Just before the arrival of the second wave of H1N1 (swine flu), The Canadian Lung Association convened an expert panel to offer advice to the public, including specific suggestions for those with asthma. The main message from the four doctors on the panel was clear: do everything you can to make sure your asthma is under [...]

Air pollution irritates this lung condition. But could smog cause asthma? In June of 2005, the smog hanging over downtown Toronto was so thick you couldn’t see the CN Tower from the mid-town restaurant where Sara La Rocque was waiting tables at an outdoor patio. That was when Sara, a 21-year-old creative writing student, quit [...]

Asthmatics are living half lives, shunning exercise, medications and coughing their way through the night. It doesn’t have to be this way. Adrienne Smith has been battling with her asthma since she was diagnosed at the age of 13. For Smith, high school gym class was particulary difficult: she would often get a crushing feeling [...]

Much work is being done to educate North Americans about controlling asthma, and hospital admissions are down. But what remains consistently unimproved is the so-called asthma spike – the day on which many parents will show up at the hospital with school-age children in the throes of asthma attacks. Using data accumulated since 1990, scientists [...]

The town of Wolfville, Nova Scotia grabbed headlines last fall when it banned smoking in cars that are carrying children under the age of 18. Today, many Canadians are talking about this burning issue, and The Lung Association has launched a campaign to lobby for smoke-free family cars in every province and territory. To date, [...]

A study of more than 200,000 children around the world has left many parents of babies skittish about using fever-reducing drugs, such as Tempra and Tylenol. The study, released in late September, concludes that infants given acetaminophen may be at risk for developing asthma later in childhood. However, a leading Canadian pediatric allergist says acetaminophen [...]

University of Calgary scientists probing the common cold and its effect on asthma have made some important discoveries. Recent research led by David Proud, a professor in the faculty of medicine, is the first to look at how every single gene in our bodies responds when infected with a cold virus, the most common of [...]

In winter, the pollen allergic breathe sighs of relief. Not so those who have asthma triggered by cold air, exercise or indoor allergens. But winter need not be a cruel season for the lungs. How cold air affects asthma A winter wind whips your face. What do you do? Probably squint and tear up because [...]

Third-hand smoke is a new name for an old problem: smoke particles that linger on hair, skin, clothes, furniture, carpet and toys, long after the smoker has butted out. Third-hand smoke contains the same toxic chemicals – such as lead and arsenic – as second-hand smoke. Third-hand smoke can harm infants and babies Even if [...]

Forget the stereotype of the wheezy, wimpy kid puffing on an inhaler. Young athletes prove that you can be a winner in sports – even with asthma. Since being diagnosed with asthma when he was 4 years old, Brett Favaro has suffered pneumonia and bronchitis, asthma attacks, and been to numerous doctors. Now 22, he [...]