Introduction to Asthma

Asthma is an inflammatory disorder of the airways, which causes attacks of wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing. There is no cure for asthma, but most people can control the condition and lead normal, active lives. Different things set off asthma attacks in different people. Smoke from cigarettes or a fire, air pollution, cold air, pollen, animals, house dust, molds, strong smells such as perfume or bus exhaust, wood dust, exercise, industrial chemicals all can trigger an attack. The symptoms of an asthmatic person are cough with or without sputum phlegm production, Shortness of breath that gets worse with exercise or activity, Pulling in of the skin between the ribs when breathing intercostals retractions, Wheezing, Usually begins suddenly, Comes in episodes, May go away on its own, May be worse at night or in early morning, Gets worse when breathing in cold air, Gets worse with exercise, Gets worse with heartburn reflux, Gets better when using drugs that open the airways bronchodilators The emergency symptoms are the decreased level of alertness such as severe drowsiness or confusion, during an asthma attack. The bluish color to the lips and face. Extreme difficulty breathing for a person is hard. Severe anxiety due to shortness of breath, Sweating. An additional symptom that may be associated with this disease is abnormal breathing pattern breathing out takes more than twice as long as breathing in. Have a chest pain is hard to breathe when u having asthma and it’s hard when tightness in the chest. Breathing temporarily stops and nasal flaring. The goal of treatment is to avoid the substances that trigger your symptoms and to control airway inflammation. Peoples and doctors should work together as a team to develop and carry out a plan for eliminating asthma triggers and monitoring symptoms. There are two basic kinds of medication for the treatment of asthma. There are long-acting medications to prevent attacks. Quick relief medications for use during attacks. The long-term control medications are used on a regular basis to prevent attacks, not to treat them. Such medicines include as inhaled corticosteroids such as Azmacort, Vanceril, AeroBid, and Flovent prevent inflammation. Leukotriene inhibitors such as Singular and Accolate. Long-acting bronchodilators such as Serevent help open airways. Cromolyn sodium Intel or nedocromil sodium Tilade. Aminophylline or theophylline. Sometimes a combination of steroids and bronchodilators are used. Quick relief, or rescue, medications are used to relieve symptoms during an attack. These are short-acting bronchodilators inhalers, such as Proventil, Ventolin, Xopenex, and others. Corticosteroids, such as prednisone or methylprednisolone given by mouth or into a vein Most people with asthma have wheezing attacks separated by symptom free periods. Some patients have long-term shortness of breath with episodes of increased shortness of breath. In others, a cough may be the main symptom. Asthma attacks can last minutes to days and can become dangerous if the airflow becomes severely restricted. In sensitive individuals, asthma symptoms can be triggered by breathing in allergy causing substances called allergens or triggers. Allergy testing may be helpful in identifying allergens in patients with persistent asthma. Common allergens include pet dander, dust mites, cockroach allergens, molds, and pollens. Common respiratory irritants include tobacco smoke, pollution, and fumes from burning wood or gas. The doctor will use a stethoscope to listen to the lungs. Asthma related sounds may be heard. However, lung sounds are usually normal between asthma episodes. The tests that an asthma may include. Blood tests to measure eosinophil count a type of white blood cell and a type of immune system protein called an immunoglobulin. Lung function tests, Arterial blood gas, Chest x-ray and a peak flow measurements. There is no cure for asthma, although symptoms sometimes improve over time. With proper self management and medical treatment, most people with asthma can lead normal lives. The prevention of asthma symptoms can be substantially reduced by avoiding known triggers and substances that irritate the airways. Bedding can be covered with â€Å"allergy proof† casings to reduce exposure to dust mites. Removing carpets from bedrooms and vaccuuming regularly is also helpful. Detergents and cleaning materials in the home should be unscented. Keeping humidity levels low and fixing leaks can reduce growth of organisms such as mold. Keep the house clean and keep food in containers and out of bedrooms this helps reduce the possibility of cockroaches, which can trigger asthma attacks in some people. If a person is allergic to an animal that cannot be removed from the home, the animal should be kept out of the patient's bedroom. Filtering material can be placed over the heating outlets to trap animal dander. Eliminating tobacco smoke from the home is the single most important thing a family can do to help a child with asthma. Smoking outside the house is not enough. Family members and visitors who smoke carry smoke esidue in and on their clothes and hair this can trigger asthma symptoms. Persons with asthma should also avoid air pollution, industrial dusts, and other irritating fumes, as much as possible. The complications of asthma can be severe. Some include as Death, Decreased ability to exercise and take part in other activities. Lack of sleep due to nighttime symptoms of dealing with asthma. They are permanent changes in the function of the lungs and persistent cough. The trouble breathing that requires breathing assistance ventilator. Call people health care provider or go to the emergency room. An asthma attack requires more medication than recommended. The symptoms get worse or do not improve with treatment. People have shortness of breath while talking. There is severe shortness of breath at rest. The peak flow measurement. The peak flow measurement is less than 50% of your personal best. Some people have severe chest pain best. Drowsiness or confusion develops. What are the causes in asthma all people with asthma have the same underlying problem an immune system that overprotects the lungs. Cells that defend the body stay gathered in the airways and produce mucus, a moist substance that keeps the airways free of dust. But if an