hi
Yes I thought it was good too. The other half if Mon at 8.
Just been on the asthma uk website - and they are saying that peoples asthma should be controlled with their meds too. It's in response to the programme yesterday.
I've had Asthma since I was a kid, and watching those pin prick allergy tests brought back memories of being in the hospital when I was about 6 having them done... of course back then being a kid I didn't really understand what the hell this doctor was doing who kept inflicting pain and sticking needles in my arms! I was pretty much allergic to everything on that list on TV and poor Snowy the cat was re-homed.
I've never really found having Asthma being a major problem for me and I stopped attending a regular Asthma clinic when I was about 12 and just had a review from my GP every 12 months.
I don't keep any meds for it now, and only really find it affects me when I get a chest infection and normally then I'll have to use an inhaler for a couple of weeks after.
I still have the allergies, the dog one I grew out of (I really wanted a dog when I was 12 and so I hid the fact I sneezed like crazy when we got one)... still have the cat allergy, but have learnt when I do stroke one (I mean they are so cute) that I need to wash my hands pretty quit and don't put them near my face....
Still allergic to Feathers, Grass, Dust, and god knows what else...
I was suprised to watch that and learn they don't normally do the allergy testing skin pricks now.... I think if I had a child with Asthma I would demand this to be done!
I missed this, but the subject interests me as my mum died of asthma. At the time she died, the inhalers weren't around for the general public; but as, by coincidence, our village GP's own wife had just died of asthma (she was 29), he got involved in trialling asthma drugs so my brother had injections every day and all the inhalers. So ironically, we were one of the few households in the UK to have the asthma drugs that are now routinely used, in our house, the night my mum died. But as they hadn't been prescribed for her and at that stage were just being trialled, it didn't save her.
I was lucky never to have asthma at all until in my 30s I worked in a school in inner city Birmingham where there were loads of factory chimneys and pollution and hey presto - asthmatic. I have been prescribed both inhalers but chucked them years ago. I sort of feel they make you dependent - esp the steroids. DH takes them religiously each night and his asthma has only worsened over time, whilst mine has vanished. Since I've lost the weight I don't even get the occasional attack.
I think a lot of childhood asthma now is not that severe life-threatening thing my brother had (he stopped breathing 5 times in childhood and was often hospitalised) - much of it is either down to pollution, or even psycho-somatic or parents getting carried away. Anyone who has ever seen someone have a true asthma attack would be left in no doubt.
As a teacher I noticed we were getting more and more inhalers (not just in that polluted school, others too) to take care of and yet I never once saw a child wheeze in the way my brother or mother did, or the pigeon chest or any other hallmarks of real, serious asthma.
Bringing PE back properly into the curriculum and teachig kids about being fit and good nutrition would, I suspect, do more to deal with asthma than any number of drugs. My teenaged niece who has never been troubled with asthma up to now has suddenly started wheezing if she goes up a couple of flights of stairs - and she is overweight. I suspect that's the case with many of these kids, too - that their parents should look to dealing with issues like that and then maybe the asthma would take care of itself. They're too quick to rush the kids to the doctors and then get prescribed all these seriously damaging drugs, rather than be honest about the cause. Then the imaginary asthma becomes an excuse for a child not to over-exert itself, and so the vicious cycle starts, where they pile on more weight, and get 'iller'. I'll try and catch the next one - it is a subject I find a bit depressing, but it did intrigue me when I was teaching why we were getting more and more kids described as 'asthmatic' who never, in front of me, showed a single sign or symptom.
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o/t Channel 4 Docu re Asthma 
