Hi all,
Have you heard of these asthma myths? Our social media officer Thomas has shared a few commons one in this article bit.ly/2DMhVTv
If you've heard of any others or ones friends and family have told you - do share them in the replies.
Thanks,
Dita
Ugh, the "You will outgrow it" one! I was told that several times through childhood, but I never did outgrow it. I did inherit asthma from my mother (who did outgrow it). My father's family is cursed with a variety of allergies, but I was the only one with bad asthma. However, my children seem to be spared asthma (although my son has developed hives, although we haven't figured out the cause yet).
The other one that I hated as a child was that if you push yourself through an exercise induced wheeze, you will not wheeze as often during exercise. My PE teacher used to think that. It was horrible. The other one is when people compare. I don't like to run or do aerobic exercise because of asthma. I would rather ride my bike or walk. When I say I don't like to run because of asthma, I've had people say to me, "But my husband has asthma and he runs marathons!". Just because one person with asthma has managed to achieve this, doesn't mean we all can. We are all different.
This leads me to the final one that I get from doctors a lot, "I don't hear a wheeze so it mustn't be an asthma attack." That is just not so! Coming from the health profession, it's not good.
The main treatment plank of my early childhood was 'don't treat it - he'll get addicted to inhalers & then won't grow out of it'. Thanks for that Dr. Milner. 50 years later I'm paying the price for that.
That's horrible! Unfortunately, that point of view was common then. 😣
Very true!
Absolutely with you on the one about running marathons etc. Not all asthma is the same, I see it as a continuum. Someone who has to puff on some Ventolin now and then is completely different to someone (like me) who has to take all sort of things to be on an even keel and even then can have crisis. But I am fit, it's just I choose things that work for me. I'll probably never run a Marathon but they're not that good for you anyway. 
Yep - I can do some exercise but not intense and sometimes none. I do actually get a bit annoyed with the constant emphasis on athletes with asthma. I understand it is good to encourage exercise in asthma but sometimes it can feel like a stick to beat those of us who can't control it - the 'well if thry can do it why can't you? Asthma isn't an excuse' line, from people who don't understand that not all asthma is the same.
Being diagnosed with asthma cured me of several of these myths. One that I have been told, especially when I am particularly bad is: you can't die from asthma. Even in Japan, that is here. And while I understand the intent (my asthma is not bad enough to put me in the hospital, just ruin my life) it doesn't make me feel better because I know that is a lie. I still can't figure it out if it was a mistranslation by my husband from the doctor, or if my doctor actually said that, too.
There are some interesting ones on there & some that I think a few would disagree with. I think they've misunderstood the hereditary one - implying that you can't pass asthma onto your kids is inaccurate to say the least; you clearly can (or at least a predisposition to it).
Still, we have to bear in mind that this is the newspaper that tells us every year to expect the hottest summer for a million years & a new ice age every January.
Still, it's useful & maybe something that could be developed in a more thoughtful way.
Personally, I'd include:
- children of any age can suffer from asthma (this seems to cause a lot of people difficulties)
- we don't all wheeze all the time, even when very short of breath (someone else already mentioned this)
- Most of us don't take an inhaler for attention
-Vaping really does make many of us feel worse
I think I'm turning this into a rant now, so I'll stop there 
Haha, I started to feel ranty too. I don't like to hurt people's feelings so sometimes I put myself at a disadvantage. Like the lady at work who insisted I breathe into a paper bag. Her understanding of the mechanism of asthma was clearly awry but she insisted. Also I often fib about people's animals making me wheezy as people can get upset and offended.
Agree about the "passing it on" comment. In our family it is obviously genetic, even looking back at grandparents. However, like any genetic trait, it takes the right combination of genes to give someone the likelihood of developing asthma. I was just very unlucky in the asthma stakes. However, it could always be worse. And I suppose having it all my life, I am used to being unwell and pushing through to a certain extent. I think developing a major illness as a previously healthy adult would be harder. You would then know what you are missing.