irritant, such as smoke, pollution, or cold air, comes along, these defense cells overreact they make too much mucus. The mucus clogs the breathing passages. At the same time, the muscles lining the passages contract, squeezing and narrowing the airways. The result is that less air is able to flow in and out of the lungs. Doctors aren't sure what causes these cells to stay gathered in a person's airways in the first place, but they do know that the problem tends to run in families. If one of the parents has asthma, the odds that you will have it are higher. People are even more likely to have asthma if both of their parents have it. Asthma shows up before the age of 18 for about half of the people who develop the condition. But it can appear at any age, even when a person is in his sixties or older. They have preventions for an attack. There are three keys to taking control of the asthma: faithfully using your prescribed medication, periodically checking your breathing at home, and avoiding the things that set off the symptoms. With these keys, there can prevent attacks rather than just treating them. Using medication that people need. Certain anti-inflammatory drugs can ward off attacks or lower the number of attacks you have. Most often, people breathe in the medication using an inhaler. These drugs keep the defense cells that stay in their airways from overreacting and causing an attack. The doctor will tell a person how many times a day to use the inhaler and how many puffs to take each time, based on how bad your asthma is. He or She must follow this schedule for the inhaler to work. And it's important to remember that using anti-inflammatory drugs won't help during an attack. It's a good idea to rinse him / her mouth out with water after using the inhaler. This will help prevent an infection in the mouth, a rare side effect of the drug. Anti inflammatory drugs also come in pill form, but usually only people with severe asthma need to take pills. In pill form, the medicine goes directly into the bloodstream and stays in the body longer, having a more lasting effect than an inhaled drug does. Anti inflammatory drugs are sometimes called corticosteroids. However, they have nothing to do with the muscle building hormone that many people think of when they hear the term steroids. A person might have to check their breathing from time to time at home with a device called a peak flow meter. This small, hand held instrument measures the amount of air that you are able to blow out. The measurement gives people a better idea of the clearness of their breathing passages than they can sense of their own. Using the flow meter regularly will help you and your doctor work out the best possible treatment plan. If people keep getting good results, meaning they're breathing easily, they may not have to use the inhaler as often or at all. A dip in the flow meter’s reading, showing that you are able to exhale less air than usual, can warn people that an asthma attack is coming. What to do if people have an attack. She/he won't always be able to prevent asthma attacks. If they have one, take action immediately. Have people medicine handy to their doctor will prescribe drugs that relieve the symptoms of asthma should before they suffer an attack. These drugs are called bronchodilators. Their inhale them, and they quickly work to open up their airways. If people asthma is very mild, the bronchodilator may be the only drug they need at that time. People often confuse these drugs with inhaled anti-inflammatory medications, which act on the immune system cells in the lungs but will not loosen their breathing passages during an attack. Check their breathing. Use the flow meter to see if an asthma attack is responding to your medication. If it's not, get emergency care right away. Unlike bothersome substances, exercise is not an irritant that you need to avoid. Although vigorous activity can cause attacks in many people with asthma, there are things that a person can do to make exercising more comfortable. Experts encourage adults and kids to go for it to participate in pretty much whatever sports or activities they like. There have even been Olympic athletes with asthma. Asthma symptoms can appear during their workout or after they finishing exercising. The symptoms are thought to be caused by changes in the temperature and moisture of the air they breathe. Usually an exercise flare up reaches a peak in five to ten minutes and then goes away by itself in 30 minutes to an hour. Here are some things that they can do to avoid asthma symptoms while people work out. Start slow. Spending a few minutes warming up before they go all out can help prevent the symptoms. Be prepared. To lessen the negative effect of physical activity, the doctor may tell people to take a couple of puffs from their bronchodilator inhaler about ten minutes before they start exercising. Check the air quality. While exercise itself rarely brings on a bad attack, exercise in combination with another irritant can create a serious problem. If they are sensitive to air pollution or pollen, for example, and most run on a day when the air is smoggy or pollen counts are high, they may have trouble. A better choice on such a day is to exercise indoors. Check the air temperature. Like physical activity, cold air brings on asthma symptoms in many people. The same bike ride, walk, or roller skating outing that you can handle in mild weather may be tougher in the winter. Work out when they're healthy. They’re more likely to experience a flare up during exercise if you have a virus. Make sure that they're over a cold or the flu before going back to their routine. A stuffy nose can also create problems. People’s nose warms and moistens the air and the inhale. But when people have to breathe through their mouth, colder, drier air goes into their airways, causing asthma symptoms. If they often have a stuffy nose from allergies, ask their doctor about treatment. As a mother, there is no need to be too worried or over protective of their asthmatic child. Look after her/him as people would for other children with love, care and encouragement. Although asthma cannot be cured, with proper management, asthmatic children can still lead happy and healthy lives like any other children. As most mother are very protective with me their child when she/he was born with asthma.