# Asthma in NZ?



## Joshua82

Hi everyone. I heard that asthma is really bad in NZ, could anyone compare it to other places they have lived? Does it change depending on where in NZ you live? 

Thank you!


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## Liam(at)Large

Asthma is very prevalent due to damp housing which encourages and exasperates asthmatics. A well constructed and insulated house goes leaps and bounds to drastically reduce symptoms.


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## Kimbella

Joshua82 said:


> Hi everyone. I heard that asthma is really bad in NZ, could anyone compare it to other places they have lived? Does it change depending on where in NZ you live?
> 
> Thank you!


Liam is correct, from what I have 'heard' as well, in online media and news media. My kiwi husband and one of my step daughters are both asthmatics. With my husband, in particular, it can be quite noticeable: wheezing, heaving. He is 42, in great physical shape, great stamina, plays soccer on a league, etc., but does need to use his inhaler. He is allergic to many pollens and such, and was hospitalized twice for severe respiratory distress (essentially respiratory arrest) due to asthmatic reactions to some native trees (wattle tree pollen almost killed him). However, as long as he uses his inhalers and allergy medications regularly, he usually has no big issues other than needing to take an extra puff every now and then. If you have not been here before, just be aware that the majority of the nation is *undeveloped* with great swaths of land filled with flora and fauna... even the plains and areas that are flat for livestock grazing can be covered in brush of all sorts, mostly gorse, and a few other types. It's beautiful, but I can see where allergy sufferers would have to be vigilant with their care and keep. Maybe google new zealand flora and fauna and check out the images to see what you'll be coming to. Most of the native stuff is obviously going to be more prevalent outside of the big cities, but the cities themselves all have their own flora and fauna, a mix of native stuff, and overflowing english style gardens... beautiful, beautiful, beautiful place...


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## Guest

I have 2 first hand stories that show differing experiences of Auckland damp and pollen. My brother in law suffered in Cape Town from shocking migraines brought on by sinus issues from pollen and cold etc. and has not really suffered in Auckland. My son was mildly asthmatic and occasionally on a very cold Auckland day if the weather was damp he would use his pump. We have been here 10 years and he has surfed and played sport regularly and completely grown out of it so I think the weather is just a contributing factor. I was told when we got here though that NZ does have a high incidence of Asthma but personally I have not seen or heard of more kids using pumps than in SA although this is anecdotal and not scientific so just research it if it is an important factor.


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## Kimbella

I should have added to my original post that both of his hospitalizations were decades ago.. one as a young boy, and another as a teen, young adult...and I don't know that he had been legitimately diagnosed as an asthmatic back then, or if he was given inhalers to use regularly (as needed). He really only uses his inhaler sporadically now, and we have a huge garden, tonnes of trees, flowers, etc... our old house was damp, cold, and mouldy due to earthquake damage and he survived in that for 2.5 years without any noticeable increase in his astham symptoms... and the S Island in general is colder and damper than the N Island... just for context.


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## Song_Si

*Asthma in NZ*

From NZ's *Asthma Foundation*:

*Asthma in New Zealand*
*The Statistics*

We are not sure why New Zealand has the second highest prevalence of asthma in the world (after the UK). Possible factors include diet, climate, immunisation rates, economic conditions, community health care standards, antibiotic use in early childhood and the timing and number of respiratory infections in early life.

Whatever the cause, one thing is for sure – asthma hits our country hard.


One in six New Zealand adults and one in four of our children experience asthma symptoms. (Adding up to more than 600 000 Kiwis.)
The prevalence of asthma appears to be similar across New Zealand metropolitan centres.
Asthma is the most common cause of admission to hospital for children.
Severe asthma is common – up to 8 percent of teenagers report wheeze limiting speech, and 10 percent of adults report waking with breathlessness occurring within the previous 12 months.
Hospitalisation rates for asthma have more than doubled in the past 30 years.
Asthma is the highest-ranking specific disease in terms of Years Lost to Disability in males, and third highest for females. (‘Years Lost to Disability’ represent time in which a person is too unwell to enjoy the productive life they normally would.)
Maori and Pacific Islanders


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## Guest

Interesting asthma stats and good to read as I have heard so often about it. It would be interesting to see the geographic regions and if there are higher incidences in different nationalities. It seems very high.


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## Joshua82

That sounds like it could certainly be an issue for me. In particular I have issues with grass pollen, oak and poplar pollen, and mold. Is the North Island less prone to having mold then since it is warmer and drier?