I've been asthmatic since I was five and I've heard them all! I've always had bad asthma in the autumn and as a child I was always being told that I was highly strung and nervous about school. I haven't been to school for decades now but still get bad asthma at EXACTLY the same time. The idea that you have asthma because you are nervous really irritates me. I have asthma for physiological reasons. Yes, the symptoms can make you anxious but they are not the reason.
I had a very bad asthma attack on a train going to Scotland once and a 'well-meaning' woman just wouldn't let me be with her alternative cures which would help with my anxiety. I was anxious because I couldn't breathe. I actually had to escape her and the guard offered to stop the train at the next station so I could get help. Meanwhile, my sister put the lady straight.
I've heard the 'hygiene hypothesis' one till I'm blue in the face. I went out with someone who was very 'country' and sincerely believed that enough exposure to animal dander and dust would miraculously cure me.
Some of the worst people are those who have a dusty old Ventolin in the bottom of their bag that they once used in 1994. They often don't realise that asthma isn't the same for everyone. I think it would be useful if asthma wasn't seen as one illness but, like Aspergers or autism, like a condition that is on a spectrum.
I could go on and on and on. I'm not bitter honest. Just had a lifetime of it.
I wish drs didn't believe asthma myths too! Not all but way too often.
I have had:
No wheeze, no asthma (a dr thing usually) - and yes not related to how bad it is
Alternative remedy suggestions (not often thankfully- working in a medical/scientific field cuts down on that at work but I do get well-meaning suggestions about yoga - nothing wrong with it but not a cure!)
Everyone always assumes I am allergic to animals - it seems like most people think asthma is always allergic
In general - not understanding that people have different triggers (I had a PE teacher who had asthma but no problems with cold air or exercise so said I must be ok with that too).
On that note, people seem to assume that stress is a trigger for all asthmatics. Even if they know it is a real trigger not the very annoying asthma = anxiety, not everyone is triggered by stress!
Edit: assuming everyone gets anxious durijg an attack. Completely reasonable that people would but so many just assume! I don't panic, i get really frustrated and tired but seriously hate anyone assuming I must be panicked by the sensation. Even if they aren't claiming it is all anxiety I find it annoying. It's more complex than that.
JennyA, agree that sometimes people with mild asthma can actually be the worst with not getting that it's not always like theirs. I had a consultant who thought that having mild asthma was a substitute for actually knowing about asthma (she was really more focused on COPD and had very out of date ideas about asthma), and that anything she didn't experience wasn't real. She told me all asthma could be controlled, even severe asthma.
I suppose the most hilarious one I've heard is that "Smoking eases asthma", but that was in the 1970's.
Also, My Grandmother, who would now be 120, yelled down the dining room table at my mother one days saying " Get that Child some Cocaine, its the only thing that worked for me" (I was wheezing and sneezing and streaming from pollen). Again this was the 1970's. All of us kids thought it hilarious.
Lastly, Re inheritance, I can trace asthma back in my family to the 1830's. My great, Great Grandmother had it very badly, and her top tip, was that the air was better at the top of the room, so she always used to sit on a chair on a table when she was suffering.
Also My Grandmother had asthma, and Hay fever, and my mother terrible allergies and hay fever, but not asthma, I have asthma, 2 of my sisters have asthma, and my daughter has asthma. I think that pretty much suggests it runs in families. But maybe more research is needed to find the gene associated. for example, you have to have the gene for coeliac disease to get it, but only 5% of people with the gene get the disease.
The inheritance thing is a puzzle. I also have a lot of family on my mum's side and back a few generations with asthma. Also with hayfever and eczema which are generally considered related. However, while I have hayfever, my asthma is not allergic (used to confuse me but it is possible). So what if anything have I actually inherited asthma wise? I don't know enough about the older generations to know if theirs was similar to mine.
Telling people you have asthma
Where is/Have you heard from....
Antibiotics curing asthma
Severe Asthma Registry??
