By Special to the Town Crier

“You may be shocked to know that asthma is on the increase. There are now 14.6 million Americans who suffer from asthma - up from 10.4 million in 1990. Asthma is the number one diagnosis of people admitted to hospitals. Almost 5 million American children have asthma and the numbers keep growing.

For every parent who has watched a child struggle to catch his/her breath, or for every adult who has worried about whether they have an inhaler with them, these statistics may not seem surprising. For the rest of us who have a vague understanding of asthma, it may be surprising to learn that asthma is one of the biggest health risks we might encounter.

“Asthma” by The People’s Medical Society is an easy-to-read book on the subject, written for anyone encountering asthma for the first time.

“Taking Charge of Asthma” by Betty Wray, M.D., is another good basic book on asthma that takes a different approach:

This book provides ways for asthma sufferers to take charge of the variables they can control in order to live more comfortably with asthma. The initial chapter, “How Much Do You Really Know About Asthma?” contains a self-test followed by the correct answers and explanations. Subsequent chapters, such as “Breathe Easier: Controlling Your Environment” and “Nourishing Your Mind, Body and Spirit: A Holistic Approach,” provide concrete suggestions for approaching the most common asthma triggers and integrating changes to control them.

These books are samples of the 19 books on asthma in the Health Library’s eBook collection. They can be checked out anytime from the Health Library Web site and read at no charge.

MedlinePLUS, from the National Library of Medicine, has a collection of Web resources on its asthma page: www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/asthma.html. These include basic fact sheets on the disease as well as interactive tutorials and action plans for getting asthma under control.

This page also has links to the status of ongoing clinical trials for new treatments. For the newest findings, examine the section “Latest News.” For information in Spanish, MedlinePLUS has resources in Spanish listed at the bottom of the page.

The Health Library resources are not intended as a substitute for medical care and should be used to formulate questions for discussion with your physician. The main branch is located at 2-B Stanford Shopping Center. Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays, and until 9 p.m., Thursdays. The Health Library is a community service of Stanford Hospital and Clinics. For more information, call 725-8400 , send e-mail to health.library@medcenter.stanford.edu or logon to healthlibrary.stanford.edu.