Monday, February 21, 2011

Asthma and bacteria?

This study looks very interesting. If verified it suggests some possible new directions for asthma treatment or prevention.

I cannot think of any reason why people would have thought that bronchial airways would be sterile--given the amount of dust and whatnot that winds up in the lungs there have to be lots of foreign bacteria piggy-backing. And without a lot of white cells to eat up intruders, some will grow. I'd never thought about it--I guess most doctors didn't either.

The study claims that there are many bacteria in a normal windpipe, and many more varieties in some asthma sufferers who required corticosteroids. So they need to verify this, and test again with asthma sufferers who aren't under treatment, to see if perhaps the steroids make life easier for bacteria. If it turns out that some bacteria (or combinations of them) cause asthma, then maybe some misted antibiotics might be a cure. Spend a few hours a day breathing mist at the clinic for a month or so, and then breathe easy again?

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