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Originally Posted by MSD
I have asthma and get this sometimes. Ironically, when I smoke (I only do tobacco when I'm drinking) I can get up to full lung capacity and it clears up any asthma or shortness of breath I had.
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Thats not ironic really.
One theory of asthma which is the only one which gives a good evolutionary explanation is that asthma is an over reaction by defense cells to minor irritants.
Under 'normal' conditions, aka the last few 100K years of humanity, there are so many parasites and irritants that the cells keep busy. Smoke from the constant fire, dirt, dust, pollen, etc are assailing our lungs and the cells deal with them.
Under current conditions, these irritants are vastly reduced. When a small amount are present these cells of yours go into overdrive and over react to this minor irritant.
One way to eliminate this his to of course, remove that minor irritant, a clean room way of living. Obviously this is rather difficult to achieve so there will be times when it will flare up and then you take corticosteroids to reduce the inflammation caused by this over reaction.
But.....
Another way to eliminate it, at least in some people, is to give the defensive cells what they expect, lots of irritants. In your case smoking would do just that, keeping those cells all busy and happy and not going into an asthma flare up. Obvously smoking has enough risk to not want to use it as a regular cure.
Evolutionarily this is the only explanation for asthma that makes any sense, its so pervasive in the population there most likely needs to be a reason so many have it beyond a genetic defect. Many genetic 'diseases' look more and more to have some benifit at some point where the disease did more good than harm in the past due to living conditions. The concept of 'modern pollutants' causing asthma has been pretty well shot down by recent studies, and there is other evidence as well. Most of it is circumstantial but its a pretty good pile of it. My source is on my desk at home so for the person I know right now dosnt believe me, I'll be happy to send it to ya.