Asthma
Pregnancy, Diet, Asthma, and Eczema
What Mom eats during pregnancy appears able to help protect her kindergarten-aged child from asthma and eczema. A little over ten years ago, researchers at the University of Aberdeen proposed that the…
Preventing Asthma
Dr. Greene's take on preventing asthma... Asthma is the leading serious chronic illness in children. More than 6 million children suffer from asthma in the United States alone. Steps parents take befo…
Outgrowing Asthma: Part Two
Dr. Greene's take on outgrowing asthma... I was diagnosed with hay fever and asthma as a child, but outgrew them both. Researchers at McMaster University followed more than 1,000 children born in New …
Breathing for Two
Dr. Greene's take on breathing for two... What happens when women with asthma get pregnant? Does their asthma get better or worse? Should they use more asthma medicines when pregnant? Or less? How doe…
Outgrowing Asthma
Dr. Greene's take on outgrowing asthma... Some kids with childhood asthma will outgrow it completely; for some the asthma will improve, but not go away; for others, the asthma will get worse. Do aller…
Outgrowing Asthma and Allergy Shots
Some kids with childhood asthma will outgrow it completely; for some the asthma will improve, but not go away; for others, the asthma will get worse. Do allergy shots make a difference in which kids w…
A Gift from the EPA
The percentage of people with asthma has doubled in the last decade, and quadrupled since 1973. Asthma has become the most common chronic medical condition in children. To help those with asthma, alle…
Stress, Asthma, and 6 Weeks Later!
Bouts of asthma come and go, brought on by various triggers. How might stressful life events affect asthma attacks? To find out, researchers tracked the frequency and severity of asthma attacks in sch…
Airplanes, Oxygen, and Children
In just a few hours, I will be boarding another airplane. Typically, commercial airplanes fly at an altitude of about 38,000 feet. The cabin is pressurized to make it safe and comfortable at that extr…
Breastfeeding and Asthma
Asthma in children is increasing around the globe. It's not unusual for it to be a country's number one reason for a child to be hospitalized. Researchers from Australia (a continent where asthmais th…
Beyond Medicine For Asthma
Changes in the home environment can be as powerful as medications in treating asthma, according to an exciting study in the September 9, 2004 New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers in the Inner-…
Crippling Our Children
What can take otherwise vibrant, healthy teens and permanently give them the lung capacities of 50-year-olds? Air pollution! Perhaps spare the air days should be called spare the children days. The ai…
Common Fumes Cause Asthma?
Could it be that how you clean or how you decorate your home might influence whether your child develops asthma? Could the smell of new wall-to-wall carpets be linked to asthma risk? A provocative stu…
Genetics, Smoke, and Asthma
Not all kids are affected the same way by exposure to smoke in their environments. Tobacco smoke is a complex mixture of toxic gases and toxic particles, over 4000 chemicals in all. Repeated exposure …
Unexpected Pet Hair
Dr. Greene's take on pet hair... Dog and cat allergens are found in almost all US homes, whether or not dogs or cats live there. The highest concentrations are found on sofas, especially upholstered s…
Early Multivitamins, Asthma, and Food Allergies
We know that the first months of life are a very impressionable time when it comes to the developing immune system. Even brief breastfeeding in the first few months of life, for instance, may give lon…
Inhaled Steroids and Pregnancy
Asthma is becoming more and more common at all ages, now affecting more than 20 million Americans (including more than 5 million children). What do we know about managing asthma in pregnancy? Inhaled …
Carrots, Oranges, Garlic, Oats, Walnuts and Asthma
Although childhood asthma has been increasing in recent years, children with higher blood levels of important antioxidant nutrients are less likely to develop asthma, according to a large study in the…
Asthma, Steroids, Growth, and Height
If children take standard amounts of inhaled steroids to prevent asthma flare-ups, do they end up shorter than their peers? We know that conventional doses of inhaled steroids can slow the rate of gro…
Keeping Kids Out of Hospitals
Up to 46 percent of the times that kids wind up admitted to a hospital, it could have been easily prevented, according to a study in the November 2003 Pediatrics. The researchers followed hundreds of …