It’s in the news: Thunderstorms and Asthma could be a thing.
Background: All of Metro Detroit is under a severe thunderstorm warning today. The Detroit weather center has alerts for all the counties in Southeast Michigan.
We spoke to our medical expert. And, this is what Dr. Puja had to say about Asthma and thunderstorms in Detroit.
The Expert Opinion: “Yeah. It’s a thing! When there are heavy thunderstorms outside, a lot of people’s asthma gets triggered.
So here’s the thing, though: At the moment, scientists don’t understand why thunderstorm asthma exists.
Here’s what we think is happening during a thunderstorm. There is a lot of wind and movement of air and this in turn moves around all that dust and pollen particles. And, when all these pollutants and pollen fall back down, people who have environmental triggered asthma can get flare ups.
So the best advice for you is this: If you find that your asthma is getting triggered during a thunderstorm, make sure that you have your rescue inhaler next to you and make sure that you’re continuing to use your maintenance inhalers as prescribed.
Try staying indoors. And if you can, you may want to have the windows closed, especially when all that heavy wind is moving about.
Your take home message is this: Make sure you talk to your doctor if you think your asthma is uncontrolled.”
Detroit and Michigan Asthma Facts and Statistics
- There are almost 860,000 asthmatic patients in Michigan.
- Wayne County’s Air Pollution index is High.
- From the CDC: 16.2% of Detroit adults and 11.1% of Michigan adults had current asthma. There was a significant difference in current asthma prevalence rates between Detroit and Michigan adults. Detroit had a 46% higher prevalence of current asthma among adults compared to adults in Michigan as a whole.
Content Reviewed & Approved by Dr. Puja