• Question: Why do people have asmah?

    Asked by girl to Anil, Blanka, Cees, Emma, Mike on 28 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Emma Trantham

      Emma Trantham answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      We don’t fully know everything about why people get asthma.

      What we do know is that it is a combination of our genes and the environment and that the interactions are very complex. There are over 100 genes that have been associated with asthma!

      Environmental causes include traffic pollution and cigarette smoke.

      The number of people with asthma has been increasing over the last couple of decades and some scientists think that this is related to the environment we are in as infants: you may have heard about this on the news but some scientists think the fact that we are exposed to fewer bacteria and parasites when we are little (because we now use so many disinfectants and keep everything so clean) affects how our immune system develops and so makes us more prone to allergies and asthma.

      As you can tell from my answer – it’s all very complicated and there is a lot more work still to be done!

    • Photo: Blanka Sengerova

      Blanka Sengerova answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      Emma has explained what may be the underlying cause of asthma. I will take a step back and explain what actually happens in an asthma attack and why you feel as you do.

      Whatever the asthma trigger (as Emma said, there may be many and no one really knows which are dominant yet), when it comes into contact with the airways in the lungs, it leads to an inflammation of the membranes and the release of mucus. Additionally, muscles surrounding the airways tighten. All of these effects result in a narrowing of the airways which makes it difficult for air to go through and hence difficult to breathe.

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