Having beaten cancer, Campbell turns to election (Tallahassee Democrat)

Leon County Sheriff Larry Campbell announced last month to the public that he was cancer-free, nine months after having surgery on his right lung.

Asthma has been on the rise in the U.S. over the past 50 years and is now most common chronic condition in America, affecting 20 million of us. Asthma occurs when triggers in the environment cause the airways or bronchi in the lung to contract, causing breathing difficulty that, as illustrated by the case above, can be fatal. There are a variety of possibilities for the increase of asthma over the past few decades. It could be because we have less exposure to infection bronchitis treatment our ancestors did, which has made our immune systems more sensitive. We spend more time indoors, in controlled environments, where we are exposed to dust and mold. The air we breathe, both inside and outside, is more polluted than the air most of our ancestors breathed. We are more sedentary, and in particular as we moved from a rural to urban lifestyle over the past century we lost the habit of daily exercise, primarily in the form of walking and working outdoors on a daily basis.

There is considerable evidence that a lack of outdoor exercise contributes to asthma, and that an exercise program helps asthmatics. Our sedentary lifestyle has bronchitis treatment led to a surge in obesity; there is evidence for an association between obesity and asthma related to the fact that obese people have a smaller area for the lungs to expand, higher levels of the hormone leptin (which is released from fat and is also higher in asthmatics), and higher levels of inflammatory markers (which may contribute to airway reactivity). In fact, as many as 75% of emergency room asthma admissions are for obese people. Finally, there has been a major bronchitis treatment in our diet, including a massive increase in exposure to vitamins and minerals through fortified foods, as well as a shift from grain to corn-based nutrition. There is some evidence that changes in diet in our culture may have contributed to the increase in asthma.

There are two categories of asthma: allergic, also known as extrinsic asthma, and non-allergic, or intrinsic asthma. Allergic asthma, the most common form, affecting 20 million individuals in the US, is triggered by an allergic reaction to something you have inhaled, such as dust mite allergen, pet dander, tree or plant pollen, mold, or air pollution. Individuals with allergic asthma have high blood levels of something called immunoglobulin E (IgE). IgE sitting on the surface of the airways binds allergens and causes mast cells and basophils to release inflammatory factors, which cause the airways to constrict (IgE in the nose and mouth causes hay fever, and IgE on the skin causes eczema). Symptoms include coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath or rapid breathing, and chest tightness. Non-Allergic asthma is triggered by factors not related to allergens.

Non-allergic asthma is triggered by other factors such as upper respiratory infections, anxiety, stress, exercise, cold or dry air, hyperventilation, smoke, viruses, exercise, medications, beta blockers, and ACE inhibitors, sulfites found in red wine, and gastro esophageal reflux disease. Like allergic asthma, non-allergic asthma is characterized by airway obstruction and inflammation that can also be treated and partially reversible with medications similar to those used for allergic asthma. Many of the symptoms of non-allergic asthma are the same as those experienced by allergic asthma sufferers. Although blood levels of IgE are normal in non-allergic asthma, a similar type of inflammatory response takes place in the airways, for reasons that are not fully understood.

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