New Breakthrough in asthma, COPD research

It seems scientists are making some breakthroughs in the study of asthma and COPD.

Over at COPD Alert, someone posted about how researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis linked asthma and COPD to a new type of immune response "that is activated in patients with COPD and severe asthma."

Click here for a link to the article.

Scientists say "their discovery could dramatically improve diagnosis and treatment of patients with chronic inflammatory lung disease...With this information, we can more precisely diagnose and monitor these types of diseases and then better target our treatment to specific abnormalities. That's a big step forward from simply monitoring breathing status."

Basically, this new theory proposes that asthma and COPD are basically a chronic immune response triggered by a respiratory viral infection.

While the cause of asthma has alluded scientists, this research may lead them in the direction of finding a cure.