Re: Thunder storms and fungal spores

[Guest guest]

Ask ANYONE close to me and they will tell you my asthma is at its worst before and during a thunderstorm. VERY INTERESTING reading below relating it to fungal spores in the air. My time in the basement allows this to happen to me now.

Thanks,

This is from the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. I will be going there

Today's Headlines

Daily articles from Reuters Health: breaking news on health issues, drug approvals and recent discoveries.

Study gives more proof of 'thunderstorm asthma' Last Updated: 2003-03-13 17:00:31 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Asthmatics who believe that their symptoms get worse during thunderstorms may be right, according to the results of a six-year study.

It also suggests that the reason for so-called thunderstorm asthma may have something to do with the increased concentration of airborne fungal spores during thunderstorms, rather than the high grass pollen counts, as has been suggested previously.

Over the past 20 years, there have been sporadic reports linking worsened asthma with thunderstorms. The phenomenon has been observed in Australia, London and the United States, but it has not previously been studied in depth.

In the current study, Dr. E. Dales of the University of Ottawa Health Research Institute in Ontario, Canada, and his colleagues conducted daily observations of thunderstorms and children's asthma-related emergency department visits over a six-year period.

They found that asthma-related hospital visits increased by 15 percent during thunderstorms, from an average 8.6 visits on days without thunderstorms to 10 on stormy days.

The findings appear in the March issue of the journal CHEST.

The investigators also observed a near doubling in the concentration of allergens called fungal spores during thunderstorms.

Overall, although fungal spores were more abundant in the summer months of July, August and September than in the spring, they were always most plentiful during thunderstorms, regardless of the season.

Previous studies have suggested that asthma exacerbations during thunderstorms are somehow caused by the higher pollen counts. But Dales and his team found no association between hospital visits and weed, grass or tree pollen.

Yet the researchers did find a link between increased fungal spores and asthma-related hospital visits, even in the absence of thunderstorms.

As the fungal spore count rose from day to day, so too did the number of asthma-related emergency department visits, "making it unlikely that the elevations in spores and asthma were simply coincidental," the authors write.

They note, however, that their study was concentrated in one geographic area (Ottawa), so it's unclear if the findings hold true in other climates.

A previous study showed asthma attacks may also be more common on misty or foggy nights.

CHEST 2003;123:745-750.

Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

[Guest guest]

,

And me. I end up in ER sometimes as I cant stop attack. I find it worse just before.Thank you.

Janet

[Guest guest]

I posted this in April but nobody seemed to notice.

-

When does the toxin come out to play?

At times of barometric pressure change.

The spores seem to be constantly building up internal pressure so even

though they're always popping a certain number, they're primed to

release a staggeringly higher amount when the barometric pressure has

a sudden drop. Kind of like a bunch of balloons that are blown up as

much as they'll take and then you put 'em in the back of your minivan

and drive quickly up a hill. BLAMMO!

That, I think is why people complain so much about " change in the

weather " and being able to sense a barometric pressure change.

'Snot the air pressure - it's the mycotoxin release.

At least it is for me.

[Guest guest]

Why waste your time going to Dartmouth Hitchcock?

They still don't seem to understand that this is not an allergy.

Jens Ponikau at the Mayo clinic has already demonstrated that

" allergic " fungal rhinosinusitis needs to be reclassified as

" eosinophilic " fungal rhinosinusitis.

This is a systemic sensitivity to fungal toxins, not an allergic

response to fungal spores.

I don't think they're up to speed on this one yet.

-

[Guest guest]

I was going to because my new doctor was going there. I met someone yesterday who has the same problem but from chemicals. Still toxins. He had good luck seeing a kinseologist in Freeport Maine. I might try that.

Janet

[Guest guest]

I agree. Thats why when I met someone going through this just toxins from chemicals instead of toxins from mold, and someone helped him and he is back to work after three years of disability. He said he has to be careful what he gets around, but better. Its kiseniology. I do not know much about it. She is a Deb Sawyer MD in Freeport Maine which is about an hour and a half away from me.

I also agree. Allergists are horrid and they have NO clue. Ever notice their waiting room and offices smell like mold terrible?

Janet

[Guest guest]

Mycotoxins ARE chemicals.

That's why the allergists are so confused.

Mycotoxin reactivity is MCS.

As long as the allergists keep trying to treat this like it was Hay

Fever, they aren't going to be able to help anyone.

-