Asthma treatment

Asthma is caused by spasmodic contraction of the muscular walls of the bronchial tubes.  It is an inflammatory disorder of the airways, which causes attacks of wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing.  Asthma attacks can last minutes to days and can become dangerous if the airflow becomes severely restricted.  Asthma symptoms can also be triggered by respiratory infections, exercise, cold air, tobacco smoke and other pollutants, stress, food, or drug allergies.  This disease  is a significant health problem in the United States affecting more than 20 million individuals, including five million children. 

Asthma is a condition that makes the bronchial tubes of the lung overly sensitive and easily inflamed.  Apart from medications used to treat the ailment, there is a little known approach to asthma treatment.  Asthma symptoms can be substantially reduced by avoiding known allergens and respiratory irritants. When an asthma attack occurs, the muscles surrounding the airways become tight and the lining of the air passages swell.  Most people with this ailment have wheezing attacks separated by symptom-free periods.  In sensitive individuals, the symptoms can be triggered by breathing in allergy-causing substances (called allergens or triggers). 

Aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications provoke asthma in some patients.  Many people with asthma have an individual or family history of allergies, such as hay fever (allergic rhinitis) or eczema.  A person with asthma may experience varying symptoms that can include coughing, wheezing, chest tightness or difficulty breathing.  The changes in hormonal levels that accompany puberty or pregnancy can also play a role in this ailment.  Exposure to certain substances in the work place can also cause asthma symptoms.  The tendency to develop this disease is hereditary and can often be traced to other family members.  A few of the risk factors for developing asthma have been identified; they include having parents with this disease, having a personal history of nasal allergy, having eczema or food allergy, exposure to dust mites in the house, or growing up with parents who smoke. 

The number of people developing asthma has been increasing.  The treatment of this disease begins with proper evaluation, to determine its severity and possible causes.  Medications for asthma are used in a stepped manner, according to its severity.  Most importantly, this disease has to be closely monitored.  Individuals who have asthma should not ignore their symptoms, as it can flare up unexpectedly and can lead to long-term loss of lung function due to lung injury.

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Asthma is a spasmodic affection of the respiratory system, when it is easy to inhale (inspiration) but difficult to exhale (expiration). Spasms are reflex in nature. Nasal mucus membrane or alimentary tract are the sources of irritation. Generally, asthma usually comes at night or in the middle of night when the patient sits up, pants, makes ineffectual efforts to breathe out. He wants to cough and thus expel his sputum out but he cannot, as his lungs do not expand and fresh air also enters with much difficulty. If there is nasal blockade, the problem is still more serious. Sometimes, due to strenuous efforts to breath- and cough out sputum, his face, fingers become blue also, there may be extreme coldness and general prostration, extremities may be cold. < from cold, cold eatables and drinks, moist winds, injyinter, rainy season, from certain irritants, sensitivity to certain drugs. The patient gasps for breath, exhausts even on slightest exertion, impacted respiration, perspiration. Profuse expectoration provides much desired relief to the patient but attacks may occur again, with varied intensity.

Some sprays (medicated) are available in the market. Inhalation from such sprays clears congestion in chest/ lungs, brings out sputum and thus provides relief, even though temporarily, to the patient. But patients are advised to use such ’spray’ in emergent conditions only, and never daily or as a matter of habit. Keep fully covered with warm clothes. Give, if at all needed, only hot beverages but not cold drinks. In allergic asthma, a voidance of known causes is the only way out. Sometimes going to new places may also show fruitful results. Those who fall ill, during a certain weather-condition, are advised, if possible, to shift in reverse conditions. In case of a patient (young lady) who developed attacks of asthma in dry weather, she was married and got service in a coastal town where her husband was also posted. Change of place, from dry to moist, proved so effective that she has no asthma, even a trace thereof, for the past 22 years. Those who are worst in moist weather, have their symptoms ameliorated, after shifting to places where climate is dry. But shifting of place is not easy because it has certain inherrent problems. A patient used to have asthama attacks in summer, when there were dust-raising hot winds. He used to shift to some hill station during summer days and thus got rid of asthma once forever.

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