Following on from our last post Asthma Child, which looks closely at allergy asthma in children, we are going to take another look at what is known about the cause of asthma, or specifically what modern medicine perceives to be the root cause of asthma.
The general answer to that question is that it is difficult to say for sure what causes asthma. What is known for sure is that:
- People are more likely to develop asthma if they have a family history of asthma, eczema or allergies
- It’s likely that this family history combined with certain environmental factors influences whether or not a person will develop allergy asthma
- Many aspects of modern lifestyles, for instance changes in housing and diet and a more hygienic environment have been put forward as likely reasons which may have contributed to the rise in asthma over the last few decades
- Smoking during pregnancy has been shown to significantly increases the risk of a child developing asthma
- Children whose parents smoke have been shown to be more likely to develop asthma
- Environmental pollution is a big factor in exacerbating asthma symptoms and may well play a part in causing allergy asthma initially
- Adult onset asthma may develop following contraction of a viral infection
- Certain irritants found in the workplace could possibly lead to a person developing asthma (known as occupational asthma)
There may be many other factors that cause allergy asthma to manifest, but these above are the known ones at present.