We used to talk about children outgrowing their asthma, but as we followed asthmatic patients longer, we find that the better term is to say that these patients go into remission. So about half of children with asthma may go into remission. The problem is we can't predict beforehand who is likely to do that. And the other aspect is, even in adulthood, they may find that their symptoms return with viral illness or with exercise. Actually we encourage asthmatics to exercise to their full potential.
Exercise is very important.
It improves respiratory muscle strength, cardiovascular conditioning, it can help in maintenance of weight, and it's very helpful for kids' self-esteem. So we really encourage them to adequately manage their asthma and participate in exercise on a regular basis. And in our final seconds, I guess the scary thing, though, is trying to do that balance between letting the child exercise but also knowing that asthma can kill. Well, I think the important thing is that we need to learn how to manage asthma and become comfortable with the management of asthma. What I find is that patients are initially overwhelmed, but as they learn more and more about asthma and the medications and how they work and use them on a regular basis, they find that this is a very manageable disease.