New Studies on Asthma

Nearly 20 million people suffer with asthma in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 13 million office visits due to the condition in 2004 and the disease has been on the increase over the past 50 years. Due to the increase, many studies are being performed to find reasons for the increase and ways to help control serious asthma attacks.

Many researchers and doctors think that it may be on the rise due to the increase use of antibiotics, which has resulted in a decrease of the much needed stomach bacteria, Helicobacter pylori. A new study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases found that those aged 3 to 19 years were 25% less likely to develop asthma if they were carriers of Helicobacter pylori. The speculation is that the presence of the bacteria causes the stomach to be lined with immune cells. The immune cells help fight allergens and reduce the chance of asthma. The study was authored by Yu Chen, PhD, a New York University School of Medicine assistant professor of epidemiology.

Another completely unrelated study held by the Dutch government called 'Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy', found that expecting mothers who frequently ate nuts and nut products during their pregnancy were increasing their unborn child's risk of asthma by an almost unbelievable 50%, as compared to expectant mothers who never or only rarely consumed nuts and nut products during their pregnancy. The study included roughly 4,000 women and was published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

A Cochrane review, published in the Cochrane Library, tested placebos and the beta agonist, salmeterol, on asthma patients and found that the patients who regularly used salmeterol have a much higher risk of serious, though non fatal, adverse events. Salmeterol does help to control symptoms of asthma, but alone it puts patients at an increase risk for attacks. It does not control inflammation.

And lastly, a study that appeared in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that when asthma patients combined inhaled corticosteroids with salmeterol they decreased the risk of problematic asthma, with no increase in hospitalizations or death due to the disease.

Most all patients who are prescribed salmeterol are also prescribed an inhaled corticosteroid.



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