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Coffee and Asthma
WESTPORT, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Self-treatment with herbal preparations, coffee, or black tea places asthmatics at increased risk for hospitalization, report University of California San Francisco researchers in the December issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Dr. Paul D. Blanc and coworkers note that data on the consequences of asthma self-treatment are limited. To investigate frequency and risks of such treatment, they interviewed 601 asthmatic adults recruited from a random sample of specialty practices. Participants provided information on alternative and nonprescription asthma therapy use in the year prior to the study, and on asthma symptoms, perceived control, and quality of life. "Self-treatment with nonprescription therapies for asthma was frequent," say the San Francisco team. Herbal product use was reported by 46 (8%) of respondents, of whom 17 (37%) used an ephedrine-containing product and 4 (9%) used unspecified "Chinese herbs." Coffee or black tea treatment was cited by 36 (6%) of respondents. Similarly, OTC epinephrine or ephedrine use was reported by 36 (6%). Overall, 98 (16%) used one or more of these interventions. Various statistical analyses revealed that coffee or black tea self-treatment was "strongly associated" with increased risk of emergency department visits and hospitalization, whereas herbal product use was associated only with increased hospitalization. By contrast, self-medicating with OTC products was not associated with either emergency department visits or hospitalization. Further analyses revealed that a significantly higher proportion of women self-treated with herbs, whereas a significantly higher proportion of men used OTC medications. Asthma-specific quality of life was significantly worse for those using herbal products compared with all others. "Studying those recruited from subspecialty...practices assures that our subjects had access to care," note Dr. Blanc and colleagues. Therefore, it is "unlikely that [alternative therapies] use is related to hospitalization because they are surrogates for access to care." Since the association of such therapies with hospitalization does not seem to be related to illness severity or any other disease variables, it "...may reflect delay in utilization of more efficacious treatments," they conclude.
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