A new study has found that the health concerns associated with the wellness and wellbeing of children who live with smokers could be more serious than previously thought. A shocking report shows that children who are exposed to cigarette smoke at home do not respond as well to asthma treatment as those who live with non-smoking parents in a non-smoking household.
Children who are regularly exposed to cigarette smoke had lower levels of an enzyme that helps them to respond to the main asthma treatments. This report was published in a journal called Chest recently.
This is bad news, as the number of children in the UK who have asthma is on the increase. Over a million children in this country are believed to be suffering from asthma, and they are most commonly treated by steroids and inhalers. For some patients, however, these treatments are not totally effective, leaving them unprotected from harm in the event of an attack.
It is now known that passive smoke can not only worsen the symptoms of asthma in children, but can actually impair their response to treatments in the form of inhaled steroids. It is not yet known how or why this effect occurs.
Researchers into the subject have found that children who have severe asthma, and parents who smoke at home, have a lower level of an enzyme called HDAC2, especially when compared like for like with children who do not have smoking parents.
This enzyme – HDAC2 – is required in the human body to help it benefit from steroids, and to allow them to exert their anti-inflammatory type effects over the symptoms of asthma.
To come to this conclusion, researchers looked at a group of 19 children who were suffering from severe asthma. Nine of the children in the group had a parent who smoked whilst ten of the children had parents who were non smokers.
