Here’s Why Females are Twice as Likely to Have Asthma

Here’s Why Females are Twice as Likely to Have Asthma

It isn’t due to fashion, tight bras or weakness- there’s some solid science behind women’s breathing troubles.

Ever wonder why it’s mostly the women and girls in the group who have asthma? It isn’t a coincidence, it’s just nature being sexist.

A study out of the Walter and Ezra Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia has found out why.

Once kids hit puberty, girls are twice as likely as boys to develop asthma due to a lack of testosterone. It’s not that girls don’t have any testosterone, but rather that boys have more of it, and it suppresses the production of a certain type of immune cell that can trigger allergic asthma.

Woman are more likely than men to develop asthma.

The study done in Australia was initiated in part because of a huge case of “thunderstorm asthma” that struck Melbourne, in 2016. Overnight, almost 10,000 people developed allergic asthma due to unique weather conditions that caused some victims to die.

According to reports, many people with no history of having any asthma at all experienced severe attacks caused by elevations in pollen counts and levels of humidity. In a storm that won’t be soon forgotten, grains of pollen burst into pieces and dispersed dangerously, entering victims’ lungs.

How can the findings help? Researchers are hoping that they can lead the way to new treatments with less side effects than present steroidal solutions.

Woman are more likely than men to develop asthma.

Said Professor Gabrielle Belz of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute,

“This discovery provides us with a potential new way of treating asthma, by targeting the cells that are directly contributing to the development of allergic asthma.”

“While more research needs to be done…similar tactics for targeting hormonal pathways have successfully been used for treating other diseases, such as breast cancer,” she added.

An estimated 300 million people suffer from asthma, worldwide.

Photo credit: vectorfusionart /Bigstock; Wavebreak Media Ltd/Bigstock; kdshutterman/Bigstock

Photo credit: Africa Studio/Shutterstock

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