Wisconsin News Roundup, The Links Between Asthma And Stress, 2018 Political Races

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• State News Roundup For January 5, 2018

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  Governor Walker announced a plan to close the troubled Lincoln Hills youth prison and replace it with an adult detention center. During our weekly state news roundup, we get reaction to the proposal from Lincoln County, check up on major staffing changes for the Green Bay Packers, and more.

• Study Sees New Approach To Asthma, Stress Connection

  Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are looking at how stress affects asthma through the lens of mind and body communication.

  “What we’re interested in determining is how asthma can affect stress or stress-related events, and try to understand how the brain is working in bringing this information together, and possibly trying to better regulate things that are making asthma more severe,” said Dr. William Busse, a lead researcher on the study and professor of medicine at UW-Madison.

  The four-year, $2.5 million study’s long-term goal is to regulate the disease by improving the communication between the brain and the lungs through both medicated and non-medicated methods, Busse said.

  Previous thinking on asthma and stress suspected that stress came first, amplifying asthma symptoms, but the UW-Madison study has shifted focus to the idea that the lung also communicates stress to the brain, he said.

  Busse compared the relationship between asthma and stress to a vicious cycle.

  “Rather than saying it is the stress that is making it, can we try to better understand how the lung communicates with the brain and brings about this stress-related event,” he said. “If you can’t breathe, that’s stressful.”

  The study targets two methods in trying to map out the relationship between the brain and lung during an asthma event. First, by provoking asthma events and analyzing the signals that come from the lung to the brain through MRI studies.

  The more difficult aspect to understand is how the brain influences the lung. Researchers do that by putting people under stress, then inducing an asthma attack.

  Busse said he believes that generating the asthma events through two different systems provides a more thorough picture of the communication between the two organs, particularly by paying close attention to which areas of the brain are activated.

  “Our thoughts are that the brain is acting to try and retain, or maintain, what we call homeostasis, or returning to a normal controlled situation. If we can understand that, I think it adds some additional information to what influences the severity of asthma and possibly how to control this,” he said.

  Busse sees potential for both medicated and non-medicated treatments to minimize the feedback loop between the brain and lungs. Medication wise, discovering which molecules and pathways cause the feedback loop could lead to the development of blocker medication.

  “The other aspect, which is very intriguing, is the possibility that you can go through other non-medication related approaches such as mindfulness or meditation, which is known to modify these circuits in the brain,” Busse said.

  That path may have longer, more consequential effects on treatment of the disease, he said.

  “It’s a new frontier,” Busse said. “I’ve spent most of my time looking at events in the lung, and going outside the lung to the brain brings us to a new area of both research and understanding, with the potential of some very novel ways to approach treatment.”

• The Relationship Between Stress And Asthma

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  Researchers at UW-Madison are looking at how stress affects the symptoms of asthma in a four year study looking at how the mind and body communicate in stressful situations. We talk with one of the key professors about their findings.

• Looking Ahead At The Biggest Political Races In Wisconsin In 2018

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  2018 will be a big election year across the nation, and Wisconsin is no exception. Sen. Tammy Baldwin will defend her seat against a Republican challenger. Governor Scott Walker is up for re-election, and more than 10 Democrats have lined wanting to challenging him, leading to a crowded primary election in August. State Attorney General Brad Schimel is also up for re-election, although fewer Democrats appear interested in entering that race. And Congressman and House Speaker Paul Ryan will face a primary challenge from within his own party. A political scientist breaks down all the big races, and what to watch for in the coming months.