Asthma is nothing but the chronic disease that occurs in the lungs. This disease is also known as bronchial asthma. This disease occurs through airways. It causes some attacks like coughing, uneasiness in breathing, and tightness in the chest.
Allergies are the other signs that asthma is attacking a person. And other respiratory diseases like sinusitis, ear infections, and other infections are the signs of asthma. In the recent analysis it is said that the persons who have both asthma and allergies have the habit of waking at night due to asthma and cannot do their work due to pain in their chest. The people who has this kind of symptoms should have a powerful medications given by their prescribed doctor.
What is asthma?
According to latest survey, in America about 25 million people have this asthma and 2.8 million are below 18 years of age. This people have this asthma disease that is very severe and cannot effort money for their medications due to poverty.
Asthma is related to the cells present in the body like mast cells, eosinophils, and T lymphocytes. Mast cells are related to the allergy causing cells. These cells release a chemical substance named histamine. This histamine is the main reason for the allergy and it also blocks the nose and some sort of fever. Eosinophils are the type of white blood cells that are also the main cause for the allergy on the skin. T lymphocytes are also the type of white blood cells and these not only cause allergy but also inflammation too.
These cells can increase the allergies and can also increase the inflammatory responses that can the bronchial diseases. This bronchial diseases causes the hypersensitivity reactions due to entry of micro organisms into the lungs. For some people who are suffering with this chronic diseases have some uneasiness in the night for not having a proper breath, not able to sleep with chest pain and many more.
Bronchial Asthma Triggers
- Infections that cause due to dog’s fur, food, flowers, dust particles
- Smoking and alcoholic infections
- Due to some exercises
- Due to some toxins present in the food
- Use of perfumes and sprays
- Use of acids in the home or other hospital laboratory
How Asthma causes to a person?
Asthma is the cause of the some inflammatory responses and some genetic disorders. This genetic disorders are the due to the changes in the DNA sequence. The changes in the DNA are called as epigenetics. Asthma that causes below 12 years of is due to genetic disorder and if it causes after 12 years of age is due to the environmental conditions like pollution and all.
Environmental conditions like chemicals present in the air, allergens that occur on the skin are the main cause for asthma. The women that smoke during pregnancy and during delivery have the chances of attacking of asthma to their babies. When coming to chemicals, alcohols like formaldehyde, phenols have the ability if causing asthma to the person who uses the most have the chances of attacking with asthma. Indoor factors like dust particles, animal fur and cockroaches are the main reasons for the attacking of asthma in children. The persons who have allergy to antibiotics also have the chances of attacking with asthma.
How to Diagnose Asthma?
Asthma is a inflammatory response that occurs due to the inflammation in the cells, cellular response, and other hyper sensitivity reactions. There is no specific diagnosis for asthma to recognize. There is no prescribed test for the diagnosis of asthma, it can be said by the signs and symptoms of the person. It can also diagnosed by the past health issues, genetic disorders by their ancestors. After knowing the symptoms, past health issues, and genetic disorders of their ancestors then an instrument named spirometry is used. The children who are below 6 years of age are not suggested for this instrument. There are some of the examples by which asthma can cause:
- Through exercise
- Through occupation
- Through aspirin
- Through alcohol
Through exercise:
Exercise can cause chest pain. When chest pain occurs in a person it is identified as one of the symptom of asthma. There is a chance of about 20% of people can be effected with this asthma while doing exercises. The people who are doing exercises like cycling, swimming, people who are in athletes have the most probability of getting chest pain due to low intake of oxygen into the body.
Through occupation:
Occupation is the one of the main reason for the occurrence of asthma. Seating in one place can lead to gas problems and further it will cause asthma. About 5-25% of asthma problems in adults occur due to job related. The persons who work in bakery, hair stylish, painters are most who get this asthma. The people who work in laboratories, hospitals as they use formaldehyde, phenols have the probability of effecting with this asthma.
Through aspirin:
Aspirin is a medicine that is used for fever and body pains. Some people get easily effected by this aspirin medicine. An aspirin induced asthma disease named Aspirin exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) is the most commonly seen disease in adults. About 9% of adults are effected with this disease. People with this AERD will loss the smell and taste of food.
Through alcohol:
Alcohol is one of the reason for the cause of asthma. The chemicals present in them will make the person mild and will also damage the respiratory tract. The persons who take regularly have the most chances of getting effected with this asthma.
Prevention
In order to control there is a less effectiveness through asthma. The world health organization suggests that there should less of tobacco, air pollution, chemical use in industries, and perfume in order to decrease the cause of asthma in people. Growing pets in home may form difficulties in the home. If a person is having asthma in home there should not be any pets so that the patients cannot suffer with breathing difficulties.
