(HealthDay News) -- Hay fever and similar allergies increase the frequency and severity of respiratory problems in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a new study shows.

COPD is a progressive lung disease that makes it difficult to breathe.

In this study, researchers looked at more than 1,400 patients with COPD, and found that those with allergies were much more likely than those without allergies to wheeze, to have chronic cough and chronic phlegm, to awake during the night because of cough, and to have a worsening of COPD symptoms that required antibiotics or a visit to the doctor.

The study by the Johns Hopkins University researchers was published online May 10 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC)- Today we got our first-ever comprehensive look at what hospitals around the country charge for different procedures, and the newly-released data shows some big gaps in what different hospitals in our area charge for the same procedure.

Hospitals protect this cost information like KFC protects its recipe, but as part of the healthcare overhaul, the government today released thousands of pages of documents showing what hospitals charge Medicare and Medicaid for different procedures.

Before we show you the data, there are a couple of important things to remember.

These costs are what the hospitals charge the government, not what they charge healthcare insurance companies who often negotiate deep discounts as part of their contracts.

And as you'll see, there is a big difference between what a hospital charges and what the government ends up actually paying.

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, May 2 (HealthDay News) -- The number of American children who suffer from food and skin allergies has increased dramatically in recent years, a new government report shows.

Interestingly, the prevalence of food and respiratory allergies rose with income: Children living in families that made more than 200 percent of the poverty level had the highest rates, the statistics showed.

"The prevalence of food and skin allergies both increased over the past 14 years," said report co-author LaJeana Howie, from the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This has been a consistent trend."