Asthma

What is Asthma?

Asthma in simple term is an ordinary respiratory disease commonly found in adults and children known as asthmatic bronchitis. An asthmatic patient literally struggles to breath due to obstacles that hinders the airways.

Being a breathing problem it contracts the airways giving mild asthma attack that go away naturally, but severe and long lasting asthma attacks needs thorough medications. Repeated chronic symptoms associated with asthma cause irreparable damage to the respiratory organs.

Causes of Asthma

Asthma causes have a variety of facets that somehow trigger asthma attack. Most commonly environmental factors like pollution, chemical, smoke and dust particles are responsible for causing this respiratory problem.

Often domestic items having strong fragrances like perfumes, talcum powder, varnish, oil paints and spices become causes of asthma attacks. Apart from these causes, a severe reason to influence asthma attack is lung infection, which can be viral or bacterial.

Natural allergens like pollen discharged from trees and plants may be possible causes of asthma. But these are seasonal attributes and tend to appear once a year. Parents suffering from breath shortness predispose their children to suffer right from child hood.

Allergic and non-allergic are the two types of asthma. Ninety percent of affected individuals suffer from one or more allergies and develop severe asthma. The only way to stay out of allergic asthma is to avoid it.

While non-allergic asthma develops due to inflammation or narrowed airways it can be controlled with over the counter medications.

Seasonal and occupational asthma are rare, but affect people having seasonal allergy. People facing occupational hazard at work place are more likely to develop asthma.

Symptoms of Asthma

When mucus production in airways increase above certain level patient experiences symptoms like coughing, wheezing, tightness in chest and short breath.

These symptoms may be general, but life threatening for sufferers. Tightness in chest is falsely stated as pain in chest misdiagnosed as angina.

Chronic symptoms show up as increased pulse rate and sweating where patient’s face and lips turn colorless due to less oxygen supply.

As air struggles to pass through narrowed airways, it makes whistling sounds while breathing or coughing. Excess mucus discharge from nasal cavities is among possible asthma symptoms.

Treatment for Asthma

Treatments focus on avoiding triggers and keeping the airways from getting inflamed. Self monitoring strategy should be cultivated by patients to identify specific allergens that an individual is allergic to.

Track your asthma attack history, note down the timings and severity so that it can help diagnosis and more precise medications for asthma can be prescribed by your physician.

Ask for standard emergency breathing aids. Meditation and breathing exercises are natural treatment for asthma that helps patients to improve his or her breathing rhythm.

Relaxation, stress and anger management, exercise to strengthen lungs and avoiding smoking habit all fall under treatment for asthma.