Asthma News and Research

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Asthma is a common inflammatory disease affecting the airways that leads to shortness of breath, coughing and wheezing. Symptoms range from mild to severe but are generally manageable with appropriate treatment.

Reducing eosinophilic airway inflammation in severe asthma

Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell that constitute from 1 to 3 percent of the total white cell count. When foreign substances or infectious cells enter the body, lymphocytes and neutrophils attract eosinophils which release toxic substances that can destroy abnormal cells. Eosinophils function in allergic responses and in helping resist some infections.

4 Oct 2004

Dust collected from the homes of children with persistent allergic symptoms had higher levels of common chemical additives

Dust collected from the homes of children with persistent allergic symptoms had higher levels of certain phthalates, a class of common chemical additives, in it than dust found in homes of children without symptoms, according to a study published in the October 2004 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP).

29 Sep 2004

Cutting levels of household allergens is unlikely to have much impact on childhood asthma

Cutting levels of household allergens, such as cat dander and dust mite, is unlikely to have much impact on the subsequent development of childhood asthma and respiratory allergies, suggests research in Thorax.

29 Sep 2004

New funding for Scottish scientists to tackle diseases such as asthma and multiple sclerosis

Scientists at the University of Aberdeen have been awarded £196,166 to help fund pioneering research, which is exploring a method of combating certain conditions and diseases such as asthma and multiple sclerosis.

29 Sep 2004

Charles Darwin University is responding to claims that Australians are now among the fattest people on earth

Australia's Charles Darwin University is responding to claims that Australians are now among the fattest people on earth with a health program targeting childhood obesity.

29 Sep 2004

Master gene that controls the first breath a newborn infant

Researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have identified a master gene that controls the first breath a newborn infant takes. The findings could have implications for treating premature babies and children and adults with lung disease or lung injury.

28 Sep 2004

New type of regulatory T cell that reduces asthma and airway inflammation

The team's research not only provides a detailed profile of these newfound cells but also sheds light on how such cells are related to other T cells and suggests that there exists a spectrum of regulatory T cells, known as Tregs, to be identified and studied.

26 Sep 2004

American Lung Association launches online flu shot locator

As the flu season is about to begin, the American Lung Association today launched its online "flu shot locator" to help more people find and obtain flu vaccinations in their neighborhoods.

23 Sep 2004

BMA Cymru Wales to launch no smoking campaign

BMA Cymru Wales will tomorrow be launching its 'Let the Dragon Breathe' poster campaign at the National Assembly for Wales after a meeting of the Assembly's committee on smoking in public places.

22 Sep 2004

Link between eosinophils and asthma

Mayo Clinic researchers have used a comparative genomic strategy to demonstrate a causative link between eosinophils, a rare type of white blood cell, and asthma.

18 Sep 2004

Possibility of developing drug therapies that target eosinophils, white blood cells long known to be associated with the asthma

The studies discount a 2000 study published in The Lancet which concluded that eosinophils do not have a significant role in the development of asthma in humans.

18 Sep 2004

Patients with asthma have a higher incidence of nasal polyposis, nasal congestion, and olfactory disturbances

Some 37 million Americans suffer from sinusitis; some of those patients are unfortunate enough to also have asthma, an inflammatory disease of the lungs characterized by reversible airway obstruction.

18 Sep 2004

Poverty not linked to winter deaths in elderly

Although Britain has a large burden of excess winter deaths, this study suggests that policies to relieve fuel poverty alone may only be partially successful.

17 Sep 2004

Israeli clinicians keen on using placebos in treating patients

Three out of five Israeli clinicians report using placebos – inactive treatments or drugs – in treating patients, despite the medical profession's official disapproval of their use, say the authors of a BMJ Online First paper this week.

17 Sep 2004

Newly completed Chromosome 5 sequence will be a powerful tool for scientists trying to understand human disease

Four years after publicly revealing the official draft human genetic sequence, researchers have reached the halfway point in dotting the i's and crossing the t's of the genetic sentences describing how to build a human.

16 Sep 2004

Current methods of delivering health care to kids are woefully unable to cope with a pediatric disease pendulum

"There's a growing gap between where child health is moving and how we're attempting to deliver health care to kids," said pediatrician and health policy researcher Paul Wise, MD, MPH.

15 Sep 2004

Chronic illnesses among children not adequately addressed

Current methods of delivering health care to kids are woefully unable to cope with a pediatric disease pendulum that has swung from acute to chronic illnesses, says a researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.

13 Sep 2004

A third of chronically ill adults don't tell their clinicians that they underuse medications due to cost

About one-third of chronically ill adults who underuse medications because of the costs associated with buying the drugs, never tell their health care practitioners, according to an article in the September 13 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

12 Sep 2004

Program that targets allergens and tobacco smoke in the home resulted in fewer asthma symptoms in children

A program that targets allergens and tobacco smoke in the home resulted in fewer asthma symptoms in children participating in the intervention than in those who were not, according to a new study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in seven metropolitan areas nationwide.

10 Sep 2004

Growing up in polluted towns and cities increases risk of lung health issues

Children who grow up in towns and cities with high pollution levels are at increased risk of lung health issues or low functioning lungs. New research suggests that pollutants from vehicle emissions and fossil fuels have an adverse effect on a child's lung development and can also lower childrens lifetime breathing capacity.

8 Sep 2004

Asthma News and Research

Further Reading

Reducing eosinophilic airway inflammation in severe asthma

Dust collected from the homes of children with persistent allergic symptoms had higher levels of common chemical additives

Cutting levels of household allergens is unlikely to have much impact on childhood asthma

New funding for Scottish scientists to tackle diseases such as asthma and multiple sclerosis

Charles Darwin University is responding to claims that Australians are now among the fattest people on earth

Master gene that controls the first breath a newborn infant

New type of regulatory T cell that reduces asthma and airway inflammation

American Lung Association launches online flu shot locator

BMA Cymru Wales to launch no smoking campaign

Link between eosinophils and asthma

Possibility of developing drug therapies that target eosinophils, white blood cells long known to be associated with the asthma

Patients with asthma have a higher incidence of nasal polyposis, nasal congestion, and olfactory disturbances

Poverty not linked to winter deaths in elderly

Israeli clinicians keen on using placebos in treating patients

Newly completed Chromosome 5 sequence will be a powerful tool for scientists trying to understand human disease

Current methods of delivering health care to kids are woefully unable to cope with a pediatric disease pendulum

Chronic illnesses among children not adequately addressed

A third of chronically ill adults don't tell their clinicians that they underuse medications due to cost

Program that targets allergens and tobacco smoke in the home resulted in fewer asthma symptoms in children

Growing up in polluted towns and cities increases risk of lung health issues

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

Advancing Intracellular Delivery with LumiPore®

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