Can Asthma Be Cured?

Asthma symptoms and attacks can improve with treatment or with time, but asthma as a disease is not curable. Treatment can go on for a long time, and some people have to use medication for the rest of their lives.

Approximately half of children diagnosed with asthma outgrow their disease by late adolescence or early adulthood and require no further treatment. In some of these individuals, however, exposure to major respiratory irritants (such as smoking, massive exposure to fumes, etc.) later in life may trigger asthma symptoms once again.

Patients who do not control their asthma usually develop more severe asthma over time. More importantly, the chronic airway inflammation that can be found in asthma when left unchecked can result in permanent airway damage. This damage can cause patients to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In fact, the most common cause for the development of COPD in nonsmokers is asthma.