Results tagged “respiration” from Allergy

BALTIMORE - New findings show Maryland’s children are among the most likely in the country to have asthma, and the state’s high levels of air pollution only make their problems worse.

The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that Maryland is tied with Oklahoma for the third-highest level of childhood asthma in the nation, among the 37 states that had information available.

About 11 percent of the state’s children had asthma in 2005, says “The State of Childhood Asthma” report.

Children with asthma miss school, are sent to the hospital and can die from struggling to breathe, states the report, which was released last week.

Patients with obstructive lung diseases receive only about 55 percent of recommended medical care, according to a study that reflects the increasing health-care challenges of an aging population.

"The quality of care provided to patients with obstructive lung diseases is not as good as it should be or needs to be," said Dr. Richard Mularski, with Kaiser's Portland-based Center for Health Research.

Mularski is lead author of the study, which was published in the December issue of the journal Chest. The RAND Corp. study is part of the largest examination of the quality of American health care ever undertaken.

GENEVA, Switzerland, Dec. 15 -- A common cold virus can be deadly for lung-transplant recipients, reported researchers here.

Two of 11 recipients infected with human rhinoviruses developed progressive respiratory and graft dysfunction leading to their deaths, reported Laurent Kaiser, M.D., of the University Hospital of Geneva, and colleagues.

The findings flout conventional wisdom holding that human rhinoviruses only infect the upper respiratory tract, the investigators wrote in the second December issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

The average adult gets two to four colds a year, and if they're around children, it doubles. While there is a whole host of medications claiming to make your cough better, new research finds many don't work. A new study finds more effective help may be available from some unlikely candidates.

Cough medicines are a multi-billion-dollar industry. The vast assortment is nothing to sneeze at, but what has confused many patients is recent research which found many of these cough medicines don't work for most coughs.

Dr. Richard Irwin headed up a worldwide study. He found expectorants -- medicines that help remove mucus -- and the newer non-drowsy medicines are ineffective against cough caused by the common cold.

 

Nearly half of the U.S. population lives in areas with unhealthy ozone levels, according to a 2006 report. For people with respiratory and lung diseases, especially the estimated 20 million Americans with asthma, "bad air" days pose an exceptionally high risk. The health risks associated with high levels of ozone aren't limited to summer months, and people can feel the effects of smog all year long.

Over the last decade, ozone levels have increased for many reasons, including higher temperatures and humidity, said John D. Cox, author of "Weather for Dummies." Despite this, people are still unaware that ozone is dangerous even at its lowest levels.

When inhaled, ozone can irritate lung airways and cause inflammation, and exposure to elevated levels of ozone can also increase the need for medical treatment and hospitalization in people with asthma. People who are active and people with asthma and other respiratory problems are at a higher risk on these days.

Dec. 4, 2006 -- Children with asthma are more likely to be obese and less likely to exercise than those without the disease, a British study shows.

"Asthma was identified as a barrier to exercise by parents and children," write the University of Nottingham's Cristine Glazebrook, RGN, PhD, and colleagues in Pediatrics.

But physical activity is important for everyone, including those with asthma; nearly half the children with asthma in Glazebrook's study were overweight.

The researchers call on experts to develop strategies to promote exercise for children with asthma.

GA²LEN welcomes the vote of the European Parliament on the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) on 30 November that acknowledges allergic diseases as major chronic diseases to be addressed in European research during the coming 7 years (2007 - 2013).

The European Parliament adopted the report of Prof. Jerzy Buzek that recognises “respiratory diseases including those induced by allergies” as health priorities to be addressed by translational research. This will allow respiratory allergic diseases (including asthma) to be covered by the research programme under the health theme.

In the first drafts, only food allergies (8% of all allergies) were covered. Allergic diseases will now be tackled under both the health and food themes of the research programme which should allow scientists to progress towards the overall understanding that is needed to help control this epidemic through effective prevention and treatment.

Most young children who develop an allergy to cow's milk eventually "outgrow" it within a few years. Experiencing respiratory symptoms with the allergy, however — such as wheezing or runny nose — strongly predicts the likelihood that the allergy will persist considerably longer into childhood. That was the finding of a study presented here at the 52nd annual scientific meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.

"We have known for a long time that food allergies can cause respiratory effects," said researcher Alessandro Fiochi, MD, from the University of Milan Medical School in Italy. "This is the first study that shows these symptoms can actually predict which children are most likely to have a longer-lasting problem with cow's milk allergy."