The Asthma Attack

NRO ^ | August 10, 2004 | Rich Lowry

[Ditter]

Absolutely correct. I'll say it again ASTHMA IS INHERITED! You can get it even if each parent has never had asthma but carries a recessive gene.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks this was what Rush was talking about. Kerry as usual lied and said that he had asthma. Then when Rush and other asked about his medical condition, he did a kerriflop and changed his story. Thanks this was what I had heard and had forgotten"

"Kerry Implied He Had Developed Asthma Since He Began Living In Washington, DC And Had Started Using An Inhaler As A Result. “Kerry’s speech was preceded by a roundtable discussion in which 14 Roxbury residents and area political activists discussed a variety of health problems they attributed to the concentration of pollution sources in their neighborhood. Klare Allen of Roxbury held up a map showing that eight of the city’s nine trash-transfer stations are in the neighborhood. Many of the parents and some of the children in the group complained of asthma. ‘Until I went to Washington, I had never had asthma in my life,’ Kerry said in response. He said pollution in the city has prompted him to use an inhaler like those used by some of Roxbury residents.” (Glen Johnson, “Kerry May Make GOP Wealth A Campaign Issue,” The Boston Globe, 4/23/03)

"Kerry Later Explained The Inhaler Was For Common Springtime Allergies And He Hadn’t “Used It In Months.” “In an interview afterward, Kerry clarified his remark by explaining that he used an Albuterol inhaler for common springtime allergies, but his condition is not serious enough to limit his physical activity. ‘I rarely use it; I haven’t used it in months,’ he said.” (Glen Johnson, “Kerry May Make GOP Wealth A Campaign Issue,” The Boston Globe, 4/23/03)

[neverdem]

Just to make certain there's no misunderstanding, albuterol is a bronchodilator used as a rescue medicine for an exacerbation of asthma. Kerry tried to ingratiate himself with minorities who felt exploited by the placement of waste disposal facilities, by saying his seasonal allergic induced asthma was related to those facilities.

[neverdem]

Thanks for the link and info on the higher IgE levels.

[Grampa Dave]

"Just to make certain there's no misunderstanding, albuterol is a bronchodilator used as a rescue medicine for an exacerbation of asthma. Kerry tried to ingratiate himself with minorities who felt exploited by the placement of waste disposal facilities, by saying his seasonal allergic induced asthma was related to those facilities."

He backed away really quick from that ingratiating lie once Rush and other conservatives jumped on him about it.

[neverdem]

During the 1950s and 1960s new medications permitted the survival of severely ill asthma patients who wouldn't otherwise have lived to reproductive age. Then those asthmatics had kids, and their kids had kids, and we are now in the third and fourth generation in some cases.

That's certainly a plausible explanation. I also think having ancestors who lived in cold climates selected for genes that more easily tolerated environmental insults, such as living in poorly ventilated shelters with open fires for heat in winter.

[aruanan]

Here you go, from PubMed:

1: Pediatrics. 2004 Jul;114(1):27-32.

 
Early infant multivitamin supplementation is associated with increased risk for food allergy and asthma.

Milner JD, Stein DM, McCarter R, Moon RY.

Department of Pediatrics, Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA. jdmilner@niaid.nih.gov

OBJECTIVE: Dietary vitamins have potent immunomodulating effects in vitro. Individual vitamins have been shown to skew T cells toward either T-helper 1 or T-helper 2 phenotypic classes, suggesting that they may participate in inflammatory or allergic disease. With the exception of antioxidant protection, there has been little study on the effect of early vitamin supplementation on the subsequent risk for asthma and allergic disease. The objective of this study was to determine whether early vitamin supplementation during infancy affects the risk for asthma and allergic disease during early childhood. METHODS: Cohort data were analyzed from the National Center for Health Statistics 1988 National Maternal-Infant Health Survey, which followed pregnant women and their newborns, and the 1991 Longitudinal Follow-up of the same patients, which measured health and disease outcomes. Patients were stratified by race and breastfeeding status. Factors that are known to be associated with alteration of risk for asthma or food allergies were identified using univariate logistic regression. Those factors were then analyzed in multivariate logistic regression models. Early vitamin supplementation was defined as vitamin use within the first 6 months. RESULTS: There were >8000 total patients in the study. The overall incidence of asthma was 10.5% and of food allergy was 4.9%. In univariate analysis, male gender, smoker in the household, child care, prematurity (<37 weeks), being black, no history of breastfeeding, lower income, and lower education were associated with higher risk for asthma. Child care, higher levels of education, income, and history of breastfeeding were associated with a higher risk for food allergies. In multivariate logistic analyses, a history of vitamin use within the first 6 months of life was associated with a higher risk for asthma in black infants (odds ratio [OR]: 1.27; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.04-1.56). Early vitamin use was also associated with a higher risk for food allergies in the exclusively formula-fed population (OR: 1.63; 95% CI: 1.21-2.20). Vitamin use at 3 years of age was associated with increased risk for food allergies but not asthma in both breastfed (OR: 1.62; 95% CI: 1.19-2.21) and exclusively formula-fed infants (OR: 1.39; 95% CI: 1.03-1.88). CONCLUSIONS: Early vitamin supplementation is associated with increased risk for asthma in black children and food allergies in exclusively formula-fed children. Additional study is warranted to examine which components most strongly contribute to this risk.

PMID: 15231904 [PubMed - in process]

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[aruanan]

Ha ha ha. I didn't scroll down far enough to see your posting of the abstract!

[fire_eye]

ASTHMA IS INHERITED

"Kennedy" is inherited, too. Just take a look at the whole family.

Hannity (I think?) had RFKJ on, debating about his book, a while back, and RFKJ sounds so spaced-out and unable to communicate (or drugged out?) that I kept thinking the book must be ghostwritten...

Don't these whining leftists ever get *tired* of running around inventing crises to whine about? Don't they ever get *bored* with it? (Never mind; don't answer that...)