Topics covered include:
- What is the disease?
- How does the disease function, and how does it affect the body?
- How can one recognize the signs and symptoms of the disease?
- What causes the disease?
- How many people are affected by it?
- What treatments are available, and are they effective? What side effects do they have?
- How does the disease impact day-to-day living?
- What social repercussions can the disease have?
- What should one expect going through recovery or as the disease progresses?
- How can one help friends and family cope with the...

Asthma is a chronic life-threatening lung disease that affects nearly 5 million teens, causing episodes of wheezing, coughing, and breathing difficulty. It affects about 1 or 2 teens out of 10, and is the most common reason teens miss school in this country. Living with Asthma is a straightforward guide offering authoritative information on coping and living with the disease. This accessible book features dramatized, real-life examples that allow readers to fully grasp the impact asthma can have on everyday living. Appendixes contain such useful information as organizations, support groups,...

Asthma is a common chronic inflammatory condition affecting the airways and displays a varied phenotypic picture. It is becoming increasingly recognized by healthcare workers and epidemiological studies suggest that along with other atopic diseases, its prevalence is rising. The precise etiology of asthma remains uncertain, but genetic and environmental factors such as viruses, country of origin, allergen exposure, early use of antibiotics, and numbers of siblings have all been implicated in its inception and development. Pathologically it is characterized by inflammation, physiologically by...