Asthma Inhalers Central

In our first Famous Asthmatics article, we featured Beethoven, St. Bernadette, and Dennis Rodman (what an unlikely triumvirate!). Today, we have a trio composed again of people from different walks of life: Liz Taylor, Charles Dickens, and Dominique Wilkins.

Elizabeth Taylor, famous Hollywood star and two-time Oscar awardee for Best Actress. If there’s anyone who believes that asthmatics are sickly, atrophied people, he should take a look at the beauty that is Liz Taylor. Some asthmatics don’t take too kindly to perfume, so it might also seem ironic that Liz Taylor launched two perfume lines late in her career.

Charles Dickens, one of the greatest novelists the world has known and author of Oliver Twist and Great Expectations. Arguably the most famous Victorian period author, Dickens was an asthma sufferer. According to Voices from the Past, “Dickens found relief from his ‘chest troubles’ only with opium, a popular asthma remedy of his day. Mr. Omer, one of the asthmatic characters in the autobiographical novel, David Copperfield, reflects Dickens’s own suffering.”

Dominique Wilkins, retired basketball great and NBA All-Star. The “Human Highlight Film” was first diagnosed with asthma around age 22 and was still able to play exemplary basketball despite the illness. According to Michelle Taylor’s interview with ‘Nique, strong emotions (such as the excitement found in basketball) seemed to set off the athlete’s asthma attacks.