An increasing menace.
Go to any school in the United States or Europe these days and along with the mobile phones and gameboys, you will almost certainly find asthma inhalers. So why is asthma in children becoming so widespread? If we remember that asthma is a genetic disease that our forebears could have developed, it doesn't take a genius to work out that something has changed over the years. Studies show that there are various factors involved and none of them are good.
While pollution still hasn't been found to cause asthma, it has increased
at the same rate and it does make the symptoms worse. There
is an organization called the EPA which daily checks the quality
of the air all over the United States. This data is then published
in newspapers, on the internet and radio and TV. Look for the
AQI, or air quality index in the weather sections. This uses
a scale from 0 to 500. When it is more than 100 the air is considered
to be unsafe. Pollution levels are also connected to the ozone
layer. This used to be big news but the media seems to have
gotten a bit bored of it recently, so it is not in the news
much. But the problem is still there, which is why pollution
levels are higher when it is hotter.
Another alarming study shows that children are smoking younger
and younger than ever. This is the result of advertising, fashion,
bad parenting, lax law enforcement, but pass every school and
you'll get fifteen year old girls and boys with cigarettes hanging
out of their mouths. This didn't happen in the past, but back
then children didn't have the money to buy cigarettes in the
first place. These are just two factors in the increase of asthma
in children, but there are more.
Smoking during pregnancy causes asthma in children, along with
lots of other health problems. Why it hasn't been made illegal
I don't know. But perhaps the most surprising reason for asthma
in children is hygiene. Because we are more concerned with the
cleanliness of our homes and children than we were a century
ago, our immune systems are not as properly developed as they
should be. In the past, with dirt all over the place and bacteria
rampant, our immune systems had to be stronger. We should also
take into account the vast number of cleaning products available
these days. All are full of toxic chemicals that are known to
trigger asthma attacks. Hell, you can even make bombs out of
some of them! If you want a really clean home, then the first
things to throw away are the cleaning products. The best cleaning
products on the market today are good old-fashioned sodium bicarbonate
and vinegar! These are just some of the reasons why asthma
in children has grown so much over recent years. The question
now is what do we do to reverse them?
Back to the index page
© Karon Beattie - http://www.cure-your-asthma.com
About the Author - Karon Beattie is a former asthma sufferer.
She is the author of several books including "Naturally
Free From Asthma" which describes how she eliminated her
own asthma. This
book has helped many other sufferers WorldWide do the same.
http://www.cure-your-asthma.com