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## Liam(at)Large

Joshua82 said:


> Is the North Island less prone to having mold then since it is warmer and drier?


Marginally, if at all.


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## Angou

Joshua82 said:


> That sounds like it could certainly be an issue for me. In particular I have issues with grass pollen, oak and poplar pollen, and mold. Is the North Island less prone to having mold then since it is warmer and drier?


The North Island also has higher humidity and mold is a problem in some areas. However, allergies might not be an issue. My husband suffers terribly in Canada and has no problems in NZ. I'm asthmatic and have major allergies to pollens in New Zealand and Australia but have never had an issue anywhere else in the world. 

I think us humans get sensitized to pollens in our environment when we are kids - change the plant varieties and pollens and they don't affect us. That's my entirely unscientific theory but the only one that makes sense. It's going to be interesting when I get to Canada and see if my husband's allergies kick in again and if I am not affected.


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## topcat83

I was interested to see from this link that NZ has the second highest prevalence of asthma in the world, after the UK.

So maybe it isn't the building codes that are having the major effect (although I doubt it helps!)

Asthma in New Zealand | Asthma Foundation New Zealand


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## Kimbella

topcat83 said:


> I was interested to see from this link that NZ has the second highest prevalence of asthma in the world, after the UK.
> 
> So maybe it isn't the building codes that are having the major effect (although I doubt it helps!)
> 
> Asthma in New Zealand | Asthma Foundation New Zealand



I hadn't heard this before... the part of me that was a nurse in the US is curious about the link, wondering if there is a genetic link based on the ancestral history of most Caucasian kiwis. 

Great info, thanks!


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## Angou

Kimbella said:


> I hadn't heard this before... the part of me that was a nurse in the US is curious about the link, wondering if there is a genetic link based on the ancestral history of most Caucasian kiwis.
> 
> Great info, thanks!


None of the studies have shown any difference across ethnic lines. I doubt anyone could ever find commonality across the ancestral history of Caucasian kiwis - we are an incredibly mixed bunch  

What intrigues me about the asthma stats in NZ is that, to a lay person, they seem to correspond to increasing rates of allergy and eczema. I'll be intrigued it researchers come up with a positive link but, to me, it all seems very coincidental.


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## Kimbella

Angou said:


> None of the studies have shown any difference across ethnic lines. I doubt anyone could ever find commonality across the ancestral history of Caucasian kiwis - we are an incredibly mixed bunch
> 
> What intrigues me about the asthma stats in NZ is that, to a lay person, they seem to correspond to increasing rates of allergy and eczema. I'll be intrigued it researchers come up with a positive link but, to me, it all seems very coincidental.




Hope you won't mind me respectfully disagreeing... you are no doubt correct that no current studies denote a genetic link, but that doesn't mean they won't. Yes kiwis are mixed, but their lineage is still fairly recent and pretty undiluted. What I've read indicates that over 90% of the European descendants are from British lines... I certainly don't mean to sound like I know more than you, only that based on my experience in medicine and medical research in the past, it's still a very new industry in many aspects (genetics), and there may simply have not been *the* study yet that finds and isolates the link. Anyway, not discounting your opinion, just saying I think the future may actually show a link that is being currently missed... and, I could totally be wrong of course!


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## Angou

Kimbella said:


> Hope you won't mind me respectfully disagreeing... you are no doubt correct that no current studies denote a genetic link, but that doesn't mean they won't. Yes kiwis are mixed, but their lineage is still fairly recent and pretty undiluted. What I've read indicates that over 90% of the European descendants are from British lines... I certainly don't mean to sound like I know more than you, only that based on my experience in medicine and medical research in the past, it's still a very new industry in many aspects (genetics), and there may simply have not been *the* study yet that finds and isolates the link. Anyway, not discounting your opinion, just saying I think the future may actually show a link that is being currently missed... and, I could totally be wrong of course!


I don't mind your disagreeing, however I can't leave a couple of your comments unchallenged 

NZ has had waves of migration and high levels of intermarriage right from the beginning. Māori traded right through the Pacific from well before Europeans headed this way & brought women and captives back to NZ. Early NZ history refers to "European" migration to NZ and makes passing mention of the traders and sailors from various continents in the south seas, however their genetic heritage was left here. "European" also meant Asian back then and identifiable Asian (from the Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia) groups settled here. Further complicating things, it's recently been proven that there is a genetic link between Māori and indigenous Taiwanese. 

