Human lungs are quite similar to the branches of a tree. Air tubes get narrow and narrower until they reach the air sacs (alveoli) that make up the spongy look of the lungs.

Asthma is caused when the airways are inflamed or contracted.

When asthma is under control, the airways are open and air freely flows in and out of lungs. When asthma attacks the airways get constricted and swollen.

The production of mucus also increase that cause further obstruction in the airways. In this way, a person can hardly inhale and exhale, causing coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath.

Asthma Risk Factors

Following are top asthma risk factors, may help you to decide if you or your child may get asthma in the future. If you are at high risk, take precautionary steps to avoid the risk factors.

• Family history of asthma
• Residence in urban areas
• Exposure to secondhand smoke
• Low birth weight
• Other health problems like GERD and chronic sinusitis
• Direct exposure to irritants on the workplace

Allergy induced asthma

One of the most common types of asthma is allergy induced asthma. When someone inhales or have a allergen exposure, a substance to which his or her body is sensitive, he or she produce a chemical compound known as ‘histamines’, which cause inflammation as they try to expel out the allergen from the body. In case of allergy induced asthma, the histamines act on the bronchial passages and lungs, and person suffers shortness of breath.

The patients of allergy induced asthma have significantly increased in recent years, and scientists are still trying to find out the reason. The suspected reason according to the researchers is the increased exposure of children to some common allergens.

Treating Allergy Induced Asthma

Reduction in the allergens exposure is as effective as treatment for allergy induced asthma with corticosteroid inhalers. If your child has developed allergy induced asthma, you should make your child’s bedroom allergen free as possible, besides using nebulizers and inhalers. Mattress covers, pillow cases, air filters and pest control measures can reduce your child’s exposure to allergens that mostly causes allergy induced asthma.

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The study was published in the journal Lancet along with two different studies, which reveal that runny noses and wheezing in early days of life may be clear sign of asthma.

In the first study, researchers analyze data of more than 205,000 children and came to know that paracetamol use in infancy was associated with a 46 percent higher risk of asthma by the time the children were 6 or 7 compared to those never exposed to the drug.

Use of paracetamol in the last year has increased asthma risk by 61 percent, while high dosages of once a month or more in the past few years, raised the risk by three folds worldwide.

According to a hypothesis, paracetamol reduces antioxidants in the body. Some scientists think antioxidants, which stop free radicals from damaging body, can minimize the risk of cancer, heart disease and other ailments.

“Paracetamol can reduce antioxidant levels and … that can give oxidative stress in the lungs and cause asthma,” one of the researchers, Richard Beasley at the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, told Reuters.

In a supplementary comment, Suzanne Lau of Charite University Medicine in Germany wrote, “These findings identify a population at risk of chronic obstructive airway disease in early adulthood, and they already showed a predisposition during preschool years.”

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The data from the World Trade Center Health Registry, tracks health effects two to three years after the attack. It conclude that three percent of adult residents and workers who were there at the time of attack, soon subsequently have developed asthma, two times the rate of fresh diagnosed asthma in the general population for the same span.

Asthma was more common among those who did not leave the area on 9/11 or returned back within two days, nearly four percent — and less prevalent, almost two percent, in those who came back in December.

The study estimates that 3,800 to 12,600 adults at the disaster site developed asthma, and 35,000 to 70,000 people developed post-traumatic stress syndrome as well. Women, from minorities and poor people have grater rates of both physical and mental problems, the study says.

“The analysis provided high and low estimates to account for the possibility that people who were feeling sick or who had had more intense exposure to the disaster site might have been more motivated to sign up for the study.” said Linda Thorpe deputy commissioner of health department.

Researchers say that, the analysis provides the clear picture yet of the health of 71,437 adults, including rescue workers, area workers, passers-by and residents, who agreed to be tracked for up to 20 years after the attack.

They represent 17.4 percent of the 410,000 people having intense exposure to the massive disaster. City’s health department and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are conducting registry.

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