Posted on 11/30/2006 9:46:43 PM PST by neverdem
When our first son developed asthma as a 3-year-old, my husband and I felt pretty much blindsided. We were only a little less shocked when the same thing happened to our second son, at the same age.
The disease turned out to be tenacious, and for years both boys needed inhalers or a nebulizer machine several times a day to prevent asthma attacks that could keep them up half the night, coughing and wheezing.
Both had eczema, too, and the kind of food allergies — to nuts, peanuts and shellfish — that can lead to fatal reactions.
What caused all this? My husband and I were mystified, because neither of us had asthma or life-threatening allergies, nor did our parents or siblings. I do have hay fever and allergies to cats and dogs, but I had always considered my symptoms just a nuisance — not a bad omen for the next generation. My husband isn’t allergic to anything.
But we seem to have been caught on a rising tide that no one fully understands. Our sons were born in 1984 and 1987, and we encountered an awful lot of children their ages who had the same illnesses, far more than we remembered from our own generation.
Statistics suggest that something strange was occurring in those years. From 1980 to 2003, the prevalence of asthma in children rose to 5.8 percent from 3.6 percent, an increase of about 60 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Other estimates from the disease centers show an even bigger increase in the asthmas rates for younger children: a 160 percent jump in those younger than 5 from 1980 to 1994. But changes in data collection starting in 1997 make it hard to compare the figures before and after that year.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I'm not concerned. I'm sure we'll evolve our way out of it.
"But we seem to have been caught on a rising tide that no one fully understands. Our sons were born in 1984 and 1987, and we encountered an awful lot of children their ages who had the same illnesses, far more than we remembered from our own generation."
No, it's REAGAN'S FAULT!
Interesting but I think asthma has been overdiagnosed, frankly. It seemed to be, for awhile, the disease du jour in California. I know that during that period addressed in the article, my family doctor diagnosed asthma in me and my two daughters and prescribed medication (inhalers). However, we didn't have asthma, never have yet I'm sure we are part of the statistics of the asthma "epidemic".
Interesting article. There are hundreds of items in the average grocery store with 'may contain' on the label. Many manufacturers don't know exactly what is in their own product according to their own labels. It seems to defeat the purpose of labeling ingredients.
ROFLOL!
Dry humor is the best. Thanks for the laugh!
Me too.....was having some breathing problems, esp. in winter.....so they said I had asthma....gave me an inhaler...which I hardly used, and then through away....I believe it was part of Menopause....yeah, I really mean that.....your hormones do weird things to you....got it all fixed now.
Now, as for CHILDhood asthma.....what about all the indoor carpet? Tightly built homes? Less time spent outside in fresh air? And, too much milk!
I agree with that. Include the isolation from farm living. I think I read that kids who grow up on farms has lots less asthma than city kids. My city kid husband had asthma as a child but has now outgrown it although he still has hay fever. I spent some time on a farm in my preschool years and no asthma.
And solid foods too soon.
Just keep on importing people from third-world toilet stalls. I recently got boosters for 11 diseases the military origanally gave me including a flu shot. I got sick for a week a few months later with an upper-respiratory infection that imitates TB. Just keep on welcoming exotic viruses here. Maybe we need a new smallpox or polio virus to "cull the herd".
I think it is because of the way kids grow up nowdays. In short children today are brought up in a "bubble" and their immune systems are not allowed to develop.
They do not play outside, they also live in houses where the windows are never opened. They spend the vast majority of their early years never exposed to their natural environment and thus never build immunities to pollens and other things in the air. Hell, I grew up in a house with both parents who were heavy smokers, so did the rest of the kids on my block. None of us ever developed Asthma or any other respritory problems. We also spent every waking moment we had when not in school playing outside.
The freaked out, overzealous parents of today have to dunk their children and everything they might come in contact with in Lysol and Purell Hand Sanitizer, thus they do not develop immunities to run of the mill bacteria/viruses that have been around forever. When we were kids we did things like *GASP* drink out of the hose, share a bottle of pop without pouring it into individual glasses and our parents version of "dunking us in Lysol" was making us take a bath before going to bed because we were muddy and dirty from playing outside all day.
When I was a child I had just about every childhood illness around-Mumps, Measles, Chicken Pox, Whooping Cough, etc.. Sure it was no fun and I still have some Chicken Pox scars but I also have a highly developed immune system.
With that being said, I have seen studies showing that food additives, airborne contaminants and other chemical additives in cleaners causing allergic reactions which cause asthma-like conditions. And unfortunately, treating these things makes us a weaker and weaker species since nobody is allowed to develop their own antibodies.
Perhaps. But my daughter nearly died because her asthma was treated too routinely. She suffered an attack while driving and thought that she had time to get home. When she neared our town, she realized she would have to stop for help. By the time the paramedics arrived she was unconscious and the paramedics were down to the last step in their process before she responded. They were almost convinced that she would die before they could transport.
My research following this incident revealed that we had not properly educated my daughter to recognize and deal with the severity of her asthmatic symptoms. She was not able to recognize the onset of an attack early, and she did not appreciate the potential severity of an attack and the consequences of not handling it properly.
A key tool for educating her was an inspirometer. This device readily indicated that I am able to draw air into my lungs at twice the rate of my wife or my daughter, due to my larger lungs and airways.
After some experimenting with the inspirometer, my daughter was able to understand that her ability to breathe was reduced during an attack to a small fraction of the air she could normally breathe.
Also, she was able to realize that her need for air could be dramatically reduced by eliminating physical activity. An amount of air which is sufficient for comfortable resting would be entirely insufficient for an activity like driving a car.
Finally, she was able to develop a sense of when an attack was coming on, before the symptoms were at their worst. This helped her to anticipate the need for cessation of activity, medication, and access to help.
I believe that it is borderline negligence to diagnose a patient with asthma without training and educating them with an inspirometer.
Around here there is ragweed pollen. They have very big spores. If one gets in your nose, you are going to have red eyes and a red nose and sneeze a lot. That's to prevent weeds from growing out of your nose:)
You want to know what's interesting? This article doesn't include the incidence of asthma in Africa.
And you want to know what else? It's lower than it is in the industrialized world--about the only disease that I can think of that is this way (outside of those induced by distinctly industrial phenomenoms). Funny thing is, low income African-Americans are the most susceptible in the US.
I've seen some evidence that suggests that the parasites that rural Africans are exposed to may decrease the incidence of asthma in the population, priming their immune system to avoid the IgE sensitivity you see with asthma.
Well, if the kids of a NYT contributor have it, it must be an important, newsworthy epidemic.
/s
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