Asthma is very common, affecting more than 22 million people in the United States. No one knows for sure why some people have asthma and others don’t. People who have family members with allergies or asthma are more likely to have asthma.
Asthma is a disease in which the airways become blocked or narrowed. These effects are usually temporary, but they cause shortness of breath, breathing trouble, and other symptoms. If an asthma attack is severe, a person may need emergency treatment to restore normal breathing. Although asthma can cause severe health problems, in most cases treatment can control it and allow a person to live a normal and active life.
There are thousands of health-related Web sites on the Internet. Some of the information on these websites is reliable; some of it is not. Some of the information is current; some of it is not. Choosing which web site to trust is worth thinking about.
Children whose mothers had high exposure to magnetic fields during pregnancy appear to have an increased risk of developing asthma, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.