Asthma UK has been shortlisted for the Poundland Charity of the Year 2012.  We are of course thrilled and hope that Asthma UK will win, to not only raise vital funds, but also raise awareness of both asthma and Asthma UK! 

It’s now down to you if you would like to help.  If you can, please spare 20 seconds, click on the link below and vote for Asthma UK to win the Poundland Charity of the Year award. Every vote counts so feel free to forward this post to colleagues, customers, friends and anyone else you think will also vote!  

http://www.poundland.co.uk/charity/

Thank you for supporting Asthma UK! 

Childhood asthma affects around 10% of children in both the UK and the USA and is thought to arise from an interaction between a genetic disposition and environmental factors. A new report from the Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air Pollution Study now points to exposure to household mold as being one of the key environmental factors in the development of childhood asthma. The researchers followed 176 children for seven years, after which time 18% had developed asthma. This was already known to be a high risk group, because of a family history of asthma. The level of mold in the home was measured when the children were aged one and aged seven. A measure called the Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI) was used to assess mold levels. The ERMI depends upon carrying out DNA analysis to assess the presence of 36 different molds in the environment.

Children living in homes where the ERMI was 5.2 or more were more than twice as likely to develop asthma compared to those living in

The focus of our news round-up this month is on childhood asthma - how an air purifier can improve symptoms, the risks of low birth weight, the benefits of breast-feeding, and how asthma is linked to chronic lung disease in later life.

Exposing children with asthma to second-hand smoke makes their asthma worse. Second-hand smoke also increases the risk of ear infections, bronchitis and other lung infections in children. Obviously, the best way of protecting kids from the dangers is to quit, but sometimes family members are unable or unwilling to do so. Researchers in the United States have discovered that using an air purifier can protect children with asthma from the dangers of second-hand smoke. In this study 126 children with asthma living with a smoker were divided into three groups. One group used an air purifier, the second group used an air purifier and also had access to a health coach, and the third group received neither and acted as a

From allergen and air pollution studies, to a high tech cure, there is plenty going on in the world of asthma research this month.

Kids living in homes in which mold is present have an increased risk of allergies and asthma, say researchers at the German Research Center for Environmental Health writing in the European Respiratory Journal. We’ve already reported that mold has an adverse impact on lung function, but the situation with asthma is particularly interesting. For previous studies have suggested that invisible components of mold in house dust could actually reduce the risk of asthma. So the German researchers have been comparing studies on visible mold with research on invisible mold. Children living in homes with visible mold were 49% more likely to have asthma than children not thus exposed. They also had an increased risk of nasal allergy.

If you have asthma then Tuesday May 3 is your special day. World Asthma Day has been held on the second Tuesday in May every year since 1998. It is organized by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), and works to improve quality of life for people with asthma around the world. GINA brings together healthcare professionals and public health experts in campaigns to reduce the global prevalence, morbidity and mortality of asthma.

Just a few facts and figures on asthma:

• The World Health Organization (WHO) says that 300 million people around the world have asthma and its prevalence is increasing.
• WHO believes there will be another 100 million people with asthma by the year 2025.
• Globally, around quarter of a million people die because of asthma every year.
• Recent research from the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study suggests that children with eczema and hay fever

If you have asthma, you may well find that stress makes your symptoms worse. But a new study shows that stress may actually be a cause of asthma too. The effect is only small - but it's significant, because it might help us understand more about how asthma works.

Writing in the journal Allergy, Dr. Adrian Loerbroks and his team at Heidelberg University in Germany, described a study of over 5,000 adults followed up for nearly ten years. Those who reported high job stress at the start were twice as likely as those with low levels of job stress to develop asthma. However, the absolute numbers of new asthma cases were low. The study found that 2.4 percent of those reporting a lot of stress at work developed asthma, compared to 1.2 percent of those who were not stressed. Also, this study does not actually prove that occupational stress causes asthma - it just demonstrates a link. It could be that there is some underlying common factor that makes people feel stressed and also predisposes them

Inhalers play a leading role in helping to manage asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Indeed, they can even be lifesaving! But to do their job of delivering medication, they do need to be used correctly. So it is concerning to read a study from the University of Chicago that shows how the majority of patients do not use their inhaler as intended.

The researchers asked 100 adults who had been hospitalised for either asthma or COPD (so we can assume they had severe disease) to demonstrate how they actually used their inhalers. Most of them made some kind of error. The good news is that it didn’t take very long for them to learn how to use their inhalers in the right way.

There are two types of inhaler - preventers and relievers. A preventer protects the airways and reduces the risk of an asthma attack. A reliever is the one you use when you are having an attack - it gets rid of the symptoms. There are several different designs

Asthma has been very much on the medical research agenda in recent weeks, so we thought it was time to bring you an update on the latest news.

• New findings from the West Sweden Asthma Study suggest that severe asthma may disguise itself as nasal congestion. Dr Jan Lötvall and his team, from the University of Gothenburg, asked 30,000 people about symptoms like nasal congestion, runny nose, wheezing and breathlessness. He found that around 2% of the population of West Sweden actually had asthma, which was more than expected. The researchers noted that 60% of those with asthma also reported some kind of nasal disease and nasal symptoms were more common among those with severe asthma. 'These findings suggest that some parts of the immune system that are activated in connection with chronic nasal problems might be linked to severe asthma,' said Lötvall. 'This insight could lead to new forms of treatment in the long run.' He