James Miller

 

Thursday, December 23, 2004

 

Asthma

Asthma is an unusual disease as it generates an awful lot of differing opinions.

I look upon it in rather a different way, because a few years ago I financed a metered dose inhaler for asthma drugs. It was very successful and it was sold to a German company for a lot of money. If it sees commercial exploitation, it will be very interesting, as the device is very green, using no compressed gases, no CFC's, no HCFC's, batteries or other power sources.

Because of this I know quite a bit about asthma and find today's story that asthma may well be linked to cleaning chemicals very interesting.

But there are many possible links and odd stories concerning asthma :-

1. Why is that oh-so-clean country, New Zealand, one of the top countries for the disease.

2. At the top of the list are the Anglo countries, like the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

3. It is known that oxides of nitrogen can cause asthma and it is one of the reasons why smoking around babies is not recommended. But no-one says the same about gas fires and cookers. Should they be banned too?

4. I have heard several stories, where people have moved from three-bedroom boxes with fitted carpets and central heating to draughty country cottages with stone floors and the asthma disappears.

5. A teacher once told me that a lot of kids want an inhaler as this gets them off games. It could also be peer pressure. But why is it that one class has lots of asthma and the year below has virtually none?

6. Are doctors fairly keen to prescribe an inhaler? Do parents say little Johnny is wheezing and needs it? Or do they get incentives from drug companies? I've never proved the last one, but stories abound.

7. Some research has shown that keeping a dog, cat or other pets, can make you less prone to asthma and other diseases.

So as you can see it's all very confusing.

What I'd do is live in a nice draughty, comfortable house with stone floors and central heating, use an electric cooker, keep a sensible dog like a basset hound, stop smoking and cut down on the cleaning.

Sounds just like us. And none of our three children had asthma!

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