Articles Contained in SIRS Enduring Issues 2002.

Originally Published: The Battle to Breathe: Asthma Steals Childhoods and Stresses Families, Feb. 25, 2001; pp. A1+.

THE BATTLE TO BREATHE: ASTHMA STEALS CHILDHOODS AND STRESSES FAMILIES -- People talk about asthma like it's no big deal. After all, 100 times as many people die of cancer every year. But asthma is the top reason children miss school. Every year, it costs the state millions of dollars in health care for the poor. And every day, it forces thousands of weary parents to drag themselves to work, worn out from their children's late-night attacks. And it's getting worse." (ARIZONE REPUBLIC) This article examines the prevalence of asthma in Arizona, particularly among youngsters, and explains how the disease affects the sufferer's lifestyle.

THE BATTLE TO BREATHE: BAD AIR, POVERTY INFLAME ASTHMA -- "Researchers don't know what causes asthma, but they do know what inflames it: poor health care, musty living conditions and patients who don't understand or can't afford the best treatments." (ARIZONA REPUBLIC) This article examines how asthma is rampant in Phoenix, describes how outside workers cope with the disease and profiles one child who is literally paralyzed by asthma.

THE BATTLE TO BREATHE: KIDS' LIVES SHAPED BY MEDICAL CARE -- "New thinking in the last decade about how to treat asthma--as a chronic inflammation of the bronchial tubes, not just a tightening of the muscles surrounding the airways--has meant better medicines and new hope. This spring [2001], a new drug will combine a muscle relaxer and an anti-inflammatory in one inhaler, making for fewer medications in asthmatic's daily regime. And, later this year, another drug is expected out that will stop the suffocating swelling in asthmatics' airways before it even begins." (ARIZONA REPUBLIC) This article discusses how many asthma suffers lack access to health insurance that would relieve the burden of high-cost medications.

THE BATTLE TO BREATHE: DETECTIVES PROBE ASTHMA'S RIDDLES -- "The medical community knows how to treat asthma, but not what causes it. No one knows why the genetic condition afflicts some with clogged airways, while letting others breathe easy. Nor can anyone explain why asthma has run rampant across the Western world in the last 40 years, but has left underdeveloped countries largely untouched. The asthma riddle has researchers scrambling. And some of the important work is being done here in Arizona." (ARIZONA REPUBLIC) This article reviews possible causes for asthma, including the hygiene hypothesis, genetics and lifestyle.

THE BATTLE TO BREATHE: ASTHMA TOUCHES ENTIRE FAMILIES -- This article examines how several families struggle to cope with the needs of their asthmatic relatives and provides personal accounts of how some people have dealt with the disease. Also included is a quiz which "may help identify respiratory problems" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC).

Records created from non-MARC resource.