Genetic lineage in NZ has been in a melting pot from the time Māori settled here with so much intermarriage between all who have come here that I doubt anyone could say it's "pretty undiluted". 

That's not to say research may not be done in the future - limited research is already being done - but that cultural resistance to it coupled with a very diverse genetic heritage makes putting kiwis into groups to extrapolate meaningful data is incredibly challenging.


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## Kimbella

Angou said:


> I don't mind your disagreeing, however I can't leave a couple of your comments unchallenged
> 
> NZ has had waves of migration and high levels of intermarriage right from the beginning. Māori traded right through the Pacific from well before Europeans headed this way & brought women and captives back to NZ. Early NZ history refers to "European" migration to NZ and makes passing mention of the traders and sailors from various continents in the south seas, however their genetic heritage was left here. "European" also meant Asian back then and identifiable Asian (from the Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia) groups settled here. Further complicating things, it's recently been proven that there is a genetic link between Māori and indigenous Taiwanese.
> 
> Genetic lineage in NZ has been in a melting pot from the time Māori settled here with so much intermarriage between all who have come here that I doubt anyone could say it's "pretty undiluted".
> 
> That's not to say research may not be done in the future - limited research is already being done - but that cultural resistance to it coupled with a very diverse genetic heritage makes putting kiwis into groups to extrapolate meaningful data is incredibly challenging.


It's simply my impression, that NZ being the last continent "settled," compared to other societies of greater age could certainly be considered relatively undiluted comparatively, especially given its distance from most other land masses and its relative 'youth' as a 'conquered' country. As a kiwi you may see this differently, please don't take it as someone trying to best you at your knowledge of your country, or inferring any lessening of cultural history. I'm simply pointing out that statistically NZ has had smaller waves of immigrants and with greater time lapses in between, given where it lies in the middle of the ocean when compared to other modern first world countries--this is going to make it less "unspoiled" as far as diluted heritage. I'm not saying it's not, just that it's not as much as say Europe itself, the US, or even Canada...all other western places.

And, I'm definitely not suggesting it isn't mixed, only that it is a *small* population in this country, and what you think of as "waves" is still going to number statistically significantly less than the whole of the current population... Australia has roughly 70 million people, and that accounts for less than 0.5% of the worlds population. Given our even smaller size, NZ might well be mixed, but the heritage pool kiwis mixed with is still going to have been pretty small overall.

I take your points well, but it can't be denied that the single greatest contributor from Europe are the Brits... it is reflected in everything from the food, to the housing, pastimes, and the language. NZ isn't so far removed from its roots, really.

Anyway, I think we might wind up getting into academic arguments, or disagreement over semantics, which I don't especially enjoy since they're usually more about someone being right, and someone being wrong. I don't believe either of us are either/or in this discussion, we just hold different perspectives.
I'm sure your points sit well with you, and I don't outright dispute them at all, I only question the weight of their significance; the inference in them being that any genetic links may have been "bred" or "mixed" out in the last hundred and a handful of years that NZ has been colonized, and my opinion (and that's all it is) is that genetic changes would take more than two, three, or even four generations to "breed out." Ugh. That just looks ugly to type, but you know what I mean... lol!


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## Angou

I needed a keyboard warning before reading because it wore my coffee! Not laughing at what you wrote but at my sympathy over the knots you tied yourself into in trying to be so careful with your wording. I appreciate it, albeit that it wasn't necessary  
Online is such a terrible medium for navigating expression of opinions without potentially causing offense. I couldn't ever take offense at anything you say Kim - I love discourse and respect differing opinions. 

I'd love to sit over a coffee and discuss this but its rather off topic here so will leave things as they are.


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## Kimbella

Angou said:


> I needed a keyboard warning before reading because it wore my coffee! Not laughing at what you wrote but at my sympathy over the knots you tied yourself into in trying to be so careful with your wording. I appreciate it, albeit that it wasn't necessary
> Online is such a terrible medium for navigating expression of opinions without potentially causing offense. I couldn't ever take offense at anything you say Kim - I love discourse and respect differing opinions.
> 
> I'd love to sit over a coffee and discuss this but its rather off topic here so will leave things as they are.


