For several years I'd been annoyingly sensitive to changes in temperatures and humidity -- both of which seemed to affect my lungs making it difficult to breathe. And without even looking, I can pinpoint an air vent within three feet of its location in any room because blowing air also hinders my ability to breathe. As it turns out all of these are major factors indicators of asthma.

Asthma is one of this country's major health concerns. By some estimates, at least five percent of Americans have already had or will suffer asthmatic symptoms. The symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing and a tightness in the chest that feels as though Jesse "The Body" Ventura is sitting on your lungs. And it's no wonder. During an asthma attack the airways in the lungs constrict, so not enough air gets through. What creates that attack is a virtually endless array of triggers, from changes in the weather to seasonal allergies, from emotional distress to air pollution, from smoke to lung infection.

For years, asthma was considered primarily a childhood disease, in that if you didn't have it as a kid you were safe. But asthma can and does strike adults. Like me. Interestingly a major cause of asthma in adulthood is exercise.

Dr. Eitches and I traced a recent episode of asthma to a week in Sun Valley, when I'd done a great deal of extraordinarily strenuous cross-country skiing. My competitive side had me skiing stride for stride with an Olympic biathlete when I probably should have been in the lodge sipping hot cocoa. Near the end of the week, I tried to do some exploring on snowshoes and after only a few minutes, I couldn't catch my breath. As the mucus began forming I felt like my lungs were being crushed, and I figured I was catching a cold. I figured wrong.