Dr. Francesca Puggioni, a pulmonologist at the Centre for Personalized Medicine, Asthma and Allergies at Humanitas, and Professor Enrico Heffler, a professor of Respiratory Diseases at Humanitas University, were the protagonists of a direct Facebook feed dedicated to inflammatory pulmonary diseases, asthma and allergies in particular.
Referring to asthma, Dr. Puggioni stressed that “the landscape has changed, both because today we can make a more in-depth diagnosis, and because we have very different weapons of therapy available. Today it is possible not only to diagnose asthma, but also to understand what kind of inflammation the patient has and which inflammation cells are involved; this allows us to recommend the right therapy to the right patient”.
More and more precision medicine is being discussed and Professor Heffler explains that it is an “approach aimed at identifying the mechanisms of action of allergological diseases and asthma, in order to identify the drug with the greatest possible precision, that can work on the individual patient and customize the therapeutic approach.
How do I recognize an allergy?
“First of all, the recurrence of symptoms must be considered: the allergic patient tends to have symptoms similar to those of a cold, but recurring in the same seasons and over the years”, explains Prof. Heffler.
“Allergies are not only a spring phenomenon, but also a summer phenomenon. Examples are the pollen from the parietaria and also the alternaria, and mold; there is also the pollen from ambrosia, which starts from 10-15 August and continues until September”, explains the professor.
The issues addressed during the live event
The two specialists provided important information on asthma and allergies during the live sessions, and also answered some questions from users.
Topics covered included: biological drugs for the treatment of asthma; the importance of sports in asthma as long as it is personalized to the disease; the link between asthma and nasal polyposis, the difference between allergy and food intolerance and the role of family history in the onset of allergies.
