Science / Medicine : New View on Asthma Attacks

Virtually all asthma attacks are triggered by allergies, according to a new study that challenges the widely held belief that the condition in adults usually has non-allergic causes.

Traditionally, experts have categorized asthma as having both allergic and non-allergic forms. Allergic asthma was considered to be the most common type in children and young adults, while older people were usually thought to have non-allergic asthma.

The latest work, based on tests of 2,657 people, suggests that all asthma victims have the allergic variety regardless of their age.

“This helps us to understand better why allergic and non-allergic asthma look so much the same,” said Dr. Benjamin Burrows. “It’s all the same disease.”

Burrows, a researcher at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, published his results in the New England Journal of Medicine. His team’s conclusions were based largely on measurements of an antibody called immunoglobulin E, or IgE, which plays a key role in the allergic response that leads to asthma.