The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that about 17.7 American adults, or around 7 percent of the population, is currently being treated for asthma. But do all of them actually have the disease?
One in Three Canadians Treated for Asthma Don’t Have It:
A Canadian study found that up to one-third of the adults that had been diagnosed with asthma did not actually have the disease. Researchers recruited 600 individuals over the age of 18 who were being treated for asthma. They were tested to determine their lung function and whether any wheezing or shortness of breath was due to asthma.
The results were somewhat surprising: about 200 of the individuals tested did not have asthma. Most of them were taking asthma medications, however.
How Could People Diagnosed with Asthma Not Have It?
The researchers pointed out that many of the subjects had not previously undergone spirometry. This is an important step in the diagnosis of asthma. As a result, some patients may have been misdiagnosed.
Others may have “outgrown” their asthma. Children and adolescents frequently discover that their asthma is no longer a problem. Doctors did not think adults could outgrow asthma except in rare cases.
What Should People with Asthma Do?
Physicians should monitor their patients’ symptoms periodically to determine if they still need their asthma medications. Patients should ask their doctors to help them with this. Taking unnecessary medicine, whether for asthma or for anything else, could be harmful and should be avoided.
The investigators did not consider another possibility. Perhaps people diagnosed with asthma had experienced a deep-seated lung infection that triggered wheezing and other symptoms. Such people are often treated for asthma, but once the infection is cleared, they may no longer need the asthma medications. You can learn more about this in Dr. David Hahn’s book, A Cure for Asthma? published by People’s Pharmacy Press.
