So does asthma really make you smarter?  I'm not being facecious either by asking this. In fact, the idea that asthma makes you smarter is one of the aformentioned "Seven Benefits of Asthma." 

Asthma certainly can make you smarter!  Right?

I think so.  I surmise asthma forces us to become philosphers of sorts, and philosophers must be perspicacious to see questions others haven't thought to ask such as, "Does Asthma Make You Smarter?"

I'm pondering this idea today because I had a patient recently who was admittedly a hardluck asthmatic.  In fact, she's so hardluck she's become a good friend of mine.  

She's admitted for asthma a lot, yet she's quite convivial, and she usually has to set down a book when I enter her room.  It's often our love of stories that sparks a discussion, and usually we become so rapt in some intelligent idea -- often philosophical -- time gets lost, sometimes hours.

She and I also have the asthma link to discuss. 

We both love to learn. Her bedside stand usually has a stack of books, and magazines, and newspapers.  She might even have her laptop open to an interesting article, or her Kindle on.

Interestingly enough, one of our recent discussions was about my post about the benefits of having asthma, particularly about how I wrote that asthma can make you smarter.

She liked that idea, and noted asthma has obviously made both of us more astute.  Perhaps near death experiences force one to appreciate and to think uniquely.  

Seneca wrote about this 2,000 years ago, back when the most effective asthma medicine was patience.  He wrote how having asthma forced him to find something useful to do with his mind, and he ultimately became a Senator and philosopher.

He wrote, "It is your body, not your mind as well, that is in the grip of ill health.  Hence it may slow the feet of a runner and make the hands of a smith or cobbler less efficient, but if your mind is by habit of an active turn you may still give instruction and advice, listen and learn, inquire and remember, Besides, if you meet sickness in a sensible manner, do you really think you are achieving nothing?"

Now it's not scientifically proven that if you have asthma your brain will somehow magically become bigger and you will somehow develop a higher IQ. Yet it is a proven fact that if you read and think you WILL get smarter.  It happens by default.

In fact, I read once that you have a memory muscle in your brain.  Lack of thinking causes it to atrophy, yet excessive thinking causes this muscle to increase in scope and size, such as when an athlete pumps iron.

Another interesting fact about asthma is it forces you to take a time out.  Often breathing exercises and relaxation exercises are needed to help you ease your mind and catch your breath.

New evidence, as you can see from this study, even shows that mindfulness meditation can help "relieve pain and improve memory by regulating a brain wave known as the alpha rhythm, which 'turns down the volume' on distractions."