You Can Control Your Asthma

from health and fitness

According to the global burden of asthma report in 2004, asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world. It is estimated that around 300 million people in the world currently have asthma. Considerably higher estimates can be obtained with less conservative criteria for the diagnosis of clinical asthma.

Asthma is a chronic respiratory illness that affects your airways; that is, the passages that carry air in and out of your lungs. An asthma sufferer's airways can sometimes become inflamed and constricted in response to triggers in the environment. The reaction also causes excess amounts of mucous to collect inside the airways.

As the airways constrict, they cause symptoms such as chest tightness and shortness of breath, as well as wheezing and coughing. In some patients, the symptoms are particularly acute at night and the early morning.

Symptoms of Asthma

An acute exacerbation of asthma symptoms is when a person's asthma symptoms become strikingly worse than usual, they are said to be having an asthma episode or attack. During an attack, muscles around the patient's airways will tighten up and further constrict the passageways; inflammation will increase, and more mucous will be produced. All of this combines to make breathing even more difficult than it already was before the attack.

Wheezing (a whistling sound coming from the chest) and difficulty breathing or chest tightness are well-recognised signs of asthma. However, according to Associate Prof. Dr. Jessie, a Consultant Paediatrician and Respiratory Paediatrician, "Many people do not realise that cough, especially brought on by exertion or in the middle of the night, (early hours of the morning) may also be signs of asthma."

An asthma attack can get so severe that the body's major organs may begin to be deprived of oxygen. Asthma sufferers have been known to turn blue, suffer severe chest pains, and lose consciousness. Severe attacks that do not respond to regular treatments should be considered life threatening. These attacks can sometimes lead to death.

What causes asthma and who is at risk?

In our email interview with Prof. Dr. Jessie, she said, "No one is really sure why a person has asthma. It is something that runs in families so there is a genetic predisposition. (However, even if no one else in the family has asthma, a person may still develop asthma and even if everyone else in your family has asthma you may not necessarily have it yourself).

"In predisposed individuals, something happens to "switch on" the asthma but no one is sure what this switch is. It may be an allergen or it may be an infection or it may be pollutants. Although animal dander may worsen asthma in someone who already has asthma, children raised in farming communities and exposed to animals actually have a lower incidence of asthma. "Some infections may 'switch on' the asthma and some may actually protect you from developing asthma by influencing your immune system. Although pollution has been implicated in asthma, some more heavily polluted areas have lower rates of asthma (e.g. East Germany vs. West Germany). It may also vary from individual to individual. The origins of asthma are still a puzzle."

International Study of Asthma and Allergy in Childhood (ISAAC) indicates that on a global basis the prevalence of asthma may have reached a plateau. ISAAC figures showed the prevalence in 13 - 14 year olds to have risen from 13.9 percent in 1995 and 16.1 percent in 2001.

How does one recover from or prevent an attack?

The best way to prevent an asthma attack is to keep the asthma under control. This can be done by avoiding triggers and by taking preventive medication. The most important thing to do during an attack is to keep calm.

Panicking only worsens the situation. Take normal breaths — do not take very deep breaths. Brace your arms against a wall or sit backwards on a chair with your arms resting on top of the chair back and breathe normally if you can. Take some reliever or bronchodilator medication (medicine that opens up the breathing tubes by relaxing their muscles).

The best way to take this medicine is by using an inhaler and breathing it in as it gets directly to where it is needed. It therefore works faster and has fewer side effects, as a lower dose is needed than with oral medicines. If you do not improve, you must get medical attention.

Treatments for Asthma

Although it can never be cured, proper self care, combined with the right drugs can allow an asthma sufferer to lead a mostly problem-free life. Asthma is treated through a combination of medication and trigger avoidance. "As there is underlying inflammation causing the symptoms, this should be kept under control with anti-inflammatories."

Over time, a doctor will change both the dose and the combinations of medications, in order to ensure that they are still effective. One of the biggest problems with asthma sufferers is that they will tend to stop taking their medications when they begin to breathe and feel better.

Feeling better is only an indication that the medications are working, not that the disease is gone. Parents of asthmatic children have to be especially careful about this.

These are some of the treatments available:

• Inhaled corticosteroids and leukotrine antagonists. Long-acting bronchodilators can be added to inhaled corticosteroids to make them more effective.
• Anti-IgE injections can be used for those with very severe asthma not responding to the usual medication but is prohibitively expensive.
• Bronchodilators should be used when symptoms occur. The best way to take bronchodilators is to inhale them or breathe them in. If there are problems with coordination then spacer or delivery devices are available to help with getting the medicine to the breathing tubes. If bronchodilators are used very often this is a sign that the asthma is not adequately controlled and the preventive medication should be adjusted accordingly.