The women who has asthma should not give breast feeding so that the baby cannot be effected with asthma. In case if it is given the women should take perfect medications in order to control asthma. If baby is also caused by this asthma then the baby is then is taken to a specialist to take proper medications to the baby as well as baby.
Management
Asthma cannot cured but the symptoms for it can be identified and they can be controlled. If a symptom is occurred then it should be calculated that when that symptom is occurring and by taking what the symptom is occurring. By knowing these things the symptoms can be controlled and for those symptoms treatment can be given by the doctor. There will many symptoms seen during asthma and these symptoms should be noted they can be said to the doctor for your better treatment.
There are some triggers such as smoking, growing of pets, use of aspirin should be avoided for better treatment. In case by avoiding also the symptoms are not regulated then it is suggested that medication should be preferred by the specialist. The drugs are given according to the symptoms that said by the person.
There are mainly two types of medications classified:
- Fast acting medications
- Last acting medications
The persons who have less symptoms they are suggested to take bronchodilators. So the person can have low dosage of medications. If the person have 2 attacks a week then they are suggested to take low dose inhaled corticosteroids and if the person have daily attacks then they should take high dosage of inhaled corticosteroids. In severe conditions corticosteroids by mouth is taken.
The people who are suffering with this asthma have high anxiety, maintaining depression, and psychological stress. The people with this asthma should have cognitive behavioral therapy so that they can control asthma, psychological stress and depression.
This asthma should be controlled by making awareness in the people so that they can take preventive measures. This can be done by conducting awareness campaigns in schools, colleges for students and family members. In schools children often share their bottle, lunch boxes with other students in that case also asthma can be caused.
Fast acting medications:
The medication named salbutamol is the primarily used medication when it is in the primary stage of asthma. Ipratropium is other medicine used for asthma that reduces the patient to hospitalize. Inhaled medication like epinephrine is used in rare conditions due to the effect on the cardiac stimulation. Systemic corticosteroids helps both children and adults also to hospitalize and reduces the symptoms.
Long term control:
Corticosteroids are the most effective drugs for the use in long term control. Beclomethasone are the best inhalers that are regularly suggested by doctors in severe conditions. This inhaler is used once or twice a day to control the severity of the symptoms. In these inhalers if there is mix of steroids there will be high risk of side effects and when coming to corticosteroids, there will be less risk of side effects to the person. This inhalers are not given very fast to the children.
There will be a chemical named nitric oxide in this inhaler drug. This chemical has the ability to prevent asthma all the times so that the person can get some relief from asthma.
Delivery methods
The treatment in this delivery methods are seen by metered dose inhalers (MDI). This is taken through powdered drug. The instrument inhaler has a plastic spacer so that the powdered drug can be taken easily. This instrument is very easy to use and it is taken through mouth only. It is kept away from children below 5 years of age due to the high content of chemicals present in the drug. Along with spacers, nebulizers are also used. These have the drug inside them. There is no need to take a capsule and insert into the instrument. This gives the same effect like the spacer instrument. This nebulizer is given to the person who has the severe attack at times and those who are attacked by asthma in the daily basis.
Alternative medication
About 50% of the people prefer unconventional drugs that can treat asthma. Use of vitamin C and vitamin E can increase the rate of asthma. So it is suggested that avoidance of vitamin C and vitamin E can decrease the rate of asthma. Vitamin D is also one of the treatment for the reduce of asthma. In some babies, due to low vitamin D they get easily attacked to asthma. When they are exposed to sunlight they can get rid of asthma in some cases. But in some people there is no evidence when exposed to sunlight or by vitamin D supplements they get cured by asthma. The food that contain monosodium glutamate should also be avoided due to the high sodium content in them. Children should completely avoid eating the foods containing monosodium glutamate as the sodium content in the food may cause severe breathing problems.
Prognosis
The course that is given by the doctor should be taken time to time so that there will be decreased rates of asthma in the person. The treatment that is given in the early stage will give result in the children who are in the mild stage. The percentage of the people who are suffering with this asthma has been decreased due to taking proper medications if needed and taking safety measures so that asthma cannot be attacked to the person. If medication is taken through corticosteroids in the early stage then the lung functioning will be normal and there will not be any lung diseases in the future. If asthma occurs in one of the ancestors in a family then there are 90% of chances of getting asthma to the future generations also.
References
- https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61380-3/fulltext
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4153205/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0095454301000082
Sirisha B