Hardluck Asthma: Asthma Wisdom

Wit and Wisdom

Asthma-like symptoms have been around since the beginning of time, yet it wasn't until the ancient Greeks that asthma was used. In its original form: ἅσθμα. Homer, through his epic poems written around 800 BC., is credited as the first to use the term, which meant "short, gasping breaths." He used it to refer to dyspnea from exertion and near death. Four hundred years later the term was defined for the medical community by the Hippocratic writers. Originally any cause of dyspnea was covered under the the umbrella of asthma. As time progressed, the term was further defined, with diseases like cardiac asthma, kidney asthma, bronchitis, catarrh, breaking off into their own umbrellas. In this way, all respiratory ailments, and the profession of respiratory therapy, owe their roots to asthma.

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