Asthma irritants: mites, thunderstorms etc.

Below is an article I read in Inquirer.Net about asthma. I am posting it here as you all know, our dear Nirro is asthmatic. This is good information as it is the season of rains and all that here in Manila. It is also useful information to others who may chance upon this blog...

Read on.... ( clicking the title of the article links you to its original website)

Asthma irritants: mites, thunderstorms etc.

By Tessa Salazar
Inquirer
Last updated 00:25am (Mla time) 08/25/2007


MANILA, Philippines -- House dust mites are common triggers of asthma attacks. They are microscopic creatures that inhabit beddings, pillows, curtains and carpets, or wherever warm and humid. They feed on humans’ dead skin, which our body continually shed off.

Dust mites are also easily inhaled, and when this happens, they can irritate the respiratory passages. Members of the Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP) warn the public that the more overcrowded a house is, the higher the risk of asthma attacks among the inhabitants.

Doctors have observed that in Metro Manila, it is not unusual for 10 or more people to share a two-bedroom house. The Philippine College of Physicians-Zuellig Foundation health forum was held recently in Quezon City.

To get rid of dust mites, Dr. Dina V. Diaz of the PCCP suggests washing linens in very hot water, or putting mattresses out in the sun.

Molds can also be asthma triggers, Diaz says. Basements or bathrooms, or any dark and poorly ventilated room in the house, can develop molds, especially during this time of the year when rains alternate with hot, humid weather.

Thunderstorms

And is there a link between thunderstorms and asthma attacks? Asthmatics can test this for themselves. But if you ask PCCP members, there most probably is.

Diaz, past chair of the PCCP’s Council on Asthma, cites a study showing thunderstorms being correlated with pollen count levels, pollutants like sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide and also fungal levels.

“The interesting part (of the study) is that it noted that consultations for asthma attacks—whether in the emergency room or unscheduled visits to the doctor’s clinic—increased dramatically six hours after a thunderstorm,” she says.

Diaz was not able to ascertain from the study, however, if asthma attacks increased during the thunderstorms. According to her, duplicating the study in a local setting would not be so simple.

“It’s not easy to conduct pollen, pollutant and fungus counts here in the Philippines,” Diaz says.

Several US and UK studies support the existence of “thunderstorm asthma.”

Advice

Just the same, Diaz advises asthmatics to follow the old adage: Stay indoors when there’s a thunderstorm, “not so much because of the rain, but because something about the storm causes asthma attacks.”

“(It might be) imbalanced electrical ions causing more particulates to be suspended (in the air). When you’re out in the open, you inhale more of these particulates, and that may cause the attack,” she says.