mite, and less asthma, says Dr. Gerry Teague, a pulmonary specialist.

Kids generally develop allergies in the preschool year and escalate toward asthma before age nine. Teague says parents should make sure kids avoid exposure to second hand smoke,and dusty and moldy environments. Outside exercise and good nutrition are also good preventives.

Kids who spend more time indoors and eat foods high in fat are more likely to develop asthma.

What Parents Should Know

Asthma has become the most common chronic disease in children and adolescents in the industrialized world. While a genetic predisposition is thought to be necessary to develop the disease, experts now believe environmental factors can trigger asthma.

Experts say the cause of asthma is still something of a mystery. Clearly, there is an inherited component, but not everybody whose parents have asthma will develop it and some twin studies show that kids with no predisposition have developed the disease after exposure to certain environmental factors.

Some environmental factors such as the ozone layer are beyond a person’s control, but parents can minimize asthma and asthma attacks by helping kids avoid triggers such as house dust, mites, cockroaches, pet fur and tobacco smoke.

Doctors say treating asthma is a two fold process. Good medical care is necessary as well as educating patients and their families about what they can do to reduce their exposure to the known triggers of asthma attacks. Outdoor exercise, a healthy diet, and avoiding known triggers can help kids breathe easier.