Asthma treatment
*- May , 1998 BREATH OF FRESH AIR IN BX. ASTHMA ED MAY SAVE SOME LIVES BREATH OF FRESH AIR IN BX. ASTHMA ED MAY SAVE SOME LIVES MILAGROS ACOSTA BELIEVES she might have been able to save her beloved grandmother’s life, if only she had been taught how to care for her grandmother’s asthma. If I knew then what I know now, I would have been able to help her, said Acosta, 21, whose younger brother also suffers from the chronic and sometimes deadly respiratory disease.
How Is Asthma Diagnosed?
Some things your doctor will ask about include:
- Periods of coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, or chest tightness that come on suddenly, occur often, or seem to happen during certain times of the year or season
- Colds that seem to “go to the chest” or take more than 10 days to get over
- Medicines you may have used to help your breathing
- Your family history of asthma and allergies
- Things that seem to cause your symptoms or make them worse
Your doctor will listen to your breathing and look for signs of asthma or allergies.
Your doctor will probably use a device called a spirometer (speh-ROM-et-er) to check how your lungs are working. This test is called spirometry (speh-ROM-eh-tree). The test measures how much air you can blow out of your lungs after taking a deep breath, and how fast you can do it . The results will be lower than normal if your airways are inflamed and narrowed, or if the muscles around your airways have tightened up.
As part of the test, your doctor may give you a medicine that helps open narrowed airways to see if the medicine changes or improves your test results.
Spirometry is also used to check your asthma over time to see how you are doing.
Spirometry usually cannot be used in children younger than 5 years. If your child is younger than 5 years, the doctor may decide to try medicine for a while to see if the child’s symptoms get better.
If your spirometry results are normal but you have asthma symptoms, your doctor will probably want you to have other tests to see what else could be causing your symptoms.
These include:
- Allergy testing to find out if and what allergens affect you.
- A test in which you use a peak flow meter every day for 1-2 weeks to check your breathing. A peak flow meter is a hand-held device that helps you monitor how well you are breathing.
- A test to see how your airways react to exercise.
- Tests to see if you have gastroesophageal reflux disease.
- A test to see if you have sinus disease.
Other tests, such as a chest x ray or an electrocardiogram, may be needed to find out if a foreign object or other lung diseases or heart disease could be causing your symptoms. A correct diagnosis is important because asthma is treated differently from other diseases with similar symptoms.
Depending on the results of your physical exam, medical history, and lung function tests, your doctor can determine how severe your asthma is. This is important because the severity of your asthma will determine how your asthma should be treated. One way for doctors to classify asthma severity is by considering how often you have symptoms when you are not taking any medicine or when your asthma is not well controlled.
Based on symptoms, the four levels of asthma severity are:
- Mild intermittent (comes and goes)—you have episodes of asthma symptoms twice a week or less, and you are bothered by symptoms at night twice a month or less; between episodes, however, you have no symptoms and your lung function is normal.
- Mild persistent asthma—you have asthma symptoms more than twice a week, but no more than once in a single day. You are bothered by symptoms at night more than twice a month. You may have asthma attacks that affect your activity.
- Moderate persistent asthma—you have asthma symptoms every day, and you are bothered by nighttime symptoms more than once a week. Asthma attacks may affect your activity.
- Severe persistent asthma—you have symptoms throughout the day on most days, and you are bothered by nighttime symptoms often. In severe asthma, your physical activity is likely to be limited.
Anyone with asthma can have a severe attack—even people who have intermittent or mild persistent asthma.
She didn’t know how to take care of herself; there was never anyone in the Bronx that… , of 898 words 88. Bradenton Herald, The FL – May 2, 1998 STUDY: ASTHMA RATE DOUBLES Despite cleaner air, the incidence of asthma has doubled since 1980, according to new figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.And blacks are more than twice as likely to die from the disease. The new data was released as public health officials met in Boston last month to discuss ways to control the epidemic among the minorities hit hardest. The numbers were not unexpected, but they are disappointing, said Dr. Christopher Fanta, an asthma… , of 487 words 88. Contra Costa Times Walnut Creek, CA – May 27, 1997 ASTHMA’S RISE PUZZLES EXPERTS It’s one of medicine’s greatest paradoxes. In an era of advanced medical treatments and cleaner air, more and more people around the globe are developing asthma and dying from it.The pandemic is affecting both sexes, all age groups, all races and socioeconomic groups. It has permeated every developed area of the world. And researchers still don’t understand why. It’s a big mystery, says Dr. Homer Boushey,… , of 1 1 words 88. Contra Costa Times Walnut Creek, CA – May 27, 1997 ASTHMA’S RISE PUZZLES EXPERTS It’s one of medicine’s greatest paradoxes. In an era of advanced medical treatments and cleaner air, more and more people around the globe are developing asthma and dying from it.The pandemic is affecting both sexes, all age groups, all races and socioeconomic groups. It has permeated every developed area of the world. And researchers still don’t understand why. It’s a big mystery, says Dr. Homer Boushey,… , of words 88. Newsday Melville, NY – April 15, 1997 Asthma Island / The isolated population of Tristan da Cunha could hold the genetic key to this disease THE TINY VOLCANIC island of Tristan da Cunha doesn’t have much, other than lots of ocean, enormous solitude and now maybe the key to why there’s so much asthma in the world. Even though the island in the South Atlantic is 2,000 miles from anywhere, what it has that scientists need is a very small, isolated and inbred population, about a third of which has asthma.And because the environment – meaning the food, the air and the water – is essentially the same for all… , of 1729 words 88. Chicago Sun-Times – June 26, 1994 TRYING TO BREATHE MORE EASILY Hormones May Trigger Asthma BOSTON A link between the start of a woman’s menstrual cycle and the worsening of asthma symptoms may show that hormones can trigger a person’s asthma, a Canadian researcher reported Wednesday.Changes in key hormones that occur during the monthly cycle may somehow affect the inflammation that is associated with asthma, Sara Rose, Ph.D., of the University of Calgary, said here at a meeting of the American Lung Association and the American Thoracic Society. Rose… , of 511 words 88. Fresno Bee, The CA – March 2, 1994 FRESNO COUNTY RECEIVES FEDERAL GRANT FOR ASTHMA EDUCATION Fresno County, consistently identified as one of four counties in the United States with the highest asthma mortality rates, will receive a $600,000 federal grant to educate poor and minority populations about the disease.Dr. Peter Scamagas of Kaiser-Permanente in Fresno, the principal investigator of the project, said increasing people’s understanding of asthma and teaching them to manage it will help reduce the number of deaths. Our hope is that every individual… , of 546 words 88. *- November 16, 1993 ASTHMA DEATHS INCH UP AFTER BRIEF DECLINE Although asthma deaths had begun to decline for the first time in more than a decade, they have once again inched upward, according to new figures released here at the American College of Allergy and Immunology annual meeting last weekend.
Asthma symptom (85)
Asthma treatment
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