News Bits
Olympic Gold Medalist Peter Vanderkaay Talks About Staying Active with Asthma
Managing asthma is key to living an active life, and for some, becoming champion athletes.
Smoking During Pregnancy Has Long Lasting Effects on Kids
A new study out of the University of California, San Francisco finds black and Hispanic children whose moms smoked while they were pregnant are about 50% more likely to have uncontrolled asthma than teens whose moms didn’t smoke during their pregnancies. Controlling for factors like education, socioeconomic status, and childhood exposure to tobacco smoke didn’t change the finding.
Obesity, Air Pollution Linked to Worse Asthma in the Elderly
Poorly controlled asthma was five times more common in older people who were obese in a new study. The researchers also found older people with asthma may be more vulnerable to the harmful effects of traffic-related air pollution.
Allergies and Cancer
Could allergies raise your risk of certain cancers? Maybe, find MD Anderson Cancer Center investigators who questioned 64,000 patients about their allergy and asthma symptoms and then followed up with them seven years later to see what other conditions they developed. Those who reported allergic symptoms—especially allergies to plants, grass, and trees—were slightly more likely than others to have an increased incidence of blood cancers. A similar link was not found for people with asthma.
Asthma Meds Linked to Irregular Heartbeat in Kids and Young Adults
A University of Illinois in Chicago study suggests some inhaled anticholinergics used to treat asthma may be causing a small rise in the risk of irregular heartbeat in children and young adults. Researchers who looked at 7,600 asthma patients age 5-24 found a 1.56-fold increased risk.
Website Keeps Parents on Track
Investigators from Seattle Children’s Research Institute noted good results from the use of an interactive website aimed at helping parents comply with asthma treatment guidelines. Parents who used the site, My Child's Asthma, were more likely to give their children their controller medications as directed by the children’s physicians.
Down with Stereotypes!
A Rutgers-Camden professor wants Hollywood to rethink how asthma is portrayed on the big screen. According to her research, which looked at films ranging “Toy Story 2” to “Signs,” asthma is most often stereotyped in one of four ways: the person with asthma is a wimp, the person with asthma uses asthma as a reaction to stress, others believe asthma can be overcome by sheer willpower, and the person with asthma uses asthma to attack his/her enemies, such as throwing an inhaler at them.
|
