Health Watch: Many Children With Asthma Don’t Use Their Inhalers Correctly

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Six and a half million children in the United States suffer from asthma and use inhalers to keep their airways open, but most kids aren’t using them correctly, dramatically affecting how well the medication works.
For 10-year-old Amanda Grabel, her asthma was so severe, it became life threatening. Desperate for a solution, her parents took her to several doctors who kept writing more and more prescriptions, CBS2’s Dr. Max Gomez reported.....

Read more here: newyork.cbslocal.com

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Can house dust explain why Amish protected from asthma?

CHICAGO — Forget Fluffy and Fido. Bessie the cow just might make a healthier pet.
That idea stems from new research in two farming-based religious communities that shun modern ways but have dramatically different childhood asthma rates. The goal was to find an explanation for why asthma is so uncommon among Amish communities, where children run barefoot in dairy barns and farm fields, but much higher in the other group.
Blood samples, house dust and mice experiments revealed some tantalizing clues, suggesting something in the dust was protecting the Amish children.....

Read more here: ottawacitizen.com

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Cellular switch to turn 'off' asthma attacks identified

Scientists have identified a critical cellular "off" switch for the inflammatory immune response that contributes to asthma attacks.
The switch, they say, is composed of regulatory proteins that control an immune signalling pathway in cells.
"Asthma patients are constantly firing through this pathway because those proteins are stuck in the 'on' position, without proper control by other proteins that shut down this reaction," said Nicola Heller, assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.....

Read more here: deccanherald.com