Learning From 2016 And 2010: Risk And Resources For Thunderstorm Asthma In Melbourne

30 second read For a description of this syndrome and explanation of weather maps, see previous post. High risk: Mid-October to Mid-December, highest risk in November Spring hay fever Usually past or present asthma, or very slight chest symptoms in spring, often disregarded. Many have NO past history of asthma or chest symptoms Weather patterns […]

Can We Predict Thunderstorm Asthma In Melbourne?

  4 minute read What is thunderstorm asthma? Thunderstorm asthma is a rare dramatic onset of severe asthma in pollen allergic people during the pollen season. How long have we known about it? This syndrome is well-documented in the allergy literature, with original observations done 25 years ago. Thunderstorm asthma has occurred four times in […]

Foods That Trigger Asthma

If you do surveys, somewhere up to 70% of people with asthma believe that some foods can trigger their asthma. But if you test BLINDFOLDED adults with disguised food, so that even the people running the test don’t know what’s in the food until the end of the test (so-called double-blind testing), then less than […]

Controlling Your Asthma: Triggers, Preventer Puffers, and Action Plans

Why would you want to control your asthma? After all, two or three puffs of a reliever puffer (inhaler) (see below) a few times per day is easy, gives quick relief, and doesn’t take any commitment. BUT this means that your asthma is controlling you. If your asthma controls you, this is what happens: Your […]

Splitting Up Asthma. Genotypes, Phenotypes, and Endotypes. Whew!

[View the story “Splitting Up Asthma. Genotypes, Phenotypes, and Endotypes. Whew!” on Storify]

“Auntie, I’ve taken my asthma puffer, but I still can’t breathe and I’m scared”

These are the words you don’t want to hear, but little Billy is gasping and you’ve got to do something. But what. First of all, if Billy is clearly is having extreme difficulty breathing, cannot speak more than a couple of words at a time, or his lips look blue, you have a life-threatening situation. […]

The A to K of asthma triggers

A few years ago I wrote an article for Current Therapeutics about the A to K of asthma triggers. It proved popular so I have updated it for this site. Deaths from asthma have fallen dramatically in Australia in the last 20 years, from about 800/year to about 400/year. That is the good news, but […]