Asthma

Mr. Robert Monroe, Schuykill, afflicted with the above distressing malady.  Symptoms-- Great languor, flatulency, disturbed rest, nervous, head ache, difficulty of breathing, tightness and stricture across the breast, dizziness, nervous irritability and restlessness, could not lie in a horizontal position without the sensation of impending suffocation, palpitation of the heart, distressing cough, costiveness, pain in the stomach, drowsiness and...

Sufferers of chronic hives and rashes could benefit from a commonly-used asthma drug, Johns Hopkins researchers have found. Scientists found that a once-a-month dose of the drug omalizumab helped ease symptoms that standard antihistamines didn't. The drug was tested on 323 peple at 55 medical centers from 2009 to 2011. The subjects were mostly women and between the ages of 12 and 75. The participants had suffered with chronic hives and rash for at least six months and many had dealt with the condition for more than five years.

A 12-year-old honor student in Mount Airy is paying the price for committing a random act of kindness.Christine Rhodes' school record is marred, her dreams of playing in the school band jeopardized. Her crime: She shared her asthma medication with a fellow student who was having a severe asthma attack.Brandy Dyer, 13, had the attack while riding the bus home from school April 22. She was gasping for air and numb in her feet and hands. So, as the bus driver dialed 911, Christine gave Brandy her asthma inhaler.

Mr. Robert Monroe, Schuykill, afflicted with the above distressing malady.  Symptoms-- Great languor, flatulency, disturbed rest, nervous, head ache, difficulty of breathing, tightness and stricture across the breast, dizziness, nervous irritability and restlessness, could not lie in a horizontal position without the sensation of impending suffocation, palpitation of the heart, distressing cough, costiveness, pain in the stomach, drowsiness and...

In East Baltimore, 200 children are enrolled in the Oliver Community School-Based Asthma Program, a pilot project that educates children, parents and teachers -- and even sends health workers into homes to fight conditions that worsen asthma.Of those children, one-quarter used to go to the emergency room at least once during a six-month period. That has been cut to 5 percent over six months, said the asthma project's director, Dr. Peyton Eggleston of Johns Hopkins University Hospital.Article on Page 1E

Asthma is the most common chronic disorder among American children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the respiratory disease affects 6.2 million children under age 18. And while many of the stimuli that can trigger an asthma attack -- including sudden temperature change, pollen and respiratory infections -- cannot be avoided, some can. In fact, parents can go far in preventing asthma attacks in their children with hearty doses...

Nearly 20 million people (about 9 million of them children) in the United States suffer from asthma, according to the National Institutes of Health. An asthma attack or episode can include symptoms such as wheezing, coughing and difficulty breathing. And summer, with its heat and high humidity, can be a particularly difficult season for those who have the chronic disease, says Dr. John Bacon, an allergy, asthma and immunology specialist at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson. Why are the summer months difficult for asthma sufferers?

The Lifetime Achievement Gala of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America did double duty -- it honored the co-founder and board chair of the Maryland-Greater Washington chapter, and raised some $21,000 for a Breathmobile, an asthma clinic on wheels.Some 130 people gathered at the Center Club to honor Dr. Philip Norman, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the organization. Well-wishers included his wife, Marion, their two daughters, son and five grandchildren.Also in the congratulatory crowd: foundation executive director Mary-anne Ellis; event honorary co-chairs Dr. Lawrence M. Lichtenstein and Dr. Peter S. Creticos; event committee members Heather Lamont and Michele Jackson; board VP Dr. LeLeng To; board members Mona Tsouklexis and Linda Borschuk; Pat Pullen, Merck & Co. health-science associate; Dr. Mark Liu, pulmonary and allergy specialist at the Johns Hopkins Asthma and Allergy Center; Dr. Jay Perman, pediatrics chair at the University of Maryland School of Medicine; and Zoe Togias, legal counsel with the World Bank.

When an expert panel recommended last week that asthma should be treated as an inflammatory disease, local specialists were not surprised."At least among the research people, that story has been around for a number of years," said Dr. Philip Norman, professor and head of clinical immunology at the Johns Hopkins Asthma and Allergy Center.Asthma causes breathing problems for about 10 million Americans, most of them children. Traditionally, the wheezing, gasping and coughing of an asthma attack have been blamed on constriction of the breathing passages, and primary treatment has been with bronchodilating drugs, which relieve the symptoms by dilating, or widening, the bronchial tubes.

