Can Asthma come from second hand smoke exposure?

Question

I had excessive exposure to secound hand smoke as a child. As a young adult I developed asthma. Could this be beacuse of the second hand smoke? I control my enviornment well with regard to dust, and it helps. I stay out of smokey enviroments because I get full blown asthma when it happens and have to go on multiplue medications. So I cannot go listen to live music or dance. Could smoke have started this whole problem? Both parents smoked my entire life in my face and I breathed it constantly for my whole life. My mom was smoking when she was pregnant with me and I was low bith weight.

PS I never smoked myself, but doctors think I did. I guess all that second hand smoke is like I smoked myself.

Answer 1

Yes, this could be why you have Asthma. My friend smoked with her pregnancy and she smokes with her kid around and I tell her all the time that she is going to cause him a life time of problems, but she still won't quit. I don't get it. I hope you are treating your asthma with inhaled steroids to prevent attacks and albuterol when you are having attacks. Good Luck. Asthma can improve and some people actually can "outgrow" it, even as adults.

And the guy right before me is wrong, people can develop asthma at any point in their life, not everyone is born to be pre-disposed to it. When I was going to talk to different Dr.'s to pick my daughter's pediatrician, all of them told me they hoped I wasn't a smoker because that can cause kids to develop asthma and other long-term health problems.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Asthma is an allergy and is triggered by something. The best non medication treatment for asthma is learning your triggers and avoiding them. Common triggers are smoke, dust, mold, mildew, plants, dust mites, pets and grass/weeds.

If you can not figure our your triggers, you may need to see an allergist and have allergy screening done. This may point out your triggers.

The National Asthma Prevention Program and the Expert Panel of Diagnosis and Management of Asthma both agree if you have to use a prescription inhaler such as albuterol more then two time per week, your asthma is NOT in control and you will need a prescription controller medication.

Controller medications are steroids (Asthmacort Asthmanex, Flovent, Pulmocort), Leukotriene modifier (Singulair, Aculade, Zyflo) or mast cell stabilizers (Cromolyn sodium, Intal, Tilade).

You may want to talk to your doctor about several strong controller medications and maybe Xolair shots.

If you want a proven, all-natural way to cure your asthma, without having to pay for useless medications with harmful side-effects, then this is the most important page you'll ever read.

Answer 4

FOR being an asthmatic the most important factor is to have a genetic background but it is possible to suffer from long term consequences of being exposed to cigarette smoke as a passive smoker or what you call it second hand smoke exposure.
I am not sure if you have been affected with asthma. If a very simple index (FEV1) indicates significant onstruction of small airways during expiration, then you can make sure that you have asthma. If you develop asthma in adulthood then you may come up with excellent prognosis if you follow a well designed treatment plan.
I did a search for you to find an evidence supporting my answer your question. This piece of information (below) is from a prestigious medical journal that approves the detrimental effect of passive smoking on respiration. If you need more info, do not hesitate to email me.


"Cigarette smoke is not only a triggering factor of respiratory allergy in babies at risk of atopy, but especially an additional genetic factor, since asthma can be more easily provoked if an atopic parent smokes (more if both parents smoke), and even in children of not atopic, smoking parents."
"Cantani A, Micera M. 2005"
Source:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=15850141

Hope this helps

Answer 5

Like most disease processes, the etiology of asthma is multifactorial. Did your parents give you asthma by smoking? No. You may have developed asthma even if they didn't smoke. Did their smoking increase your chances of developing asthma. Absolutely.

There have been at least a dozen studies that found a statistically significant increase in the risk of asthma (typically around 20-60 % higher) among children of smokers. The increased risk is not as high as most people think (I would have guessed that the risk would have been doubled or tripled), but it is definitely real and the sheer quantity of evidence makes it almost incontrovertible. For reviews/meta-analyses, see:

Cook & Strachan (1999) "Summary of effects of parental smoking..." _Thorax_ 54: 357-366.

DiFranza et al (2004) "Prenatal and postnatal environmental tobacco smoke exposure and children's health" _Pediatrics_ 113: 1007-1015.

Landau (2001) "Parental smoking: asthma and wheezing illnesses in infants and children" _Pediatric Respiratory Reviews_ 2: 202-206.

In addition, second-hand smoke increases the severity of symptoms among children with asthma (of course, you know this already).

Mannino et al (1999) "Involuntary smoking and asthma severity in children..." _Chest_ 122: 409-415.

American Academy of Pediatrics: Committee on Environmental Health (1997) "Environmental tobacco smoke: a hazard to children" _Pediatrics_ 99: 639-642.

It still boggles my mind that there are people out there that deny that there is anything bad about second-hand smoke. Is it really so hard to believe that inhaling smoke is bad for your lungs? Nevermind the scientific studies. Find some wood, build a fire, stand downwind, and inhale deeply. Then use that breath to tell me smoke isn't bad for your lungs....

Answer 6

Not to my mind, my parents smoked around us kids when we were small as well, none of us got asthma. There is another train of thought as to why people get asthma and it is this: How is bearing down on you? Usually it is someone close, like a parent, and this is usually the mother. Do you see any connection? Did you know that gas (stove) may contribute to asthma? Living in a house that is constantly loocked up, not getting enough fresh air and sunshine are all contributors as well. Medications do not help in the long term as they are only band-aid solutions to your problem. Fix the cause of the problem and you will do away with asthma for good.

Answer 7

Meet with a respirologist. In some hospital they have an asthma clinic.

They will test your lungs, you will have allergy test. You will meet a respirologist, an allergist, a respiratory therapist.....

Simple little changes could make a big difference in your life.

I was tested positive to allergy to dust mites ( found in bed linen). Little change and i am now off the medication.

And your lungs my be sensitive (asthma) and second hand smoke will definitly be an irritant.

SMOKING is bad in any form.

Answer 8

Second hand smoke is a myth. You're born with asthma, you can't catch it from second hand smoke. My Dad smoked around me all my life, and I have never had an asthma attack.

If you're asthmatic, you should stay away from smoke, dust, chemicals.

Answer 9

The evidence is … not sufficient to infer a causal relationship between secondhand smoke exposure from parental smoking and the onset of childhood asthma.(p. 13)
http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/reports/secondhandsmoke/executivesummary.pdf

Answer 10

Your childhood history confirms it. You have asthma because of second hand smoking.