If patients consistently took asthma drugs as prescribed, one-quarter of severe asthma attacks could be prevented, U.S. researchers found.

Lead author Dr. Keoki Williams, associate director of Henry Ford's Center for Health Policy and Health Service Research in Detroit, said inhaled corticosteroid medication is the most effective treatment for controlling symptoms and preventing asthma attacks.

Working from the theory that inhaled corticosteroid medication use changes with the episodic nature of asthma, Williams and his team measured changes in medication use over time among 298 patients. Patients were tracked an average of two years and study participants had 435 asthma attacks during the study period.

"Our findings demonstrated a relationship between medication adherence and asthma events in a manner that accounts for the changing patterns of inhaler use over time," Williams said in a statement.

"We found that every 25 percent increase in inhaled corticosteroid medication adherence was associated with an 11 percent decrease in asthma attacks," Williams said. "But most importantly, we found that causal use of these medications is not enough, especially among patients whose asthma is not controlled. Patients must use their asthma controller medication as prescribed if they want to have the best chance of preventing serious asthma attacks."

The findings were published online in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

People with asthma or allergies should avoid products such as air fresheners and other chemicals used to spread fragrance throughout the house, researchers say.

A 2009 study by Caress and Anne Steinenmann at the University of Washington found that nearly a third of people with asthma also have chemical hypersensitivity, and more than a third reported irritation from scented products, LiveScience reports.

"The more you're around, the more likely it is to cause an attack," Caress said, as reported by LiveScience. "People with asthma, many of them should try to avoid artificially fragranced products."

Symptoms can include nasal congestion and even altered lung function.

"The chemicals in some of these products can trigger the nasal congestion, sneezing and the runny nose," Dr. Stanley Fineman, an allergist with Emory University and the Atlanta Allergy & Asthma Clinic, as reported by LiveScience. "With the asthmatics, there's really good data showing their lung function changes when they're exposed to these compounds."

Fineman, the incoming president of American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, spoke at the group's meeting Monday in hopes to spread awareness of the problem.

Cholesterol drugs may worsen asthma, after a small study found that asthma sufferers’ breathing worsened after they began using a statin drug to lower cholesterol.

Asthma experts are surprised because previous studies have shown the drugs have anti-inflammatory properties that may help conditions like asthma.

The new study is to be presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology in Boston, reports WebMD.

Over the course of one year, the researchers followed 40 asthma patients who were treated at the same California clinic.

At the beginning of the study, twenty patients had just begun statin medications to lower cholesterol.

Twenty others who were not taking statins were followed for comparative purposes. All were nonsmokers who had been diagnosed with asthma for at least five years.

Patients were excluded from the study if an asthma attack had resulted in a hospital or emergency room admission in the eight months preceding the study, WebMD reports.

Other than asthma or high cholesterol, patients in the study were free of health problems, researchers say.

Doctors checked in with patients in the study every three months, asking about symptoms and medication use, as well as testing lung function.

Asthma and allergies can become exacerbated by air fresheners and other chemicals designed to perfume houses.

According to Dr. Stanley Fineman, an allergist with Emory University and the Atlanta Allergy & Asthma Clinic, doctors need to be aware of this issue to inform their patients of the health hazards of air fresheners.

"The chemicals in some of these products can trigger the nasal congestion, sneezing and the runny nose. With the asthmatics, there's really good data showing their lung function changes when they're exposed to these compounds,” said Fineman, as quoted by MSN. "A lot of patients say that they don't correlate an increase of their symptoms with exposure. One of the things that I'm trying to do in my talk is make our members, the allergists that are in practice, more aware of this problem."

The main products to be avoided by people who have asthma and allergies include scented candles, air fresheners, wick diffusers and plug-in deodorizers. Why?

According to Stanley Caress of the University of West Georgia, it’s because these individuals are very chemically sensitive and therefore affected by chemically made-up products.

There are other ways to make your home smell nice, Fineman says, such as baking cookies.

"As allergists, we are specialists in determining what triggers a patient's symptoms," he said, MSN quoted. "This is basically just another aspect of what we do, in terms of finding out what triggers a patient's symptoms, and how we can help them deal with it."

Children with asthma were more likely to stick to their medication schedules when texted reminders to do so, a new study shows.

According to HealthDay News, researchers at the Women & Children's Hospital in Buffalo, N.Y., conducted a small pilot program involving asthmatic children and young adults of ages ranging from 6 to 17 who had “moderate, persistent or more severe asthma and used inhaled corticosteroids to keep their asthma under control.” Participants were sent text messages reminding them to take their controller medication.

According to researchers, two of the seven patient showed improved asthma control, and the parents of children said the text messages were “helpful.” None of the teenagers involved, however, showed improved asthma contol.

"Since teens often communicate by text message, we were surprised to see this approach did not improve the consistency in which they took their medication," allergist Dr. Jennifer S. Lee of Women & Children's Hospital said in a news release.

“Text message reminders help some patients take their medication more regularly. This is a pilot study, so a larger, longer term study is needed to determine if this intervention will ultimately improve asthma control," she added.

As HealthDay notes, one in 10 children in the United States has asthma, and nearly 4 million have had an asthma attack in the past year.

Researchers will present their findings at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, Nov. 3 to 8 in Boston.

Asthma is proving to have a devastating impact on Hispanic sufferers' quality of life, according to a new report by The American Lung Association.

The report examines the complex biological, environmental, political and cultural factors that increase asthma's burden on the Hispanic population in Los Angeles and nationwide.

Almost thirteen million Hispanics live in the state of California, many of whom may be needlessly suffering from asthma.

The Spanish title of this new report, “Luchando por el Aire,” translates into "fighting for air," a predicament often faced by Hispanics with asthma, Fox News reports.

Compared to non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics with asthma are less likely to be in the care of a regular doctor or clinic.

They were also less likely to be prescribed appropriate medicines, less likely to have access to specialized care, and more likely to end up being treated in the emergency department or hospitalized in a crisis.

"Some Hispanics face social and economic disadvantages that make them less able to manage their asthma," says Jane Warner, President and CEO of the American Lung Association in California, reports Fox News.

"Hispanics make up thirty-seven percent of the population in California and it is critical that we address the burden of asthma as it grows with the population,” she noted.

Certain asthma drugs may increase a child's risk of being hospitalized for a serious attack, according to a report by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

But researchers note it's possible that when the drugs, called long-acting beta-agonists or LABAs, are used in combination with inhaled corticosteroid medications, the extra risk diminishes, Reuters reports.

"These studies confirm our recommendations at the FDA that are already (on drug labels) for children and adolescents to use inhaled corticosteroids and LABAs together in one asthma product," said Dr. Ann McMahon, who led the study, as reported by Reuters.

McMahon added that the researchers weren't completely convinced that the inhaled corticosteroids take away all extra risk.

The FDA report combines safety data from over 100 studies including about 60,000 people with asthma, Reuters reports. The original trials were done by companies that market LABAs.

Compared to all patients who didn't take LABAs, children and adults who were prescribed the drugs were 27 percent more likely to end up in the hospital, or in rare cases die or require intubation, due to an asthma attack, according to Reuters.

That extra risk was greatest in the youngest study participants, Reuters reports. Children between age four and 11 who were taking a LABA were 67 percent more likely to have an asthma-related hospitalization than those who weren't taking the medication.