Asthma

Managing food allergies in inner-city schools poses a unique challenge with many overlapping factors. The path toward an optimal solution requires addressing each of these in turn. Food allergies affect about 8% of children in the United States. Management of allergies usually involves both preventing allergic responses and treating allergic reactions, both of which provide...

Acupuncture does not appear to have an immunological effect on the Th1–Th2 imbalance; however, acupuncture treatment reduces levels of eotaxin and other nonspecific pro-inflammatory cytokines in patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis. As a supplementary and integrative medical therapy, acupuncture targets specific acupoints to enhance the treatment of various disorders. As acupuncture is a relatively risk-free...

Topical or nasal probiotics are not a good choice for treating allergic rhinitis. Topical probiotics have been proposed as a therapeutic alternative for allergic rhinitis because they might influence the immune response towards a type-1 non-allergic profile. This randomized placebo-controlled crossover trial, published in Clinical & Experimental Allergy, aimed to determine whether a topical/nasal probiotic...

Benralizumab is effective in treating eosinophilic asthma. It also improves the quality of life of individuals with poorly controlled asthma. Breathlessness, recurrent exacerbations, and decreased quality of life are prevalent in individuals with severe asthma despite high-dose corticosteroids. The hallmarks of severe eosinophilic asthma include eosinophilic airway infiltration, inflammation, blockage, or constriction. Benralizumab, an anti-IL-5Ra,...

Anti-IL-5/anti-IL-5R antibody therapy is highly clinically successful in treating severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA), and SEA and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but not in COPD alone. Interleukin-5/interleukin-5-receptor (IL-5/IL-5R) antibodies are anti-eosinophilic medications that have shown effectiveness for individuals with severe eosinophilic asthma (SEA). However, it has not been proven clinically effective for COPD patients. This...

This study finds that Black and Hispanic children have consistently higher rates of asthma than White children, even in more affluent neighborhoods, indicating that factors beyond poverty and low socio-economic status are associated with racial disparities in asthma. A large, multi-institutional and longitudinal study led by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public...

In response to a need for standardizing measurement and tracking of health equity outcomes in childhood asthma, researchers created a health equity index that re-envisions how equity-related data and metrics are collected. A recent grant-funded pilot project at Rady Children’s Health Network (RCHN) in Rancho Santa Fe, California, developed a dashboard that can help reduce...

Disparities in childhood asthma among racial and ethnic minorities are examined through five domains: socio-cultural, biological, built environment, behavioral, and health systems. Introduction Asthma is a heterogeneous disease that causes inflammation in the respiratory airways, impacts over 25 million Americans, and can lead to permanent airway obstruction and death. Asthma has been shown to disproportionately...

This systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrated an increase in the risk of asthma exacerbation associated with obesity, smoking, depression and anxiety, parity, moderate or severe asthma, Black ethnicity, and maternal age. Asthma is a prevalent health condition in pregnancy. Approximately 8-12% of pregnant women have asthma across the globe. Among these women, approximately 45% experience...