What's Your (Wheeze) Sign?

Scorpios Get More Asthma

How, when and where a child is born may all play a role in lifetime asthma risk, new studies suggest.

Asthma occurs when airways in the lungs spasm and swell, restricting the supply of oxygen. The incidence of asthma in the United States has risen steadily for more than two decades, and about 6 percent of children now have asthma, up from less than 4 percent in 1980, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The reasons for the increase are not entirely clear. Genetics probably plays a role in the risk for asthma, but an array of environmental factors — pollen, dust, animal dander, mold, cockroach feces, cigarettes, air pollution, viruses and cold air  — have all been implicated in its development.

This month, The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine is reporting that children born in the fall have a 30 percent higher risk for asthma than those born in other seasons. The finding is based on a review of birth and medical records of over 95,000 children in Tennessee.

A possible explanation is that autumn babies tend to be about 4 months old at the peak of cold and flu season. By that age, many babies are in day care and regularly exposed to the outside world.

And while their lungs are still developing, they have yet to develop strong immune systems. As a result, fall babies are at particular risk to contract a severe winter virus, which may in turn increase their risk for asthma.

I wonder if the stats are sufficiently detailed to allow for annual comparisons of asthma incidence with severe cold and flu seasons.  Here is the abstract and some earlier articles.

Comments

[clarice]

I wonder if it's the best idea for babies to be in day care at 4 months of age, anyway. 2 1/2-3 maybe. Younger than that strikes me as something to be done only in the direst of circumstances.

I wonder if the increase in allergies, etc. might not also be attributable to this.

[PDinDetroit]

What I find interesting about this study is the following:

1. Only children from Tennessee were studied.

2. Abstract does not state distribution of study participants (urban vs rural).

3. Covers children from 0-5 yrs old that aged to 5-10 yrs old during the study.

4. No statement of familial history as an influence.

I agree that this is just a casual relationship and nothing more. I would be more interested if the study was more widespread, covered study participants up to 15 yrs old, and listed familial information.

All this being said, I am a Scorpio and have asthma although it is not active. It was not diagnosed until my late 20's to early 30's when it started to affect my life. I did not have issues previously and had a very active life. My daughter has it as well (January Baby), mostly sports-induced asthma.

I have found that managing the Humidity Level and Cleanliness of my house does the trick and got me off daily asthma meds.

[Daddy]

Well I don't know TM if if the "Where" is much of a factor, considering that Obama was born in Hawaii and Kenya and Indonesia and in a cargo plane somewhere over the ocean, yet he doesn't seem to have a lick of asthma, even after quitting smoking every other day of the campaign. Guess we need another government study.

[sophy]

Welcome to our game world, my friend asks me to buy some habbo gold .