You also need a game plan, he said. He's signed on to promote the five-question Asthma Control Test embraced by the American Lung Association, GlaxoSmithKline and others, available online at www.asthmacontrol.com. One-third of those taking the quiz online found they do not have their asthma under control, he said.

The questions are simple, the scoring is automatic and it's "a barometer for the doctor to get an idea where your asthma is," he said. With that information, patient and doctor can decide how to control asthma.

The answer isn't to sit out life, he said. "Don't let asthma be the thing that stops your dreams." He played a very competitive sport for more than a decade with asthma. "It hasn't slowed me down, but it's made me more conscious as I do the things I want to do," he said. When he needed to leave a game, he did, for instance.

He said it's also important to teach parents, not just about treatments, but about possibilities — like the fact that children can have asthma and still play sports, Bettis said. "You want to encourage, not discourage."

Physicians need education, too, he said, and that's one reason he was in Salt Lake City on Tuesday. He was to speak to physicians in town for the American College of Chest Physicians conference at the Salt Palace. He hoped to give them a face and a name to go with the diagnosis.

"It's not just a guy. It's this guy," he said.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com

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