Posts Tagged 'asthma treatment'

The Common Causes of Asthma

Thursday, September 9th, 2010 No Commented
Under: Asthma

Asthma can be a life debilitating disease. It is a serious medical condition that should never be taken lightly. If left untreated, asthma can lead to death. People with the condition who do not get immediate asthma help during an attack could suffer from breathing difficulties, wheezing, bronchospasm, or death.
To be able to overcome asthma, there is a need to know and the first things that you should learn about the disease are of course, its causes.

The Common Causes

Many different things may cause asthma in children and in adults. Some causes are common for all patients with the condition while others are more personal, affecting only a specific individual or another.

Generally, asthma is caused by genetic and environmental factors. Some of those found to cause asthma, both genetic and environmental, are not confirmed by research but some are.

There are over a hundred genes that are associated with asthma. Most of them are related to the immune system while some are related to modulating inflammation. Then again, not all the studies made regarding these genes showed consistent results among all populations. This means that more studies are needed to figure the complex interactions to find what exactly causes asthma. One impression that experts have is that, asthma is basically a collection of several conditions and that is the basic reason for the differences in results. One genetic difference may be associated with childhood asthma and so on and so forth.

Environmental factors, meanwhile, are the usual suspects for asthma in children. One of the most common is cigarette smoking, especially maternal smoking. Mothers who smoke during pregnancy may cause their unborn children to suffer from wheezing, breathing difficulties, and respiratory infections in the process.

Another environmental factor that may cause asthma is the exposure to air pollutants. Children with asthma are especially associated with this. Researches showed that childhood asthma might be affected by exposure to outside air pollutants.

There are other environmental factors that are associated with the occurrence of asthma. There’s the viral infection in the respiratory; delivery via the caesarean section, which may cause modification in the immune system; psychological stress; and improper use of antibiotics as well as paracetamol.

Some genetic factors that cause asthma only become prevalent when combined with specific environmental factors. Otherwise, they cannot be considered serious risks for asthma development and asthma morbidity.

All About Allergens

Allergens are things that asthmatics are allergic to and should not be exposed to because they may encourage asthma attacks. Asthma caused by allergens is patient-specific. Not all triggers have the same effect on all patients. Some allergens trigger a different effect on the lungs, thus cause a different episode.

A patient must know what he is allergic to because exposure to such will often activate the signs of asthma. Examples of allergens are dust mites, pollens, molds, insect parts, foods, pets, work-related agents, and additives among others.

It must be pointed out, however, that not all asthmatics are allergic to something. There are about 80% of children with asthma and about 50% of asthmatic adults also have allergies.

Asthma Treatment

Thursday, June 17th, 2010 No Commented
Under: Asthma

A Class-X student in Mohali died recently following a suspected asthma bout. Doctors commented on this incident that many asthma cases remain unnoticed among people, especially children. With pollution being considered as the main reason behind Asthma, many are struggling against dust and dirt in many places. Recently, Tribune News Service reported that there is 40-50 per cent increase in the number of children and adults at urban hospitals and rural dispensaries suffering from asthma, bronchitis and laryngitis followed by distress and difficulty in breathing.

Asthma is a chronic disease affecting the respiratory organs resulting in a block in the normal air passage. Early warning signs occur in the form of wheezing, coughing, stuffy feeling in the chest, and sometimes mild chest pain.

The causes of asthma differ from person to person. Mostly, allergens from air particles, dust, pollen, climatic changes, etc. cause asthma. You are prone to asthma if:

  • You have a family history of asthma
  • You are more prone to dust
  • Your mother had the habit of smoking when she was pregnant with you
  • You have a sinusitis problem
  • You are obese
  • The first step towards treating asthma is learning about your type of asthma. If dust is what causing allergy, avoid it. For some people, it will be the change of climate or extreme weather conditions that cause asthma. Try to avoid these before you go for any kind of medication.

    Consult a doctor and explain all the symptoms you have. Blood test will be taken to confirm asthma. Spirometry test will also be conducted to analyse air flow normalcy. Once asthma is confirmed, oral medicines will be prescribed. Depending on the type of asthma, there will be long term/short term medications. Long term oral medicines are to control persistent asthma attacks. The most commonly used medicines are salbutamol, bitolterol, ephedrine etc. Please take medicines with the help of prescriptions from a doctor.

    Inhalers are mostly used for sudden relief. (MDI’s) or Metered-dose inhalers are the most commonly used. This helps the patient to inhale a short dose of aerosolized medicine. There are dry powder inhalers available as well. They are more expensive than MDI, but are being used popularly now.

    You may also try some simple home remedies to treat asthma.

  • Drinking carrot juice 3 times a day helps treat asthma.
  • Intake of gooseberry every day is extremely good to treat allergic asthma.
  • Boil milk and put 10 cloves of garlic in it. Keep it for some time and drink. Make this a habit every day.
  • Practice yoga and breathing exercises. You will be able to control asthma to a large extent. Avoid tension and stress in life. Again, yoga helps to avoid such unwanted physical and mental stress.

    Asthma Free Forever

    Thursday, May 13th, 2010 No Commented
    Under: Asthma

    Are you suffering with asthma? If so, prospects are high that you know it and specific periods of the year are genuine anguish for you. Are you concerned about your health when you have that tightness in your chest, shortness of breath, problems taking a deep breath, endless runny nose and watery eyes, and a number of many other signs and symptoms? That is an indicator of asthma and it is not enjoyable.
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    You have most likely been to your physician several times, who analyzed you, ran test after test, and eventually prescribed a number of remedies that you should take. But did those medications do much good, other than maxing out your health care deductible? Almost certainly not, and there are a large number of people today in this same boat.

