For years, Donald C. Vogel had a chronic cough. When he exercised, he was short of breath. Mr. Vogel, who lives in Anderson Township, has joined the ranks of thousands of American adults who are finding out that, somewhere along the line, they have developed asthma.
Doctors know how to diagnose asthma.
They know how to treat it and how to teach patients to manage the chronic lung disease. They're still trying to find out why more and more adults are developing it. Pediatric asthma is well-documented, said Dr. David Bernstein, an allergy and immunology specialist with the Bernstein Allergy Group and Research Center. But researchers are just beginning to focus their microscopes on adult-onset asthma, he said. We know some get better.