Billy Thatcher remembers running up the basement stairs as a child only to stop, breathless, halfway up. Carrie Copeland remembers being hospitalized about 20 times before she was 16.

Both have asthma, and both have overcome the disease.

Copeland, a nurse who specializes in respiratory therapy at Saint Francis Medical Center, and Thatcher, a respiratory therapist and education coordinator for Southeast Missouri Hospital, said people who manage their asthma can lead active lives.

Asthma is a chronic disease with symptoms of coughing, wheezing, chest tightness and breathlessness. When a person is having an asthma attack, three things happen: the body's air passages swell, the muscles surrounding them contract and mucus forms. Mild asthma attacks can resolve themselves; more severe attacks require medications called bronchodilators, designed to reduce the swelling. Some asthmatics use powdered bronchodilators daily, with a device called an inhaler, or use a corticosteroid-based medicine in emergencies. In some cases, they need breathing treatments using a vaporizing machine.

In Missouri, more than 400,000 adults and more than 115,000 children have asthma. Puberty can worsen symptoms, as can pregnancy, Thatcher said. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America dubbed St. Louis the nation's "asthma capital," with its higher-than-average pollen score, poor air quality and lack of smoke-free laws. Dr. Janna Tuck, a Cape Girardeau allergist and immunologist, said spring can be the toughest season for asthma sufferers.

Warmer, windy weather irritates lungs with a mix of pollution, mold spores and pollen but the most common asthma trigger, Tuck said, "is actually a viral illness. Most people think it's allergies, but it's not — unless they don't control their allergies."

Diagnosing asthma follows lung capacity tests and can include allergy tests.

Copeland, now 31, and Thatcher, 36, said it's hardest to manage asthma in junior high and high school.

"I really didn't take the medications correctly in high school," said Thatcher, now 36, explaining that it was too embarrassing to be spotted using an inhaler.

On March 6, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder and St. Louis Rams linebacker Chris Draft, who has asthma, helped raise money for the American Lung Association and raise awareness for a healthy lifestyle campaign aimed at students, coaches and nurses, "Winning with Asthma." (Visit www.winningwithasthma.org to learn more.)

People who decide to attack asthma can rehabilitate their lungs with exercise, according to the American Lung Association. Get started by calling your doctor or the lung association hot line at 800-586-4872.

Copeland said she hasn't had an asthma emergency for at least four years and is happy to report neither of her two children show signs of the condition; Thatcher said the same about his three children.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

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