September 27, 2007 NIEHS PR # 07-10 27 Sep 2007: New National
Study Links Asthma to Allergies New National Study Links Asthma
to Allergies - Transcript
(http://www.nih.gov/news/radio/sep2007/09272007asthma.htm)
Darryl Zeldin, M.D. Principal Investigator Laboratory of
Respiratory Biology, NIEHS Researchers at the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) have found that more than 50 percent
of the current asthma cases in the country can be attributed to
allergies, with approximately 30 percent of those cases
attributed to cat allergy. "It has long been debated whether
people who develop asthma have a genetic propensity to develop
allergies, or atopy," said Darryl C. Zeldin, M.D., a senior
investigator at the National Institute of Environmental Health
Sciences (NIEHS). "This new research shows that 56.3 percent of
asthma cases are attributed to atopy." Atopy is a condition that
results from gene-environment interactions and can be measured
by a positive skin test to allergens (or allergy causing
substances in the env