Jul 20, 2026 · 40 min · 12 segments
Aubrey Masango speaks to Dr. Alex van Blydenstein is a pulmonologist based at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital to unpack how seasonal changes impact asthma, how to spot your personal triggers…
Aubrey MasangoHostWhat is asthma? Well, asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease, predominantly of the airways.
The inflammation is usually present all year, but then you can have different exposures which trigger attacks or symptoms.
But the main point I want to make to your listeners with asthma is that although you only have symptoms on occasion, you always generally have asthma with inflammation.
And so it's really important to address the inflammation, not only the symptoms or the season exposures that then trigger those attacks.
And that's really one of the things that makes asthma quite a personal disease, you know, that gives it all those different aspects.
But it can vary from viral infections, pollen, moulds, cold air even is a very common one, smoke and dust and pollution, exercise in some patients, rapid weather changes.
You know, a lot of different triggers can be present in the same people and patients can develop different triggers over time.
But generally, people will know what generally triggers their asthma to give them acute attacks.
What is asthma? Well, asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease, predominantly of the airways.
The inflammation is usually present all year, but then you can have different exposures which trigger attacks or symptoms.
But the main point I want to make to your listeners with asthma is that although you only have symptoms on occasion, you always generally have asthma with inflammation.
And so it's really important to address the inflammation, not only the symptoms or the season exposures that then trigger those attacks.
And that's really one of the things that makes asthma quite a personal disease, you know, that gives it all those different aspects.
But it can vary from viral infections, pollen, moulds, cold air even is a very common one, smoke and dust and pollution, exercise in some patients, rapid weather changes.
You know, a lot of different triggers can be present in the same people and patients can develop different triggers over time.
But generally, people will know what generally triggers their asthma to give them acute attacks.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.