An Epidemic No One Understands

NY Times ^ | November 28, 2006 | DENISE GRADY

[neverdem]

When our first son developed asthma as a 3-year-old, my husband and I felt pretty much blindsided. We were only a little less shocked when the same thing happened to our second son, at the same age.

The disease turned out to be tenacious, and for years both boys needed inhalers or a nebulizer machine several times a day to prevent asthma attacks that could keep them up half the night, coughing and wheezing.

Both had eczema, too, and the kind of food allergies — to nuts, peanuts and shellfish — that can lead to fatal reactions.

What caused all this? My husband and I were mystified, because neither of us had asthma or life-threatening allergies, nor did our parents or siblings. I do have hay fever and allergies to cats and dogs, but I had always considered my symptoms just a nuisance — not a bad omen for the next generation. My husband isn’t allergic to anything.

But we seem to have been caught on a rising tide that no one fully understands. Our sons were born in 1984 and 1987, and we encountered an awful lot of children their ages who had the same illnesses, far more than we remembered from our own generation.

Statistics suggest that something strange was occurring in those years. From 1980 to 2003, the prevalence of asthma in children rose to 5.8 percent from 3.6 percent, an increase of about 60 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Other estimates from the disease centers show an even bigger increase in the asthmas rates for younger children: a 160 percent jump in those younger than 5 from 1980 to 1994. But changes in data collection starting in 1997 make it hard to compare the figures before and after that year.

[snoringbear]

That contention that "nobody understands" is not correct. There have been numerous studies on this. From what I've read about it, the biggest contributor is not foods, sprays, air pollution and so on. It's our life style. We now live in urban/suburban areas and are no longer exposed to animals, hay, cow patties, and other rural flora and fauna that causes those who breath this stuff to build immunities. So, bottom line, we have lost our immunity to those things that contribute to asthma.

[Herakles]

"Living in a place with high vehicle exhaust may make asthma worse, but the evidence is “relatively weak,” the researchers report."

This problem is soooooo obvious as to it's source; just compare the lungs from a cadaver of a person who lived in a city to one that hasn't. At that point the reason for the asthma will be crystal clear and put the above blithering inaccurate statement to rest.

[bpjam]

And this is probably a good example of the parameters of the discussion.

[Mrs Ivan]

Global warming? ;)

[neverdem]

Apparently, it was a fairly common occurence of childhood asthma which was not permanent or chronic.

Maybe a lot of those cases are what would now be described as exercise induced asthma. I wonder how many of those folks still kept engaging in vigorous activities as they aged?

[boop]

But... but... I thought we had to ban smoking everywhere so that the kids don't get asthma. Since there are few places today that allow smoking, shouldn't the incidence of asthma be plummeting?

[neverdem]

Yeah it is called galloping hypochondria.

I guess why that's why there is wheezing, shortness of breath, deoxygenated blood, elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the blood and a decreased forced expiratory volume over time. Measuring deoxygenated blood, elevated pCO₂ and blood pH requires sticking a needle into an artery to confirm the respiratory acidosis. They like to use pulse oximetry as a substitute.

[raybbr]

I grew up in the city of Chicago surrounded by factories and I never knew anyone that had asthma.

There used to be a site calles "oxybusters.com" that chronicled the rise in asthma to the use of MTBE. I think that was the cause.

[trisham]

My husband and I have asthma, and I can tell you we were not born in 1984 or 1987.

[raybbr]

Asthma is a health problem that seems to be aggravated by MTBE pollution. Although the EPA reports that incidents of asthma have decreased, Dr. Peter Joseph, professor of Radiologic Physics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, says they have actually increased by 50 to 100 percent. The asthma incidents, Joseph said, began to increase after 1979 when MTBE was first used at smaller levels.

From here.

There used to be site called "oxybusters.com" that had detailed information about the effects of MTBE. I am not saying MTBE is the only reason for a rise in astma but it sure caused a lot of problems.

[panthermom]

My brother is 38, he had childhood asthma, it never slowed him down. Inhalers, allergy shots the whole nine yards. He played sports through college, and still runs. The allergist said even though back then it wasn't recommended, the fact that he was so active, in spite of the asthma, helped him in the long run.

[caseinpoint]

I agree with that theory. I read somewhere that the immune system is like a muscle: it needs exercise to maintain its integrity. Now that may be an old wives' tale but who knows? The problem today though is separating factors that might cause asthma from factors that merely parallel it (there's a technical word for that but it's too early in the morning for my brain to kick in, especially on Fridays when I am mentally incompetent pretty much all day).

Is it pollution, lack of pollution, MTBE, cigarette smoke, too much emphasis on antibiotics and cold medicine, genetics, hyper-hygiene, on and on? Some of those factors could be a cause, some just happening at the same time. Asthma is a real disease as I know from my husband's experience. I only point anecdotally to my own experience in saying that at least three diagnosed cases of asthma really aren't asthma so whether it is an epidemic may be academic.

[caseinpoint]

You are probably right. Those with genuine asthma need to understand the condition and be prepared to deal with it at the onset. My point is that the doctor in our case took a complaint that it was "hard to breathe" on the first and only visit regarding this symptom and diagnosed asthma on the spot, after twenty seconds of listening through the stethoscope. He prescribed an inhaler, which was never used, and voila, we were part of the asthma "epidemic". I think the doctor took the diagnosis far too lightly and that impacts people like your daughter with genuine, life-threatening asthma.

[maryz]

I think it is because of the way kids grow up nowdays. In short children today are brought up in a "bubble" and their immune systems are not allowed to develop.

A couple of years ago, a British doctor (it was a woman, but I forget her name) thought it might be that kids are overimmunized today -- nobody's allowed to get what used the standard childhood diseases (you mention them!) and this leaves their immune systems out of whack.

[The Great RJ]

Both my older bother and I had a history of childhood asthma and my brother has a severe peanut allergy, yet both of us were born in the 1940s. Our father who was a family practice physician for more than 50 years had many young patients with similar childhood asthma problems. This is NOT a new problem.

[RobRoy]

And don't even get me started on peanut alergies!

What's up with that?

[donna]

Babies & Solid Foods

“The optimal age for the introduction of selected supplemental food should be six months,” concluded Dr. Fiocchi. “Particularly in children with family history of allergic disease, attention must be paid to the introduction of hen’s egg, peanut, tree nuts, fish, and seafood.”

(Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol 2006;97:10–21)

---

Babies & Cats

The researchers measured the levels of antibodies to cat allergen in 226 children, aged 12 to 14 years, and tested the children for asthma. They also measured the amount of cat allergens in the children's homes and discovered that low-to-moderate amounts of cat allergen seemed to trigger allergy, but high amounts reduced both IgE antibodies and the likelihood of asthma.

[capitalist229]

Just keep on importing people from third-world toilet stalls.

I agree.

Keep out the turd world.

BUMP

[Caesar Soze]

I'm not concerned. I'm sure we'll evolve our way out of it.

Probably not. Assuming there is a necessary genetic component, we'd have to kill asthma carriers, or otherwise prevent them from reproducing. Better neonatal and pediatric care is ensuring that children with asthma live to sexual maturity, allowing their genes to propagate. If susceptibility to asthma is universal to humankind, we need to mutate a variant that isn't susceptible.

Big kudos to all the FR epidemiologists; now we know that asthma is caused by exercise, lack of activity, pollution, lack of pollution, allergens, lack of allergens, viruses, lack of viruses, immunization, lack of immunization, solid food too early, and solid food too late. Personally, I think it's rays.

[6ppc]

Could it have been shag carpet?