If you have asthma, it's important to understand the strong link between asthma and allergies. In fact, most people who have asthma--especially children--have it as a result of allergic triggers.

It's essential to know what triggers--or worsens--your asthma, so that you can then work on avoiding those triggers, if at all possible.

Asthma tends to be much more common in western countries, compared to the poorer, more rural areas of the world. Experts think this is because allergies also tend to be more prevalent in western countries. And, allergy rates are on the rise, which means even more people in this part of the world will be at risk for asthma.

Many studies today go a long way toward proving that asthma is caused by our environment. This leads the experts to believe that we may be able to prevent asthma--at least in many cases--simply by changing our environment. Wow, wouldn't that be great? Where do I sign up?!

When asthma can be treated by easily removing an allergic trigger (cause), it can be very successful. It works best when the cause is easy to remove, as when the trigger is a fume or a substance you're exposed to only in certain situations. Or, if the trigger is pet dander from cats or dogs, it's also fairly easy to avoid, unless you own the pets, of course.

However, the most common cause of asthma is a sensitivity to house dust mites. And, reducing dust mites enough to make a big difference with asthma necessitates significant changes in lifestyle for both the asthma sufferers and their families. Plus, it can be quite expensive to achieve such changes, what with having to toss out carpeting, encasing pillows, mattresses, and bedding in allergy-proof plastic covers, etc.

Hopefully, experts will develop future treatments that can change, get rid of, or lessen the allergy process in our bodies. In fact, this is an area where much research is already being done. Here are a couple of pages where you can view some of the research being done in the US on asthma:

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct/gui/action/FindCondition?ui=D001249&recruiting=true

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/airborne/research/background.html

Kathleen MacNaughton is a registered nurse and accomplished consumer health writer whose work can be seen at http://www.rhinocortaqua.com and http://www.everydaykidz.com For more information on asthma, see Kathleen's site at http://www.asthma-a-to-z.com