Genetic Asthma

so first here is a little background: both of my parents have asthma, and all of my siblings and i have asthma. On my mom's side both of her parents smoked and she lived in the city but neither of her parents or her sister had asthma. On my dad's side he moved around alot because of his dad's job and none of his brothers or parents had asthma.

So now to my question is it possible that my parents genetically passed asthma on to my my brothers, sisters, and i genetically even though it wasn't genetically passed on to them?

[David Tinkelman, M.D.]

The genetic inheritance of asthma and/or a predisposition to it is complex.  In essence, persons may be born with a genetic pattern favorable to the development of asthma but never exhibit  the outward, clinical expression of it.  I believe that description applies to your grandparents who actually did, in effect, genetically pass on the “asthma gene(s)” to your parents or, maybe just to one of your parents for a person with asthma need not get these genes from both parents.

Whatever the circumstance, asthma remains (with rare exceptions) a very successfully treatable disease and I hope that you are currently receiving optimum therapy.

Good luck

[jamesedward]

The genetic inheritance of asthma and/or a predisposition to it is complex.  In essence, persons may be born with a genetic pattern favorable to the development of asthma but never exhibit  the outward, clinical expression of it.