Asthma, allergy month set to raise awareness

Samantha Clayton admits she's not the best player on her soccer team. <br/><br/>"But I'm the best goalie," said Samantha, 10, of Belleville. "And I'm the strongest player, too. I get hit in

Monday, May 24th 2004, 9:59 am

By: News On 6

Samantha Clayton admits she's not the best player on her soccer team.

"But I'm the best goalie," said Samantha, 10, of Belleville. "And I'm the strongest player, too. I get hit in the head with the ball and everything, and I don't cry."

Samantha is one of an estimated 5 million children in the United States who have asthma. For adults the number is close to 17 million. May is the American Lung Association's annual Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month. This year also is the organization's 100th anniversary.

Samantha uses medicine and common sense to keep her asthma under control so that she can run, swim and play soccer.

She and her mother, Patricia Clayton, recently participated in a four-mile asthma and allergy awareness walk in Edwardsville.

"I like energy. I love energy," said Samantha, a fourth-grader at Abraham Lincoln School.

After several years of chronic bronchitis, Samantha was diagnosed with asthma at age 5. She was able to administer her own inhaler from the beginning. Now she is responsible for her twice-daily doses of Flovent, an inhaled medicine. She also carries albutoral in a device known as a rescue inhaler.

Man-made air pollution and natural substances such as mold and pollen aggravate asthma. But it's a common myth that allergies cause people to develop asthma, said Betsy Blacklock, a nurse with St. Anthony's Wellness Center in Alton.

"Allergies can certainly trigger asthma attacks," Blacklock said. "If people have asthma, they tend to have allergies."

Identifying allergies often becomes part of asthma treatment, said Dr. Barry Zeffren of Glen Carbon, a board certified allergist with several offices in the metro-east.

"If you are asthmatic, at some point you should ... identify your allergies, too," Zeffren said.

Also a myth is that people are allergic to such man-made pollutants as tobacco smoke and industrial particles in the air, Zeffren said. Those are particles irritate asthma, but are not allergens.

In the metro-east, mold spores are a common, year-round allergen and asthma trigger. Industrial pollution and gasoline emissions, which combine with high humidity to create "smog" also is a problem.

"The asthma rates are growing every year," Blacklock said. "I think it has something to do with our industry and pollutants in the air."

Madison and St. Clair counties received Fs for ozone levels and for air pollution in the American Lung Association's annual study of states, cities and counties. The results of this year's study were released on April 28. The study, broken down by cities, states and counties, can be seen at

(http://www.lungusa.com) www.lungusa.com.

Spring is a peak time for pollen, a common allergen, in the metro-east and other parts of the country.

"Oak is our worst tree," Zeffren said.

Pollen all over the country makes May the lung association's national Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month.

Grass allergies also peak in the spring. From midsummer though the fall, the big attacker is ragweed.

Zeffren said he categorizes allergens by the holidays they can ruin: Easter, tree pollen; Memorial Day and July 4, grass; Labor Day and Halloween, ragweed.

Other asthma triggers include cold air and temperature and weather changes.

Samantha already knows much of the information that is being emphasized by health professionals this month.

She learned more about living well with asthma at the lung association's six-day Camp Superkids for children with asthma. Unlike most camps, its buildings and bunkhouses are air-conditioned. This summer's camp begins on June 13.

Samantha swims, hikes and plays sports, which she says have never caused her to have an attack at camp.

"The best part there is archery," she said.

With moderate allergies, Samantha said she's luckier than some of the other children she's met at camp. Some campers have to stop playing and inhale asthma medicine from a ventilator in the camp infirmary.

"They have to go back to their cabins and rest," she said.

Mild to moderate asthma should not be taken lightly, said Tina Barnyard, executive of the metro-east's lung association office in Collinsville.

People in the less serious categories are most likely to die from an asthma attack, she said. The speculation is that people who have infrequent asthma attacks are less likely to carry a rescue inhaler or are carrying one in which the medicine has expired.

"Asthma is a chronic disease," Barnyard said.

She received a new aid at the camp, a peak flow meter. The inexpensive plastic device -- it resembles a kazoo -- measures a person's ability to push air out of the lungs.

By blowing into the meter, Samantha can get a color-coded reading on her breathing strength. This helps her estimate how much activity is safe and how often she might need her rescue inhaler.