cover image Catching My Breath:: An Asthmatic Explores His Illness

Catching My Breath:: An Asthmatic Explores His Illness

Tim Brookes. Crown Publishers, $22 (291pp) ISBN 978-0-8129-2182-3

British-born former U.S. public radio editor Brookes's first asthmatic attack is described as a bolt of lightning that caused him to gasp and suffer painfully swollen sinuses, a flooded trachea and heart fibrillations. Self-injected epinephrine finally left him feeling as if he had been ``turned inside out.'' Since medical science has been unable to unravel the mystery of asthma's causes, the author studied medical books, attended lectures, interviewed specialists and experimented on himself, even meeting with a psychic who suggested that ``hidden emotional conflicts'' might lie at the root of his illness. Brookes concluded his asthma is probably due to a synergy between physical (allergy) and psychosomatic reactions, along with exterior elements like pollution, work and economic conditions. Of interest chiefly to asthmatics. (June)