Asthma is a disease of the lungs in which the airways become blocked or narrowed causing breathing difficulty, and sometimes respiratory arrest in severe cases. This chronic disease affects nearly 20 million Americans.
Allergies and asthma are on a continuum of severity. Allergies trigger asthma symptoms, which are a severe form of the initial allergy. Although asthma is not always triggered via allergens, this form is the most common. If a person has a non-allergic form of asthma; such as from exercise, or cold induced, or any thing which has increased respirations (e.g. crying, laughing, etc.); they generally have an associated allergic asthma too.
Asthma, like allergies, are genetically based. However, this does not mean that if you have the genes for asthma, that you will demonstrate symptoms. It also does not mean that if your mother had allergies to bananas, which caused asthma symptoms; that you will have allergies to bananas. However, there is a likelihood that you will develop allergies/allergic asthma to other substances, such as mold, dust, pollution, smoke, pollen, etc..
As with all chronic diseases, the effectiveness of treatment is determined by the patient's knowlege of the disease and treatment methods, compliance with the treatment plan, and an on-going dialog with the prescribing physician on symptom management.
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