The Environmental Factors for Developing Bronchial Asthma

Abstract

Bronchial asthma is recognized as a classic example of a multifactorial disease. This means that it develops under the influence of external environmental factors in the presence of a person's genetic predisposition. The hereditary conditionality of bronchial asthma has been known for over a hundred years. More than 500,000 genetic variants have been studied to determine the association with asthma. The role of many genes in the pathogenesis of this disease has been ascertained. However, during the recent years more and more researches are devoted to epigenetics (studying the influence of external environmental factors on the activity of genes). The article presents literature review on the issue of genetics and epigenetics of bronchial asthma. The data on the influence of nutrition, fasting, consumption of vitamins, smoking, air and water pollution on the risk of asthma and its severity are also given.

Special attention is paid to the role of external environmental factors influencing a person during the phase of intrauterine develop.