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Jerome started playing football at a relatively late age—not until he was 14 and a freshman in high school. Hegot involved in the sport as he started looking toward col-lege and realized that football might be his ticket to ascholarship. However, it was the rigors of high schoolfootball that led to his being diagnosed with asthma thefirst year he played.

Jerome: I was diagnosed with asthma when I firstwent out for the football team. It was brought on byexercise. I was getting ready for practice and we had togo through a lot of conditioning. I had an asthmaattack and had to go to the hospital. That’s when I got

the diagnosis. I assume I had been having symptomsearlier. That’s the problem, you don’t realize that youhave it.

Asthma Magazine: What things trigger your asthma?

J: For me it is many different things, like exercise, cats,and perfume. I’m allergic to shellfish, and even when Ismell shellfish being cooked my asthma kicks in. So Ihave to be really careful.

AM: As a teenager, did your asthma give you any fur-ther problems?

By Rachel Butler, Editor-in-Chief

Jerome Bettis, the Pittsburgh Steelers’s

star running back, may be best known

for the rushing records he has accumu-

lated. He is fifth on the NFL’s all-time

rushing list with 13,467 yards and is

third in NFL history with 3428 rushing

attempts. He is only the second Steelers

running back to pass the 10,000-yard

rushing mark, and now he is a Super

Bowl Champion, too. However, what

many people don’t know is that Jerome

has asthma. He works hard to keep it

well-controlled so that it does not inter-

fere with his football career.

Jerome BettisHas Tackled His Asthma:

An Interview

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J: No. Once I was diagnosed and I started regularlytaking the medicine I was told to take, I didn’t have anyproblems the rest of my high school days.

Jerome was successful in his plans for college. He wasa top-rated high school player and as a senior he wasawarded the Gatorade Circle of Champions MichiganPlayer of the Year. He then went on to a successful col-lege career at Notre Dame. He was drafted into theNFL directly out of college to play for the Los AngelesRams, and shared the 1993 NFL Rookie of the Yearaward.

Jerome continued taking his asthma medicinethroughout high school and at the beginning of hiscollege career. At that point, his asthma seemed betterand he stopped any asthma treatment. Then severalyears into his professional career, in a 1997 gameagainst the Jacksonville Jaguars, he got a wake-up call.It was this event that made him realize that he neededto focus on asthma management and work with a doc-tor to establish a treatment plan that would keep hisasthma consistently well-controlled.

J: My asthma was uncontrolled for many years. Iwas taking the medicine early in college and thenafter a while it felt like it was okay, so I stopped tak-ing it. Then, when I was playing professionally, I hada serious asthma attack during a game. We were play-ing in Jacksonville and the humidity was a problemfor me. I was in bad shape. They gave me some oxy-gen and a shot to open the airways. They calmed medown. After that I wanted to do everything I could tolearn about asthma: to understand it. I wanted tounderstand the triggers that affected me and to get agrip on my asthma. I worked with my doctor to getan asthma action plan and have been sticking to itever since.

AM: As a running back, you must need a greatdeal of endurance and a high fitness level. What kindof training do you have to do to get in shape for theseason?

J: There’s a lot of training involved and it’s prettystrenuous. I go to St Louis to train—it’s rigorous. Inever really stop [training] from season to season, but Igo really hard starting in about June.

AM: Has your asthma caused any problems for youin your ability to train or play since you started treat-ment again?

J: No. I take my medicine and take a lot of precautions aswell to make sure that I don’t have problems again.

AM: I understand that you’re now working with theAmerican Lung Association to help others better recog-nize and understand their asthma.

J: Yes. After what I experienced, I decided that Iwanted to use whatever celebrity I had to try to createawareness about asthma and the need for asthma con-trol. The ALA presented this test called the ACT: theAsthma Control Test.* It’s a great test because it lets aperson with asthma understand their frequency ofsymptoms. There are five simple questions, and onceyou answer them you receive the score. Then you talkto your doctor about the score and it helps you workwith your doctor to develop a game plan to fight theasthma. To date, more than 100,000 people have takenthe test, and 63% of those people have scored a 19 orless [out of a possible 25 points], which is an indica-tion that their asthma may not be well-controlled.That’s important. I try to spread the word and I’m gladthat it’s making a difference.

AM: How long have you been working with theAmerican Lung Association?

J: I started early last summer and have been in anumber of cities all across America.

AM: Given that asthma is so prevalent in inner-cityneighborhoods and especially among kids, has therebeen a particular focus on those communities? I wouldthink as a professional athlete that you would have aparticular impact with kids.

J: Absolutely. That’s where we’ve gone. We’ve been toinner-city areas in Detroit, St Louis, Houston, and LosAngeles—we’ve been to many areas where asthma has ahigh prevalence. It’s important that we be there.

AM: I have read that since being injured earlier thisseason, you’re now back playing again. How does it feelto be back in the game?

J: Oh, it feels great! Obviously whenever you have tosit out watching, you want to participate. It was justgreat to get back in there and contribute.

*You can take the Asthma Control Test on line bygoing to www.asthmacontrol.com or calling 800-990-4100.

Rachel Butler is Editor-in-Chief of Asthma Magazine.

Reprint orders: Elsevier Inc., 11830 Westline Industrial Dr., St. Louis,MO 63146-3318; phone 314-453-4350.doi:10.1016/j.asthmamag.2005.12.003

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