About Asthma Problem Due to Allergy

ASTHMA

More than seventeen million Americans suffer from asthma, a chronic ailment also known as reactive lung disease. Asthma ac­counts for almost two million emergency room visits and 5,500 deaths each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ironically, despite modern, better-than-ever medications and treatments, the rate of asthma cases and asthma-related fatalities continues to soar, particularly in children.

What keeps driving up the figures? Experts don't really know, but latest theories put the blame smack on the way we live. According to the San Francisco Examiner Magazine, houses have become "hermetically-sealed allergen chambers"—ultrahospitable to dust mites, cockroaches, molds, and furry pets. Then, too, there's the fact that since the 1950s, when technology gave birth to television, video games, and computers, children have been spending much more time indoors—neither exercising nor using their lungs. Having more children in day care, others suggest, means more sharing of viruses, infections, and upper respiratory problems that irritate the airways. Then there's air pollution; high levels of ozone can interfere with respiratory function. There's also the increased use of antibiotics, which some say alters the immune system, making us more susceptible to allergies and asthma. Still another theory holds that the elimination of most infectious childhood diseases, such as smallpox, has somehow made the body less resistant to asthma. Add to all that the proliferation of new chemicals in the environment, the stresses of modern living, and decreased access to health care, and you have a pretty good picture of what's causing this relatively recent epidemic.