Boys Have Short-Term Asthma: Why Do Boys Have All the Fun?
Believe it or not, boys manage to escape this ailment as well – short-term asthma is what they are blessed with as compared to girls say researchers from Brigham and the Harvard Medical School.
As many as 1041 kids were examined and those who were aged between 5-12 years. They already seemed to suffer from mild but persistent symptoms of asthma. The kids were studied with the annual spirometry tests with methacholine.
This medical test is called the methacholine challenge test (medical test) where asthma conditions are diagnosed for as the patient breathes in nebulized methacholine. The in turn initiates the narrowing of airways which is detected when a person performs the spirometry (the amount and speed at which air is inhaled and exhaled). Experts opine that people with asthma react to even lower dosage of inhaled methacholine.
Over a few years, the researchers found that the girls required the same levels of methacholine but the boys needed more. The researchers thereby opine that the boys were able to combat the disease much earlier and faster than the girls which helped them conclude that boys suffered from short-term asthma as compared to girls.
Dr Kelan Tantisira, lead author of the study says that the study addressed some basic mechanisms that identified gender differences in asthma severity and incidence. Kelan opines that the gender differences with relation to asthma conditions became more prevalent during the kids early stages of puberty.
The details of the study are published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care ( source ).