The Danger of Asthma During Pregnancy

This may also startle you. "Asthma is the most common chronic condition in pregnancy. Despite the frequently held notion that it is harmless, asthma can cause tremendous morbidity to both the fetus and the mother. In fact, severe and/or poorly controlled asthma has been associated with numerous adverse perinatal outcomes," according to Markus Little, MD and Richard Sinert, DO. Some of those dire outcomes include including preeclampsia, pregnancy-induced hypertension, uterine hemorrhage, premature birth, congenital anomalies, fetal growth restriction, and low birth weight. If someone you know is pregnant, she may want to take preventive steps now to clean the air at home - the one place where she can reduce the chances of an asthma attack. Relatedly, there's a study that could increase a pregnant woman's stress. It found that women who are stressed during pregnancy bear children who are "at a greater risk for allergies or asthma."

Stress Worsens Your Allergies in Ways Traditional Treatments Don’t Help

If you're allergic, stress and anxiety are a bad combination," reports Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, PhD, Ohio State University Medical Center. When one gets upset allergies get worse – and continue to worsen the next day.

Kiecolt-Glaser concluded, "This is clinically important for patients since most of what we do to treat allergies is to take antihistimines to control the symptoms runny nose, watery, itchy eyes, and congestion.”

"Antihistimines don't deal with those symptoms on the next day."

People may be setting themselves up to have more persistent problems by being stressed and anxious when allergy attacks begin," Kiecolt-Glaser said. Pratanu Banerjee agrees and so does Debra Fulghum Bruce, PhD.