In this week's episode, we’re using a historical naval mishap as a metaphor to explain how asthma works. Much like the Spanish ships accidentally firing on their own allies in 1801, asthma is caused by your immune system misfiring—targeting harmless particles like dust or allergens and causing inflammation in your airways. We’ll dive into the mechanics of asthma, explore the role of the immune system’s cytokines and white blood cells, and look at the latest treatments and research aimed at calming this immune overreaction.

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References:
American Lung Association. (2024, June 7). What causes asthma?  https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/asthma/learn-about-asthma/what-causes-asthma

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2023, May 10). Most recent national asthma data. https://www.cdc.gov/asthma/most_recent_national_asthma_data.htm

Collaborators, G. B. D. (2018). Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence... https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32279-7

Ebina-Shibuya, R., & Leonard, W. J. (2023). Role of thymic stromal lymphopoietin in allergy and beyond. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-022-00735-y

Hamid, Q., & Tulic, M. (2009). Immunobiology of asthma. Annual review of physiology, 71(1), 489-507. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.physiol.010908.163200

Keats, R.G. (1801, August 3). Superb off Cape Trafalgar, June 13, 1801. The London Gazette. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/15392/page/946

Koren, M.J. & Joshi, S. (Hosts). (2023). Two docs talk allergies and asthma. [Podcast Episode]. In MedEvidence! Truth Behind the Data. MedEvidence. https://medevidence.com/two-docs-talk-allergy-and-asthma-part-1

World Health Organization. (2024, May 6). Asthma. [Website]. Accessed 3 September 2024. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/asthma

Yang, D., Han, Z., & Oppenheim, J. J. (2017). Alarmins and immunity. Immunological reviews, 280(1), 41-56. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5699517/

Ying, S., O’Connor, B., Ratoff, J., Meng, Q., Mallett, K., Cousins, D., ... & Corrigan, C. (2005). Thymic stromal lymphopoietin expression is increased in asthmatic airways and correlates with expression of Th2-attracting chemokines and disease severity. The Journal of Immunology, 174(12), 8183-8190.