Preemies Rule!

Preemies rule! But we may be a bit screwed when it comes to early life events in asthma.

This has been a million-dollar question that I have been asking my specialist and wondering about. What are the actual impacts of preterm birth on asthma?

Did my early life events impact my asthma now?

From time to time, my care team has asked about the events but there has been very little indication about how it may be affecting my current situation. It is a frustrating encounter. Especially, during periods of exacerbation or when there are unexplainable things that come up with my asthma. I can get wrapped up in what may be causing these symptoms.

I have often wondered if something had happened in my early childhood, like an infection that impacted my lung development. My parents have foggy memories of my infections, other than there were a lot of them. I have gone through some of my medical records from the NICU and admissions from this period, but I feel what I extracted from the microfiche paints an incomplete picture.

Some physicians have suspected that I just compensated over time, however, with the natural decline that happens in lung function at a certain age maybe it did all catch up with me.

Events and their possible impact

Early life events are events that happen either before or after birth. These events have been linked to higher risks of asthma, COPD, and reduced lung function.

These events have been linked to lung development and lung aging. In particular, these early life events include: ¹

• pre-term birth/bronchopulmonary dysplasia
• smoking history
• maternal atopy
• infections
• environmental exposure in childhood and early adulthood

These may all play important roles in lung health.

As a pre-term baby, I had low birth weight, a suspicion of underdeveloped lungs, and lots of infections in early life. I also had a parent who smoked (when it was still thought to not be "so" dangerous, several decades ago.) I did experience second hand smoke exposure there. I know it was not intentional and will have to be chalked up to "what we know now."

Looking for more information

I find it interesting that there is lots of discussion about asthma in my childhood but less discussion of what early events may have caused it.

I would like to further understand the role of undeveloped lungs when it comes to impacts on adult airways and when there has been no early identification or any interventions if these were even warranted. While I am sure that I cannot turn back time, I feel the more I know about these consequences in later life, the better I will be able to understand my goofy lungs. I hope it will provide some understanding when some treatments fail or, my asthma is not behaving the same way it was expected to.

There are still many unknowns but I am hopeful for researchers that are continuing to study this and for the early interventions that are in place for so many more recent preemies. This knowledge and further interventions will prevent limitations in lung development and later consequences for those.