Asthma Research

Research conducted by Dr. Jay Kolls, Professor and Chair of Genetics at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, and colleagues, has found that vitamin D may be an effective therapeutic agent to treat or prevent allergy to a common mold that can complicate asthma and frequently affects patients with Cystic Fibrosis.

Household dust contains up to 1000 different species of microbes, with tens of millions of individual bacterial cells in each gram. And these are just the ones that can be grown in the lab! Dr Helena Rintala, speaking at the Society for General Microbiology's autumn meeting in Nottingham describes how we share our living and working spaces with millions of microbes, not all of whom are bad news.

Being allergic to dogs or cats may worsen your ragweed allergies, according to a study from Queen's University. Researchers found that people with pet allergies often develop ragweed allergy symptoms more quickly than others. But the study also suggests that once allergy season is in full swing, those symptom differences subside.

Ragweed allergy season can be even more miserable for those with dog, cat or dust mite allergies, according to new research. These year-round allergies appear to "pre-prime" the immune system so symptoms hit harder, according to a study recently published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).

People with multi-symptom asthma more often have night-time awakenings due to asthma-symptoms, a sign of severe asthma. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Respiratory Research have shown that asthma with multiple symptoms is more highly prevalent than previously suggested, comprising 20- 25% of all asthmatics.

Scientists investigating the allergic reactions that asthmatics suffer towards a common mould have discovered that many people with asthma actually had the mould growing in their own lungs. The research led by University of Leicester scientists at Glenfield Hospital has been published in the December 2010 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Nasal congestion can be a sign of severe asthma, which means that healthcare professionals should be extra vigilant when it comes to nasal complaints. Furthermore, more severe asthma appears to be more common than previously thought, reveals a study from the Sahlgrenska Academy's Krefting Research Centre.

Researchers have proved that a single "master switch" enzyme, known as aldose reductase, is key in producing excess mucous that clogs the airways of people with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The enzyme's action can be blocked by drugs whose safety has been shown in clinical trials for other diseases -- a discovery that could improve therapies for the 510 million people worldwide suffering from asthma and COPD.

As almost 40,000 runners get set to take part in this year's London Marathon, a new study has found that one in three will suffer from allergies after the event. Post-marathon sniffles are a common complaint among runners, but they are often put down to infections taking advantage of a depleted immune system caused by the effort involved. Now, however...

A pandemic of ailments called the "allergic march" — the gradual acquisition of overlapping allergic diseases that commonly begins in early childhood — has...

Belly fat, known clinically as central obesity, has been linked to the development of asthma in a new study. The findings, presented at the European Respiratory Society's Annual Congress in Amsterdam, have shown central obesity as a risk factor for the disease.

The lack of readily available information about cosmetic ingredients may cause patients with celiac disease who use lip, facial or body products to unknowingly expose themselves to gluten -- an ingredient they need to avoid, according to the results of a new study unveiled at the American College of Gastroenterology's (ACG) 76th Annual Scientific meeting in Washington, DC.