Asthma Triggers vs Causes

If you have asthma, do you know the difference between its triggers and causes? You should -- your breathing may depend on it.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that makes airways (bronchial tubes) particularly sensitive to irritants, and this is characterized by difficulty in breathing. Asthma cannot be cured, but for most patients it can be controlled so that they have only minimal and infrequent symptoms and they can live an active life.

If you have asthma, managing it should be an important part of your life. Controlling your asthma means staying away from things that bother your airways and taking your medicines as directed by your doctor.

When discussing diseases, it is important to distinguish between causes and triggers. A trigger is something which sets off an attack, but which did not make you asthmatic in the first place.

"Trigger factors", or "triggers", of asthma are used to describe the things which can cause an attack in someone who already has asthma..

But you hear these words used for the dog to which you are allergic, or the cat, or the pollen that cause your asthma, or the mold on the wallpaper which causes your asthma, and even about house dust mites. Instead of calling these causes, which is what they are, people call them "triggers". They say that their cat is triggering their asthma.

This is a bit like calling an on-coming car the trigger of an accident.

Demoting causes, by calling them triggers, makes people think that the causes are not so important, and that maybe they should just keep using their inhalers instead of making efforts to root out the cause of their asthma and remove these from their environment.

A cause is something, without which, an effect (such as asthma) will not occur. Thus, a cause is something without which you would not be asthmatic. There may be more than one cause for an asthma attack.

We normally think of a trigger as something small that causes something big to happen suddenly. A trigger is one type of cause. But the implication is that the important causes have to be there already if the trigger is to work, and that the trigger is not important. It is the cause which is important.

For example, if you don't have asthmatic lungs, or your asthma is under control, a cold won't give you any symptoms of asthma.

In this sense, it is fair to call the cold a "trigger factor". In addition, if you stopped catching colds, this would not stop you having asthma, so in that sense it cannot be called the true cause of the disease.

But if you have an attack whenever you go near dogs, then dogs in the past have been the cause, and a dog now can trigger an attack. In other words, a dog can be a cause of asthma and also the trigger of an attack.

Concentrating only on the triggers of the attacks misses the really important point that contact with dogs was a cause of the asthma in the first place.

Obviously, an asthma sufferer will want to avoid both the causes and triggers of asthma, but the causes are more serious. Without the causes, the triggers could do absolutely no harm.

By: Barbara Jones

Asthma Control And Asthma Treatments

Avoid the triggers and improve your asthma condition

No matter what asthma medication or asthma treatments you are using, reducing the negative effects of asthma relies on avoiding the asthma triggers as well as you can. The irritation of your breathing passages can be reduced if you live and work in a clean environment and if you keep pollen and dust away. If your asthma condition gets worse or better, write it al down and see which particular environments are positive or negative towards your asthma.

Is exercise an asthma trigger?

This is a fairly common question and in almost every case it is a good idea to exercise even if you do have asthma. Some patients notice that their asthma gets worse after exercising, but if you keep your asthma inhaler close by you should be able to overcome this obstacle. Asthma prevention treatments and asthma inhalers can help you reduce any potential side effects of your condition while you are exercising. If you are worried about this issue or if you experienced asthma attacks during exercise in the past, it is a good idea to gradually start exercising and see where you feel comfortable doing it.

Asthma out of control

There are a few symptoms that will let you know that your condition is getting worse. If you are waking up at night with the sensation that you cannot breath or if coughing and wheezing are always present, a visit to the doctor is required. Well prescribed asthma treatments will help you fight off such problems and regain control over your asthma. Loosing breath while talking or eating is also an indicator of asthma problems on the rise. Seeking specialized help and determining which is the best asthma inhaler or asthma medication for your own case is an important step.

Asthma peak flow meters

An effective method to control asthma is by using a peak flow meter. It is a small plastic tube that you can blow into and measure how much air you can blow out. This shows you how congested your airways are and how effective your asthma treatment is. The best way to control asthma is to treat it with seriousness and to stay constant with your asthma treatment. More info on asthma here: www.asthmaxpert.com

By: Michael Rad

How To Discover Your Hidden Asthma Triggers - Taking Control By Tracking Your Asthma

Asthma is a serious lung disease effecting over 20 million people in the US alone. An asthma attack is caused by a trigger, which can be any external stimulant such as perfume, food, air pollution, cold air, animals, dust, etc., which our bodies react to. Knowing what your personal triggers are and avoiding them will help greatly to prevent asthma attacks. However, what triggers an asthma attack in some people may not even bother another asthma sufferer at all.

To make things more confusing, sometimes a trigger will cause a mild reaction one day and then a severe one the next day. This could be the result of being exposed to multiple triggers, for example one of your known triggers could be pollen, but when combined with a few new unknown triggers - fabric softener, detergent, perfume or a food additive can hit very hard and trigger a major attack. On days when you are feeling tired and haven't had enough sleep or are under stress, you may also find that things which never seemed to bother you previously now suddenly do.

As you see tracing them can be rather complex and requires a bit of detective work to track down and eliminate or minimize these triggers at home or at work. Keeping track of your asthma attacks by writing a journal for a few days is a good way to start. First it's a good idea to note how you were feeling the day you had an attack, if you were tired or didn't sleep well, had a fight with your friend.

What did you eat? Make this detailed and include food ingredients, additives and coloring since they can be a trigger for many people. Where did you go that day? Were there weeds or flowers blooming nearby, animals, damp moldy smells around you? Did you start using a new detergent, fabric softener or household cleaner? Make a note of any exercise you do and your body's reaction to it. On one particular day did the exercise have negative results? Why? What was the weather like? What was the room where you exercised like? If the room is where you regularly go to exercise, was there anything different about it on that day?

After only a few days of writing in your journal you will soon see a pattern emerging. You will have uncovered your asthma triggers and now you can take control and prevent an asthma attack by avoiding, reducing or eliminating them.

However it just isn't practical or even possible to control or eliminate all triggers, particularly outside the home, at work, school or in public places. Fortunately, there is a safe non-drug solution that you should know about, a simple and natural allergy and asthma treatment, which many people have found to be very effective.

By: Susan Millar