DOSSIER

  18/05/2021 | Mélody DIEL

Respiratory allergies affect around 300 million people of all ages, gender and ethnical origins around the world. This sickness equally affects men and women, the young and the old. However, if you contract asthma, there is a strong chance that your children will develop it too. A child is 80% likely to develop asthma if both parents have it, 50% if one parent is affected. Even if there are no strict guidelines, though, you should strive to be aware of possible asthmatic symptoms in children.

Yet what exactly is allergic asthma?
It’s caused by a chronic illness which attacks the respiratory tracts which explains breathing difficulties during a crisis. Allergic asthma is triggered when the body encounters certain allergens, such as pollen, dust mites, or even animal hair. Visiting your doctor or allergist for a skin test usually helps determine the factors that cause individual asthma cases.

For the moment, despite research, there is no cure for asthma. There are two main courses of treatment, though. The first step to calm an attack of asthma is to use an inhaler which reacts on the bronchial obstruction. The second is a deeper treatment which tries to control the symptoms in order to reduce the number of attacks.

Less well known, is therapeutic education, which can be very useful for sever asthma sufferers. Under the administration of an allergist or pulmonary specialist, it teaches sufferers to live with the condition but also to ‘dedramatise’ the situation. Therapeutic education’s objectives are clear – to allow the patient to know and prepare for their allergy and symptoms; to effectively control their environment, principally by learning to avoid the triggers; helping them understand their medication and most of all advising them what to do in the case of an attack. Therapeutic education therefore enables an asthma sufferer to tackle all of the questions that they pose themselves in workshops and in conversations with their doctor.

For more information on the subject of asthma and respiratory allergies, please consult your doctor or allergist.

  Mélody DIEL

The safety of Covid-19 vaccines confirmed after 5 years of monitoring

The French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety (ANSM) has announced the closure of its national pharmacovigilance investigation into mRNA vaccines against Covid-19, after five years ...

Noise, screens, heat: the French are sleep-deprived!

The French are sleeping less and less: the average has fallen to 6 hours and 50 minutes, and a quarter sleep less than 6 hours. More than half wake up tired, and 38% suffer from sleep disorders, especially ...

Parkinson's disease: a new treatment approved in Japan

The Japanese pharmaceutical company Sumitomo Pharma has received authorization to produce and market Amchepry, an experimental treatment for Parkinson's disease based on stem cell transplantation into ...

Sleep: Why is it important to get up at regular times?

Who hasn't ever wanted to stay a little longer, or even a lot longer, snuggled up in bed when the alarm clock rings louder than ever? As tempting as it m