The Maryland medical examiner's office yesterday ruled that a 33-year-old inmate in the Baltimore County Detention Center who died last week was the victim of an acute asthma attack.Alfred J. Oliver, who was serving time for a shoplifting conviction, was pronounced dead at 9:23 a.m. Jan. 30 at St. Joseph's Hospital, about 2 1/2 hours after he first complained of breathing problems at the jail.Although the jail infirmary staff did not call for an ambulance until Mr. Oliver had stopped breathing, James M. Dean, the detention center administrator, said, "I do not feel like there was any negligence clinically in trying to treat the man."

Researchers working to discover why African Americans disproportionately suffer from asthma are planning to map the genetic code of 1,000 people of African descent in four years. The Johns Hopkins -led team of experts in genetics, immunology, epidemiology and allergic disease want to know why up to 20 percent of black people have asthma. The disease afflicts 20 million Americans, causes difficultly breathing, wheezing and tightness in the chest and can lead to hospitalization and death.

Johns Hopkins researchers, in the largest study to date, will map the genetic code for asthma in people of African descent in hopes of better understanding why the disease and other allergy-related ailments disproportionately afflict that population. Until now, the link between genetics and asthma has been studied using mostly men and women of white European descent. The Hopkins researchers announced Thursday that they will leverage data from other genome projects to take the first wide-scale look at how hereditary factors affect African-Americans who have the disease, which causes wheezing and difficulty breathing, and which can lead to death if not treated.

Like Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, I am one of the over 17.5 million Americans with asthma, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. That is 7.7 percent of the population, almost as high a percentage as those who smoke in Howard County. So I read with dismay and surprise in the recent editorial ("Howard County is no nanny state," July 14) that The Sun and others do not consider outdoor smoking in a park to be a health hazard. Most picnic areas have a cloister of tables much closer than the article's cited 100-yard distance, and if someone comes to the table next to you and starts to puff, contrary to the implication in the article, it is not so simple to pack up all your stuff and move outside the danger zone.

Of the nation's 22 million people with asthma, six million are children, according to the National Institutes of Health. In Baltimore, as many as one in five children suffers from the condition and many go untreated. Dr. Keyvan Rafei, head of pediatric emergency medicine at University of Maryland Hospital for Children, oversees a program for children with asthma that refers patients to a team of experts that continues their care after their emergency room visit. How is asthma diagnosed in children?

An unexpected discovery of taste receptors in lungs may provide asthma sufferers with more effective ways to restore free breathing during an attack, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine say. Experiments with mice and human tissues revealed that the receptors, identical to those found on the tongue, respond to bitter substances by signaling constricted muscles in the lungs to relax — reopening tight airways in...

WASHINGTON - -An analysis in 10 states of people hospitalized with the pandemic strain of H1N1 influenza shows that asthma is by far the most common underlying condition associated with severe cases of the disease. In children, other much rarer chronic conditions, such as sickle cell anemia, cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy, are also predisposing patients to life-threatening bouts of the virus, federal health officials said. Epidemiologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied the experience of about 1,400 people older than 18, and 500 children, who had been hospitalized in 10 states since the new influenza strain emerged in April.

Johns Hopkins researchers, in the largest study to date, will map the genetic code for asthma in people of African descent in hopes of better understanding why the disease and other allergy-related ailments disproportionately afflict that population. Until now, the link between genetics and asthma has been studied using mostly men and women of white European descent. The Hopkins researchers announced Thursday that they will leverage data from other genome projects to take the first wide-scale look at how hereditary factors affect African-Americans who have the disease, which causes wheezing and difficulty breathing, and which can lead to death if not treated.

Q: For many years I have been fairly successful in controlling my asthma with theophylline and an inhaler. Are there any new forms of treatment?A: A panel on the Management of Asthma, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, released a report on the treatment of asthma in February 1991. The report did not describe new drugs or treatments; rather it modified the emphasis placed on the use of presently available medications.In people with asthma, the airways to the lungs are chronically inflamed as well as being sensitive to many common irritants such as pollens, house dusts and cold air. These irritants cause bronchospasm (narrowing of the airways due to constriction of the muscles surrounding them)

Question: : Can vitamin D and turmeric in combination have an impact on allergy and asthma? I suffer from both allergies and asthma, and I am usually miserable in the spring. I started taking 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily several months ago. I am also taking turmeric capsules. This spring, I have had no allergies, no sinus infections and no asthma problems at all. Perhaps these supplements are keeping my immune system from overreacting to pollen. Answer:: Your experience is fascinating.

Spring means the same two things every year for Brian Nehus: The grass grows, and his nose runs. The 27-year-old from Kingsville finally had enough and ended up at the Asthma Sinus Allergy Program at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He learned after a battery of skin tests that he is indeed allergic to his lawn, as well as weeds and cats. "I need to cut the grass," said Nehus, as he studied his arm, which was full of red blotches, the result of the tests. "I have about an acre of land.