Educational Media Reviews Online

This documentary provides a perhaps too exhaustive investigation into the pathology, causes and management of asthma. The viewer may wish for a little more editing, especially in the nonessential segments. Not that the information is not important, or that the personal stories of people affected by asthma in varying degrees (mostly severe) are not affecting. However, the way the film is structured includes some overlapping topics, despite its segmentation into “chapters” in the opening credits (e.g., Understanding Asthma, Monitoring Asthma, Taking Asthma Seriously). It might have helped to include those chapter titles at the beginning of each segment. As it is, the documentary seems disorganized at times.

Still, there is much to commend as well in the film. The medical experts interviewed carefully explain the nature of asthma, its accepted causes and the ways that doctors aim to manage the disease through medication and other means. There are important clarifications about asthma myths, such as the longstanding one about children “growing out” of asthma. Certainly the statistics reported on asthma cases are, well, breathtaking – 32 million Americans are affected by asthma, and the incidence is increasing. The reasons posited for this “epidemic” of increasing asthma incidence, as discussed by one expert, are truly fascinating. (This is one area this reviewer actually wished had been given a little more airplay in the film.) In short, although the results are mixed, the effort is still worthwhile. This would make a good secondary purchase for health collections on asthma and COPD.