Cats Against Asthma

Headlines. Controversy. Both are meant to grab your attention--like this headline that shook cat-lovers with allergies and asthma in March 2001: "Exposure To Cats May Protect Against Asthma."

The ink was barely dry before AANMA's phone lines lit up with callers looking for the real story. Was it true what the paper said? "Asthma is less common among children exposed to high concentrations of cat allergen than those exposed to lower levels?" "You mean I gave Furrball away for nothing?"

AANMA reads newspapers, too. We subscribe to the major asthma and allergy medical journals, have access to researchers, and are fortunate to have a stellar volunteer medical advisory board to consult on issues we don't understand. In the case of the cat story, the lead researcher, Thomas Platts-Mills, M.D., is one of AANMA's medical editors.

He told AANMA that living in a cattery is not a way to prevent asthma. "Some reporters did an excellent job of covering the story while others got it terribly wrong," said Dr. Platts-Mills. "The bottom line is that people's immune responses to cats vary widely. High exposure to cat allergen appears to be protective for some children and a risk factor for others. If the child is wheezing and has a positive skin test to cat allergen, then you should not have a cat."

Looking beyond the headlines, Dr. Platts-Mills' research has practical applications for cat-lovers with allergies; some were comforted and others were distraught at having given up a pet when it was possibly unnecessary. It's a matter of prevention versus treatment. A person with cat allergy should never have a feline pet.

But Dr. Platts-Mills says that he no longer tells expectant parents with a family history of asthma that they must give away their cats as a way to prevent asthma in their children. The important point, he notes, is that cat allergen is so widespread in the community--in schools, for example, carried on people's clothing--that many children become allergic to cats even when they don't have one in their own household.

Allergy testing, medical history, and examination by a board-certified allergist is the best way to determine if you or your child is allergic to cats.

But is this research the final word on cats and asthma? Hardly. The more we know, the more we know we don't know. As research continues to explore the human immune system, AANMA is here to help you sort through the headlines to find the real story!

Reprinted from The MA Report newsletter, April/May 2001