Blow dryers cause asthma? Huh?

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've heard some weird things over the years, but this one takes the cake. According to an article in Reader's Digest, appliances and power lines all generate magnetic fields. They say that there was a recent study showing that women who avoided appliances (hair dryers, microwaves and vacuum cleaners) may lower the chances of their child developing asthma.

Huh? I had to go back several times and re-read that. That makes no sense to me at all. How can magnetic fields cause asthma? I would like to read that study.

On the positive side, if you are expecting a baby, maybe you could use this as an excuse to hire someone to do your housework. If you can't be around microwaves, vacuums and hair dryers, then I guess you'll have to hire someone to do it for you, right?! You wouldn't want to increase the odds that your child will have asthma!

Maybe that's my problem. All three of my kids have asthma, and I did all the cooking and cleaning while I was pregnant. Except for the fact that I was on bedrest for five months with both of my last two pregnancies. That meant not getting up except to use the bathroom or to shower. I was definitely not vacuuming or using the microwave. So how do account for something like that in their study?

I say that's the radiation=asthma claim is the weirdest thing I've heard yet. It seems like moms are always to blame for everything that goes wrong. We can't have caffeine or Advil when we're expecting. And anything that goes wrong in the pregnancy can be our fault.

Well, guess what? Asthma can also be genetic, which is how all three of my kids ended up with asthma. We have asthma on both sides of our family (grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, and cousins) In fact, in my family 11 out of 20 people that have asthma.

I guess what it comes down to is being careful about what you read about asthma. I am reserving judgement on this Reader's Digest article until I can track down the research. Don't panic and think you can't use a hair dryer for 6 months. But if you are pregnant and want to use the article to get a little help with cooking and cleaning, I can't say that I blame you!