Asthma And Allergies

Rarely do people make the connection between asthma and allergies.

But there can be a direct relationship.

Asthma is a chronic lung condition, characterized by difficulty in breathing. People with asthma have extra sensitive or hyper-responsive airways. During an asthma attack, their airways become irritated and react by narrowing and constructing, causing increased resistance to airflow, and obstructing the flow of the air passages to and from the lungs.

The cause of the inflammation which underlies most asthma conditions in younger sufferers can often be attributed to one or more allergies.

Before we explore that connection further, it's important to understand a little about allergies.

Allergies are immune system reactions to things that most people would experience as harmless. Certain foods, dust, pollen ... these are allergens that can trigger an allergy attack. When they're encountered, the body's immune system produces IgE antibodies to fight the allergen. These antibodies create the release of chemicals into the bloodstream, one of which (histamine) affects the person's eyes, nose, throat, lungs, and skin, causing the allergy's symptoms.

Allergies are generally grouped by their triggers or their symptoms, hence you'll hear them referred to as food allergies or hay fever or skin allergies, etc.

Allergy rates are dramatically rising, though more people in western countries suffer from allergies, compared to people in less affluent rural parts of the world.

With this foundation in place, now you might find it interesting to note that there is a growing body of evidence that asthma is an environmentally-induced disease.

See the connection?

This creates the potential to prevent asthma by altering your environment, or more to the point ... by removing the allergic cause behind your asthma. This can be particularly successful when the allergy is something that's relatively easy to control. Dust, for instance. Or something that you only encounter in your work environment. Or, though it's certainly much more difficult because of the emotional component, a family pet.

Unfortunately, the most common cause of asthma is an allergy to dust mites. Eliminating these mites to the extent that it might made a difference to your asthma requires a major change in lifestyle and can often be quite expensive. That doesn't mean it can't be done, only that it's not as easy as simply switching jobs.

Of course, new treatments are coming along all the time, and considerable research is currently dedicated to finding ways to modify, abolish or diminish the affect allergies have on the body. With the successful control of allergies can come the successful control of asthma, particularly in younger sufferers.

 At A Glance

• More people in western countries suffer from allergies, compared to people in less affluent rural parts of the world, and allergy rates are on the increase.
• Allergies are immune system reactions to things that most people would experience as harmless. Certain foods, dust, pollen ... these are allergens that can trigger an allergy attack.
• To help minimize your asthma alter your environment, or more to the point ... remove the allergic cause behind your asthma.