Prevention Is Better Than Cure.......... Asthma

Hey people, today's Prevention Is Better Than Cure entry would be on Asthma; a common disease. We will discuss about how you get it, how to cure it, and of course how to prevent it. Asthma is very common actually. If you take a look at histories of few selected patients, you will get the idea how common Asthma can be. Most of the people during their life times get some type of Asthma. Well today we will attack Asthma. So here we go.

What is Asthma????

Asthma is a chronic disorder that causes the airways of the lungs to swell and narrow or simply inflammation. This results in wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing. When this happens the amount of air that is taken into the lungs reduces.

What causes Asthma???

Asthma is like allergy. Different people may have different causative agents of Asthma. When I was young I got Asthma because of ice cream, cool drinks and banana flower curry. They are different from person to person. We will name these agents as allergens or triggers. Most common Asthma triggers are given below.

Animal hair or dander

Cold weather

Dust

Chemicals in the air or in food

Exercise

Molds

Pollens

Respiratory infections, such as the common cold

Strong emotions such as stress, pain

Tobacco smoke

Aspirin and other non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) 

Other than these there could be various triggers that provoke Asthma in patients. So it is your duty to study your patterns in getting the disease and identify the trigger.

Symptoms

Symptoms can be of long term and short term. Some have long term shortness of breath with times of severe shortness of breath. Wheezing or a cough may also be seen. These attacks can last for minutes to days, and can become dangerous if the airflow is severely restricted. The characteristic feature of cough is that it does not give out any phlegm. Wheezing could get worse at night or early morning. Breathing could get worse with exercise and heartburn. Other emergency symptoms include,  bluish color to the lips and face, decreased level of alertness, such as severe drowsiness or confusion, during an asthma attack, extreme difficulty breathing, rapid pulse, severe anxiety due to shortness of breath, sweating, chest pain.

There are different types of tests that may become helpful to you to identify Asthma. For example Allergy test, Arterial blood gas, Blood tests to measure eosinophil count and IgE, Chest x-ray, Lung function tests etc. 

Medication

There are mainly two methods of treatments that are carried out. They are,

Control drugs to prevent attacks

Quick-relief drugs for use during attacks- Rescue Drugs eg; Inhalers

Prevention is better than cure

You can prevent occurance of Asthma by following simple precautions. Get to know what triggers provoke your Asthma and avoid them as much as possible.  Use allergy proof casings for your bed and make sure your room and house is always dust free. Keep away from pet animals that cause you asthma. Avoid tobacco smoke, air pollution, industrial dust. 

Always keep your rescue drugs closer to you and the phone numbers of your doctor or nurse. 

Do not fear because if you got pediatric asthma, you can get over the disease when you grow old with proper medication. But it is all your effort. 

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