Breathe Away Asthma

Asthma is a chronic obstructive respiratory disease characterized by difficulty in breathing. It is caused mainly due to tightening of the airways or bronchial tubes of the lungs. It is a common disease among children, teens and adults.

Asthma is mainly of two types:

Extrinsic Asthma
Intrinsic Asthma

Extrinsic asthma is caused by the allergens. It happens when we inhale or sometimes ingest some allergens, our body reciprocates it with allergies. Some of the allergens are dust mites, tree and grass pollens, mold, feather pillow, food additives containing sulfites, dander, house dust etc. Extrinsic asthma is more common among children and the people between the age group of 16-30. Intrinsic asthma is non allergic and mostly occur among the people above the age of 30. It is caused by respiratory infection, inhalation of chemical irritants like cleaning fluids or fresh paint, air pollution, and sometimes by exercise.

According to the occurrence, asthma can be classified as follows:

Nocturnal asthma - mainly occurs at night, and more often in the morning between 2-4 a.m. It affects people with both types (extrinsic/ intrinsic) of asthma.

Seasonal asthma - this type of asthma happens only at certain time of the year. It mainly affects people with extrinsic asthma. It is more prevalent during summer, and it is the reason why 15% more death of asthma occurs in summer than the rest of the year.

Exercise-induced asthma - it will affect the people with all types of asthma. During exercise, due to rapid inhalation of air that is cooler and drier than that of the air passages, the lungs lose water and heat, so the people experience shortness of breath, chest pain or tightness, wheezing, coughing or endurance problems.

“Prevention is better than cure,” so recognizing the early warning signs of asthma is very important, because you can begin the treatment earlier which seems to be very effective.

Early warning signs of asthma are listed below:

Breathing changes
Feeling tired
Feeling weak
Fever
Headache
Runny/stuffy nose
Coughing
Sneezing
Dry mouth
Moodiness
Sleeping disorder
Glassy/watery eyes

If prevention is not taken in time, these early warning signs will lead to mild to severe cases of asthma and the symptoms are as follows:

Wheezing
Coughing
Shortness of breath (dyspnea)
Tightness in the chest

In more severe cases, patient can feel severe coughing, sneezing, shortness of breath in walking, nasal flaring, hunched shoulder etc.

Asthma is not curable but it is a preventable disease. Its attack also ranges between mild and moderate to severe. Once you suffer asthma, your lungs will always react to the things that can cause asthma attack..

In mild attack, you may feel coughing, restlessness, or have trouble sleeping and may make wheezing or whistling sound when you breathe, and in severe attack you may become breathless, and have trouble in talking. As you breathe, your neck muscle may become tight and your lips and fingernails may turn to grayish or bluish colour.

Asthma treatment can be divided into long-term and quick relief medication. Long-term control medications are taken daily to control asthma by preventing airway inflammation, while quick-relief medication is followed in order to achieve control over acute asthma attack by relaxing bronchial smooth muscle.

Most of the asthma medication is administered orally or by inhalation, of which latter is mostly preferred, because inhaled medications works directly on the airway surface and airway muscles where the asthma problems initiate, and it also leaves fewer chances of side effects.

Apart from these, measures like cleaning house in regular basis, avoiding pets with fur and feather, washing the bedding regularly in hot water and staying away from allergens will certainly help in restricting the frequent episode of asthma. Theophylline improves breathing by opening air passages in the lungs. It is used in the treatment of asthma, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema.

By: D Cathniz

Why Do You Have Asthma?

Asthma is an inflammatory condition where your bronchiales constrict causing breathing difficulties. Your bronchioles become inflamed for a variety of physical, emotional and environmental reasons. It is not contagious so, you cannot catch it from another person.

But what is the real cause asthma? Why do some people develop asthma and why is asthma more common in the western world?

Inheriting Asthma

However, you can inherit the asthma tendency from your parents, although people with asthma should not worry about their future children on this score.

Studies show that children whose parents smoke are twice as likely to develop asthma as children of non-smoking parents. Also, children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy tend to be born with smaller airways, which greatly increases their chances of developing the disease.
The "westernised" environment and lifestyle in developed countries has a lot to do with the chances of whether a person will develop asthma or not.

Many people believe air pollution has something to do with asthma, although the evidence, at this stage, is surprisingly very weak.

Allergies

Causes of asthma include allergies to house dust mites, cats, dogs, and moulds.

Childhood infections and exposure to substances from bacteria in a dirty environment seem to protect against allergies, and this seems to be the main reason why richer populations have more allergic disease.

So the causes of asthma are complicated. They include genetics, exposure to chemical irritants and pollution, a low immune system, emotional or mental problems, allergies to certain foods.

Almost all asthma in young people is cause by allergies. This means that if you have asthma you probably have inherited genes which make it possible for you to get asthma. Add to this, allergy-producing things in your environment, such as house dust mites, cats, or dog and your asthma get worse.. The allergies and the genes are the causes for developing asthma, because if either of them were not present you would not developed asthma.

But, what about colds, exercise, laughter, or tobacco smoke, which are asthma triggers?

You can't cure your asthma by not doing exercise, or by not laughing. Quite simply, these are not causes of asthma, though they can be causes of an attack.

The type of interior house paint can apparently make asthma worse. Glossy oil paints used for home decorating can bring on asthma attacks. The good news is that emulsion paints don't seem to do this.

Polyurethane paints, usually recognisable because they come in two packs which need to be mixed together before use, can cause occupational asthma in people who use them regularly. However, they probably cause no great risk in people with asthma who use them infrequently. As always, when using chemicals and paints, it is surely a good idea to ventilate the area well during and after use.

Emotional issues

Now, deep seated emotionally issue can be the cause of asthma. When emotion is embedded into the body, it has to express itself in a way that its electrical charge can be released. This release happens over and over as outside situations trigger the memory.

The way an embedded emotion issue choses to express itself is by the path of least resistance. If your heart is weak, the emotional issue will pound your heart. If your joints are weak, it will pound your joints. If your bronchia or lungs are weak, it will pound them and eventually weaken those more, leading you to asthma or other respiratory diseases.

Early on everyone should be aware of their family illness history. This is something that is seldom considered. If it were, you could take preventative measures if you knew you were prone to asthma. Choosing the right foods and keeping specific body organs or systems strong, with the right nutrients early on, would definitely prevent you from having to suffer with asthma as you became older.

By: Rudy Silva