Burning incense may be associated with an increased risk of asthma according to a report from Reuters.
According to the report burning incense was associated with both a current diagnosis of asthma, as well as reports of wheezing during exercise. Burning incense increased the likelihood of an asthma diagnosis by 36% and wheezing during exercise by more than 60%. The more days of incense burning, the higher the risk of asthma. Interestingly, nearly half of the patients also had a specific gene variant.
The authors suggest that the combination of the gene variant and exposure to environmental toxins could increase asthma risk in some children. While this study does not prove a relationship between burning incense and the development of asthma, limiting use of incense could be beneficial for some children. As the practice of burning incense becomes more popular here, this may be something that becomes more of a concern.
As the gene variant and exposure to environmental toxins could increase asthma risk in some children, we need to be extra careful about burning incense around these kids.