    In addition to all of that, we all realize that there is a hazard with prescriptions from your physician, mainly because if you read the container and examine the potential side effects, one needs to consider if they are truly further ahead to merely deal with the asthma and not worry about the chances of growing a new thumb, seeing your hair fall out, getting pigeon-toed, or various of the other possible warnings that are generally put on the containers of prescriptions.

    But what if there was an asthma cure that actually worked? Yes, you have listened to that previously, like from your doctor with that previous stuff he recommended. But did his answer have a money back guarantee if it didn’t perform? No, I do not think it did.

    What if there was an asthma cure that made use of all natural materials, and the cost of it was lower than the cost of a great dinner with your spouse at a wonderful restaurant? Given that nothing at all has worked so far to cure your asthma, would you be interested in checking this out? You may ask what if it doesn’t do the job? Then you have a money back guarantee but the sensible question you seriously should be asking yourself after all this is what if it DOES perform? How would you really feel listening to a friend or co-worker that after suffering from asthma for years, they are finally cured forever, understanding that YOU could have been the good guy in the office to pass on that word about something you discovered.
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    You owe it to yourself to discover more about this and you have nothing to lose by doing so, with so much to gain. Come to be asthma free forever starting right now!

    What is Asthma?

    Thursday, April 15th, 2010 No Commented
    Under: Asthma

    Asthma is a clinical condition in which there occurs reversible airway obstruction due to airway hyper-sensitivity and is characterized by cough, difficulty in breathing, chest tightness and presence of a whistle like sound while breathing. Airway hyper-sensitivity is triggered by various factors which lead to acute obstruction of the airway.

    What causes Asthma?

    The causes of asthma is poorly defined and mainly due to combination of environmental and genetic factors.

    Some theories suggest that asthma in early childhood is caused by decreased infections in early life which prevent the formation of proper immunity and lead to development of airway hyper-sensitivity.

    Warm, humid, centrally heated homes favor multiplication of house dust mites and this may contribute to childhood asthma. Having a pet at home may also lead to development of asthma.

    Deficiency of dietary components like Vitamin A, C, E, milk fat, and selenium may lead to development of asthma. Obesity may also act as a factor in it’s development.

    What happens in Asthma?

    When an allergen is inhaled two responses occur in airway track. First one occur immediately leading to obstruction of the track. This allergen rapidly interacts with mucosal mast cells by an IgE-dependent mechanism, resulting in the release of mediators such as histamine and the cysteinyl leukotrienes with resulting constriction of the track. This is followed by a late response in which inflammation occurs in the track. This late response occurs about 5-6 hours later to the initial attack.

    With the progression of the disease, remodelling of the airway occurs, leading to fibrosis of the airway wall, fixed narrowing of the airway and a reduced response to airway dilator medication.

    Symptoms of Asthma?

    • Difficulty in breathing
    • Chest tightness
    • Whistling sound on breathing
    • Cough

    These symptoms are worst in the early morning but sometimes in poorly controlled asthma, the symptoms tend to wake the person up from sleep at night making it all worse. Sometimes cough is the only symptom of asthma.

    Occupational asthma is now the most common form of occupational respiratory disorder.

    Treatment For Asthma

    Monday, November 30th, 2009 No Commented
    Under: Asthma

    If you’ve had your first asthma attack, you need to make an appointment with your family doctor as soon as possible.You will receive emergency treatment in your nearest emergency room, but this is just the beginning. Asthma is a serious condition – as you are probably now very much aware – and it requires consistent and ongoing medical treatment with a doctor who is familiar with your situation and your health condition.

    Your doctor should prescribe you a rescue inhaler as well as medication that you take every day to control your asthma. As you might suspect, the rescue inhaler is typically only used when you have an actual asthma attack, and the daily medications are used to prevent asthma attacks as best as they can.

    For rescue inhalers, your doctor will typically prescribe a medication such as albuterol or atrovent. Again, it is important that you follow your doctor’s instructions before using these inhalers, and typically, you will need two or three inhalers so that one is always in easy reach. You also need to write down when you need to use the inhaler, and how many puffs were needed to each an asthmatic situation. This information will be very helpful to your doctor when he needs to make modifications to your medications.

    For control medication, which is typically taken each day, your doctor may prescribe inhaled corticosteroids, beta-2 agonists, Leukotriene modifiers, or medications such as Theophylline or Cromolyn. If your asthma attacks are brought on by allergies, medication will typically be prescribed for the allergy as well, and your doctor may suggest immunotherapy as well.

    Note that your doctor may change your prescriptions or dosages numerous times until the right medication and the right dosage is found for you. Over time, medication will need to be adjusted due to changes brought about by age.

    Your doctor should try to determine what caused your asthma, and what triggered the attack. This information is very important. For example, if an allergy or an illness triggered the attack, you will need to take measures to avoid the trigger, and you may need treatment for the allergy or illness as well. Again, your doctor may change your medications based on how you are experiencing symptoms and how often, as well as how often you have asthma attacks and the severity of those attacks. Realize that your doctor won’t just change your medication without having a good reason for doing so.