A couple of years ago, I caught a cold and all of my daily asthma symptoms came roaring back. But this time, they didn’t go away when the infection was over.

I was wheezing every day and having trouble exercising. I’ve been playing tennis for more than 40 years. But during that asthma outbreak, I had difficulty breathing during matches.

I was also having to wake up at night to puff a rescue inhaler.

I asked a pulmonary doctor about it. “Asthma is a funny illness,” he said. “It can be triggered by minor events and take on a life of its own.”

The doctor had no explanation why my symptoms got worse. He said “it just happens.”

He prescribed two inhalers for me. When I asked him how long I should take them, he replied, “You may need them for the rest of your life.”

Needless to say, I wasn’t happy with that prognosis. I was now puffing two inhalers — one of them a steroid — and getting minimal results. They only relieved the asthma for a short period of time, then I would have to use them again.

I was puzzled. I was eating a very clean diet — no dairy and almost no refined foods or sugar. I was in good shape, exercising daily and feeling good.

Then, after a minor cold, all my asthma symptoms returned with a vengeance. I racked my brain trying to figure out what happened.

One day a patient came into my office; she had suffered with severe asthma symptoms for a number of years. Mary, who was 60, asked me if I had read A Cure for Asthma?, by David Hahn, M.D. I had not.

She explained the author’s hypothesis that asthma, in the vast majority of cases, is caused by a chronic, underlying infection. And that treating the infection would often cure the asthma.

I always like it when patients bring me articles and books to read. I look at everything they give me. Sometimes, I don’t read all the way through, but I always take a look.

Sometimes, I learn things I didn’t know, and it changes my practice.

I read Dr. Hahn’s entire book — and I learned a lot.