[IrishCatholic]

My daughter has asthma. We noticed her labored breathing at night and sleep apnea. When we took her to the specialist she was barely functioning at 38% lung capacity. Neither of us smoke and our daughter tested negative for allergens.
Asthma is a real disease and the problem with just letting it go is that it puts stress on the heart and can cause all sorts of long term damage.
Now two years later after being on the steroids and taking the breathing treatments and having the inhaler her lung capacity is almost 100% and in six months if she still is that way the doctor will take her off all meds and monitor her.
Sometimes people really are sick and sometimes the medicine really is necessary. The diagnosis process and testing was quite involved and not the result of a ten minute exam.

[bpjam]

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