3. Eczema
There is an interesting link between eczema and asthma. Both of these conditions will very often occur in the same people, with signs of one greatly increasing the probability that you might suffer from the other.
Eczema is a condition that causes the skin to become red, sore, painful and occasionally bloody. This can be very unpleasant but is actually caused by the body’s own immune system triggering a response as though there were some kind of infection.
This is the same process that causes asthma – the tissue in the airways becomes inflamed as the body tries to drive out what it believes is some kind of infection (but is most likely not). Thus the airways close over as this tissue becomes swollen and less space is left for oxygen to come in and out.
At the same time though, it has recently been discovered that particular proteins are produced when skin breaks due to asthma and that these proteins can actually cause asthma! This goes some way to showing a potential direct link between the two conditions.