Is asthma a hereditary disease?

Yes, is the answer to this question. The chances become stronger to develop asthma if any one of your parent has or had asthma. If both of your parents have or had asthma then the chances become even more to develop asthma. Hence we can say that asthma is a hereditary disease and the tendency to develop asthma is inherited.

The studies of twin are another confirmation for asthma being a hereditary disease. According to this study, if first identical twin is asthmatic then the chances become more strong for second twin (who shares all the generic information as his/her identical twin) to have asthma than when first twin of two non-identical twins (who share few but not all the generic information) has asthma. However the entire story about asthma is not as easy as the idea that a person either inherits asthma gene or genes from their parents or does not. One fact we have come across from the studies of twin is that if one twin has asthma then the chances become stronger for other twin to develop asthma. 

Is asthma a hereditary disease?

Let us discuss little more to know about "is asthma a hereditary disease?". Some people working in certain occupations (such as lumber mill) are more prone to develop asthma. For example- if you are an employee at limber mill and is exposed to sawdust from certain kinds of woods for long time then you may develop asthma. At earlier stage, the mill employee will experience the asthma symptoms only when they breathe in sawdust but after some time they develop asthma to all general stimuli (such as exercise, cold air, respiratory tract in infections etc.). In few cases the asthma may cure if the employee quit the job from mill but in some other cases it may not.

Similar to many other diseases, asthma results in part from a tendency present in anyone’s genes towards developing asthma and in part from exposure to his/her surroundings- that is part heredity and part environmental. It is quite tough to conclude that what are the environmental factors that contribute to develop asthma with a genetic predisposition. It may be the particles which you are allergic to such as germs in air, cigarette smoke, air pollution, viruses in air and many others.