by Christopher Smith, MD
Asthma has traditionally been described as a reversible obstructive airway disease. The assumption was that after each asthma attack, the lungs returned to normal. Asthma experts now know, however, that if asthma sufferers fail to treat effectively the chronic airway inflammation that characterizes asthma, they will begin to develop scar tissue in their lungs. In the course of a year, a person with severe asthma can lose up to one percent of his or her lung function. It doesn’t sound like much until you consider that over several decades, you could permanently lose a significant amount of your lung function. This is called airway remodeling.