Stressed parents up asthma risk

Stressed parents may play a role in childhood asthma, researchers believe. They found the children of tense parents who lived in polluted areas were far more likely to have asthma than friends in the same neighbourhood. The University of California team believe parental anxieties combine with other known risk factors to increase a child's asthma risk. They told Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences there might be an underlying biological explanation. Experts have already shown that women who are stressed in pregnancy may raise the risk of their child developing asthma or other allergies. And stress is known to trigger asthma attacks.