Asthma in some people can be caused by, or worsened by, mycoplasma or chlamydia pneumoniae, both of which are airborne and you can get them with a cold, flu, bronchitis or pneumonia. Research that has been done for years shows this - just go to google and do a search on 'mycoplasma may cause asthma' or 'chlamydia pneumoniae may cause asthma' and you'll see a lot of information come up.

I had asthma for 33 years and felt sick and tired all the time. I was on Singulair, Advair Diskus 500, Theo-Dur, Albuterol (for really bad days), flonase and allegra for allergies. I was sick several times a year and every cold ended up in my chest with infections there or in my sinuses. I took antibiotics all the time. I finally found a doctor in WI who was treating patients with antibiotics (once a week for twelve weeks, following a three day jump start). I was hoping my asthma was made worse by bacteria, and if treated, the asthma wouldn't be so bad. I was shocked when I stopped needing my asthma meds completely - I haven't been on them for three years and have had no problem breathing. Apparently, a bad illness I got as a kid left the bacteria in my system. It lives in tissue and unless you're on the right antibiotic for the right period of time at the right dose, you won't eradicate the bacteria - you'll only resolve any acute infection you may have. The antibiotic is Azithromycin aka Zithromax or Zpack. I was on that stuff so much, I should have bought stock in it, but while it made me feel better, it didn't do much more than that until I took 750mgs every Saturday for 12 weeks, after taking a three day dose of 500mgs.

I found this doctor and a lot of research more than three years ago when I did a google search using the words 'asthma story'. I clicked on the first site that came up and looked at the medical studies posted there. These are legitimate studies found in medical journals. Nobody is selling anything on the site and registering to post is free - you can read without registering, however.

My first thoughts were an automatic, "Bull poop - asthma can't be cured"! But as I researched this on my own, I wondered how it could be b.s. if researchers were all coming to this conclusion? I then learned that they learn things in research YEARS before the concept is accepted by our m.d.'s. In other words, I have no agenda, I'm just telling people to look at the research, because it may help some of you, as it's helped me (and my son, who had asthma, too).

If you have asthma that's hard to control no matter how many different meds you may have tried, or if you get sick a lot, or if every cold or other illness results in a sinus infection or bronchitis, etc., then bacteria may be the cause of your asthma and you may want to look into that.

That's great news! I hope it works for you. There are some people posting on the asthma story site that are already seeing a lot of improvement and they're not even done taking the antibiotics yet, so you might want to post there. It's a good place to go if you have questions. Look in the success stories folder, too, for those who have finished the treatment. You should add your doctors name to the Locate a Doctor forum - he sounds like he's on top of the latest research and docs like that are rare. My doctor said he wouldn't even contact Dr. Hahn on my behalf to find out more about this and consider treating me, because..."taking antibiotics once a week for twelve weeks might be dangerous". I told him I'd done the research and Azithromycin had actually been tested for daily use for twelve weeks and was safe. I told him that some patients with health problems are on it for months at a time. I told him that I knew he was writing prescriptions for a year for things like acne. Then I told him "goodbye"!! I now have a new doctor who really cares and listens to options she hasn't considered.

Good luck! I really hope you find your asthma is caused by bacteria and that this clears it up for you. I'll be looking for updates here or at the asthma story site.