Asthma is one of the more popular conditions that affect people and has been increasing in prevalence over the years. To date, one in four urban children are affected with asthma, and an approximate 20.5 million Americans have asthma.
The condition was identified by Greeks with the term, aazein, which meant “sharp breathâ€. While the word aazein first appeared in Homer’s Iliad, it was only used to describe the said medical condition around 450 BC by Hippocrates. Hippocrates noted, during this time, that the spasms relating to asthma were common among tailors and metalworkers. Galen, six centuries later, studied asthma in great detail and observed that the symptoms of asthma included bronchial obstruction. It was later on studied by the influential medieval philosopher, rabbi, and physician Moses Maimonides in 1190 AD, who wrote a treatise on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of asthma. The connection between asthma and organic dust was made in the 17th century by Bernardino Ramazzini. It was only in the year 1901 that bronchodilators became widely used, and not until the 1960s that physicians recognized the need for anti-inflammatory medication in order to deal with a previously unrecognized inflammatory aspect of asthma symptoms.