I'm not going to lie, I've had a large number of kiwi keyboard warriors (online) take offense at the American who thinks they know it all... even when I'm just making a neutral comment. In real life I've yet to encounter a kiwi who has reacted stingingly to my personal observations (they're usually on the positive side anyway, as I have a fantastic life here), yet online people have gotten very vicious (not here, but at other sites I occasionally comment on), so I tread lightly just because. And, I can't deny that part of my concern was that a kiwi national logged onto a website for ex-pats (other than kiwis) who live, lived, or want to live in NZ could be that person who likes to be "the kiwi expert," thus the reason for joining a site for non-kiwi expats in NZ. That's obviously not the case, as you have a good sense of humor and obvious insight into how interactions online can suddenly go weird. I've probably just had one too many instances (from a smattering of "in house kiwi experts" online), of knee-jerk American bashing or confrontational commentary just for having the occasional opinion. 
Case in point, I commented a few days ago online about window washers coming to the car windows while stopped at traffic lights (responding to a news story), explaining how it is (can be) in America (aggressive and intimidating) and how relieved I was to be away from that, except now we have them in Chch and my 12 y.o. daughter freaks out every time they run up to the car... was told my "stranger danger" mentality set child safety back 100 years, and to take my small minded, scare-mongering self and family back overseas, as my type is not wanted or needed in NZ... what this poster did not know is that my daughter is a kiwi, born and raised by her father, solo for 10 years before my arrival... her fear of strangers has nothing to do with my American-ess and everything to do with being a 12 y.o girl startled at someone running up to her car sitting in traffic! Ugh. They're the kiwi equivalent of the dumb Americans online, it's just always a surprise to me though, because I hold kiwis in higher regard than Americans, I automatically think of them as more thoughtful and open.. which I still think is usually the case. So, those online one-offs always trip me up.


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## Mr_Alex

Having lived in New Zealand as a asthmatic for years all I can say is I wish I can leave for good


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## Angou

Kimbella said:


> ... And, I can't deny that part of my concern was that a kiwi national logged onto a website for ex-pats (other than kiwis) who live, lived, or want to live in NZ could be that person who likes to be "the kiwi expert," thus the reason for joining a site for non-kiwi expats in NZ. That's obviously not the case, as you have a good sense of humor and obvious insight into how interactions online can suddenly go weird. I've probably just had one too many instances (from a smattering of "in house kiwi experts" online), of knee-jerk American bashing or confrontational commentary just for having the occasional opinion.


I think I'd be concerned too  I'm actually here hanging out on the Canadian forum (although not very active there because there's not much to contribute there - and nobody able to respond to my questions it seems). 

Just some background - I am a kiwi and currently living in NZ. However, I've spent many years living outside NZ and when I came back it was like coming to a foreign country in many ways. I had changed and was seeing NZ through different eyes. "Importing" my husband from the US also gave me a glimpse into how he sees things here. 

That doesn't make me anywhere near an expert but it does give me a few clues as to what its like to move to a different country, perhaps one you don't know very well or have only been a visitor in for a short time. So, I look to see if anyone has questions about NZ that I can assist with. 

I never really settled after coming back. I keep comparing NZ to other countries that I have lived in and, while NZ certainly has a whole lot going for it, there is just too much I miss. Which is why I am leaving and have no intention of returning to live. That's no indictment on NZ - it's simply that at this time of my life, with no children to worry about and no ageing parents, I have the freedom to choose another life. I will always love NZ and will miss some aspects of living here but, overall, I am happier in a bigger, busier place and my hubby is very happy about that


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## Kimbella

Your insight on NZ is spot on and very helpful, I'm sure *especially* for those who haven't arrived here in NZ yet. My comment was really referring specifically to me having become skittish in online interactions because of some of the rabid responses I've gotten from a smattering of kiwis. I'm online a lot M-F as I'm a writer, so I don't want to taint the pool I swim in by inadvertently splashing someone, if you know what I mean ... so, I step softly, probably overly-cautiously, but its to keep harmony in my life. 

Your reflections on your life here versus elsewhere is the same as mine, but the opposite! lol

I started over here at just about 40, on a whim, and it's the best choice I ever made! Which is pretty neat, because I had a pretty awesome life in California as well! I had concerns about whether the standard of living would be the same... it is mostly the same, but different-- better in some ways, less than in other areas, for me. One thing I never did in the US was jet ski in a harbour where pods of (Hector's) dolphins race you, swim around, under, and ahead of you, literally less than a few feet away... then swim under your ski and bump it around when you stop and shut off... yeah, nah. Never had those experiences in the US!


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