Asthma is an incurable disease, which affects the airways of a person. In asthma, a patient experiences repeated events of cough, wheezing and difficulty in breathing. Asthma is a result of the swelling and sores on the linings of lungs. This condition makes the lungs highly sensitive and worsens the situation at the time of lung infections.
In case of asthma, the patient experience breathing issues, because of the infections in the lungs. Inflammations generally occur in the muscles of the air passageway. In this condition, the bronchial tubes become narrow, which restricts the entry of air into the lungs. This condition is known as Spasm.
Severity of asthma symptoms leads to asthma attacks. An asthma attack hinders adequate supply of oxygen to vital organs inside the body. This situation may even cause death in some cases.
Statistics says that approximately 20 million people all over the world are suffering from asthma, out of which, 10 million are suffering from allergic asthma. Out of these 10 million allergic asthmatic patients, 3 million are children. The allergic asthmatic patients can control the symptoms by controlling their allergies like dust mites, pet dander, pollens, mold, etc. This makes allergic asthma the most common type of asthma. Common symptoms of allergic asthma are coughing, wheezing and tightening of chest.
The treatment options available for asthma is medication, which is of two types depending on the duration of the effect, viz., long-term and short-term.
There are some characteristic features of asthma, including airway inflammation, airway obstruction and airway hyper-responsiveness. These are some of the conditions of lungs that help determine the type of asthma in a patient.
Some common symptoms of asthma are coughing, wheezing, troubled breathing, elevated respiratory rate, tightness in chest, abdominal pain, fatigue, agitation and increased pulse rate, among others.
This chronic disease has several causative factors like allergens, cold and viral infections, change in weather, sudden exposure to cold air, tobacco smoke, air pollution, paints, cleaning agents, perfumes and strong odors.
Types of Asthma:
According to the type of factors that trigger asthma, it can be classified into following types:
1). Allergic Asthma :
It is also known as “extrinsic” asthma as the trigger comes from outside the body and is inhaled along with the air. There is a range of triggers of allergic asthma, such as cigarette smoke, animal fur, perfume, plant pollen, cold air, exhaust and other chemical fumes. These impact of these triggers vary from person to person.
2). Non-Allergic Asthma:
Also known as intrinsic asthma, non-allergic asthma is caused by triggers present inside a person’s body. These include bacterial and viral inflammations of the airways and intake of certain painkillers like acetylsalicylic acid and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Emotional and physical stress can also make some people breathe faster, eventually leading asthma symptoms to surface.
Asthma is a condition, wherein inflammation occurs in lungs. Its common signs and symptoms are listed below:
There are some early symptoms of asthma that are generally ignored by people as normal health variations. However, these early symptoms are the warning signs of asthma attack in near future. In fact, these signs or symptoms can be observed before the well-known symptoms of asthma. These are less severe and thus, does not obstruct a person in his/her day-to-day activities. These are as follows:
Asthma attack is a condition in which the muscles surrounding the airways start to tighten. Bronchospasm is the condition of tightening of muscles. At the time of an asthma attack, the airways become swollen due to inflammation and thus, which results in excessive mucus production by the cell lining of lungs.
Common symptoms of an asthma attack are:
For the above-mentioned symptoms, there is a need for immediate treatment as the delay may lead to trouble in breathing. Therefore, an instant treatment with asthma inhaler or bronchodilator is recommended. If the lungs continue to tighten, there would be not enough air movement in the lungs and a person would be required to be transported to hospital. In such a condition, if instant treatment is not given, then nails and lips start to turn blue. This is because of less amount of oxygen supply in the blood. In some severe cases of asthma attacks, death may occur if the treatment is not provided on time.
In children, the symptoms of asthma can begin at any age, but in most of the cases, the symptoms initially appear when a child reaches the age of 5 years.
Wheezing is not common in all the children. The only obvious sign of asthma in children is chronic coughing. Sometimes, asthma cannot be easily diagnosed in children because of recurrent bronchitis.
It is not necessary that every individual exhibit the common symptoms of asthma. A few people under certain circumstances exhibit asthma symptoms that are unusual. These include:
Thus, this can be concluded that the symptoms whether severe, minor or unusual are associated with a different kind of causative agent.
Being an allergy, asthma is associated with many factors. These factors enhance the risk of developing asthma. Some common risk factors of asthma include:
Symptoms like coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, tightness in chest, tiredness during workout, speech difficulty, paleness, congestion in airway, etc. depicts that the person might have asthma.
But, this is not necessary as there are many other diseases that have similar symptoms. For example, a person with bronchitis feels chest pain and coughing. In case of emphysema, shortness of breath, coughing and wheezing are common symptoms. Also, when a person has hay fever, he/she experiences symptoms like shortness of breath, coughing, congestion, etc.
Thus, deciding one’s condition on your own is not good. It is recommended that if you experience any of the above-discussed symptoms, then immediately consult a doctor for proper diagnosis.
Sadly, there is no known cause for asthma till date. However, there are some factors that are responsible in influencing the levels of asthma. Certain factors associated with the development of asthma are genes, air pollution and chlorine in pool water, among others.
i. Asthma Triggers: People, who are at risk of developing asthma, have inflammation in their airways and so, they are highly sensitive to several things. These are known as asthma triggers that may induce symptoms of asthma in such people. A few of asthma triggers are given below:
ii. Work-Related Factors: Work environment can be responsible for asthma development. Occupational asthma is the asthma caused by work-related factors that are listed below:
Certain preventive measures could be adopted against asthma. Discussed below are several measures that help prevent the development of asthma symptoms.
Asthma is primarily diagnosed through a physical examination of the person. There are certain tests spirometry, peak flow test, methacholine challenge, imaging test and allergy testing that are employed by doctors to diagnose the accurately diagnose asthma and severity of the condition.
For effective treatment of asthma, the most important thing is to find the asthma trigger. Therefore, the treatment method varies according to the type of causative factor. By and large, methods for asthma treatment include medication, several types of therapies and special action plans.
1. Medication:
Treating asthma with medicines is the most common approach. Quick-relief medicines and long-term control medicines are the two types of medications.
2. Immunotherapy:
The second highly adopted approach for the treatment of asthma is immunotherapy. This method is further classified as allergy shots and sublingual tablets.
The only available OTC medicines for asthma treatment are epinephrine and ephedrine.
There are a few self-management steps that could help a person prevent and control asthma. These include:
Enlisted here are some of the natural methods to cure and prevent asthma:
Bringing a few changes in the lifestyle is the best way to minimize the risk of developing asthma or asthma attack. Managing the body as per the condition help reduce the need of mediation and the risk of developing asthma.
An enthusiastic health blogger and licensed cosmetologist, Amy has been running a well-established beauty and skin clinic in her locality plus she has been contributing her bit in health blogging for more than 15 years. While she personally supports natural ways of staying beautiful, she equally emphasizes the modern-day need of cosmetic treatments; considering urban lifestyle and prevailing environmental conditions in today’s world. She writes about contemporary health issues from time to time, aging prevention, anti-aging treatments, skin care, and skin-friendly diets and supplements.
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