Asthma: What is Asthma and How to manage it? (1)

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Asthma
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What is Asthma?

• Asthma is a breathing problem that affects the
  airways in the lungs.
• The airways react to certain substances, known as
  irritants and become inflamed and narrow
  making breathing difficult.
• All of this sounds scary, but its not that a big
  deal.

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How Asthma Triggers?

• A trigger is anything from dust mites to
  deodorants that irritates the airways.  It is
  important to remember that everyones asthma is
  different, and therefore their triggers tend to
  be different as well.
• Some of the common Asthma triggers are
• Dust mites
• Cigarette smoke and air pollutants
• Pollen  Pollens from grass, trees and weeds
• Occupational triggers Wood coal dust,
  chemicals, metal salts, paint airborne dust in
  mines etc.
• Viral and bacterial infections  Common cold and
  sinusitis
• Medication  Certain medicines, e.g. aspirin,
  some blood pressure drugs
• Food  Certain food items such as fizzy drinks,
  nuts and food colour / additives
• Weather  Weather conditions, such as cold air or
  extremely dry, wet or windy weather

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Asthma Symptoms

• Common symptoms of asthma are
• What is Breathlessness You feel like you cant
  get enough air in or out of your lungs, and find
  it especially difficult to breathe out.
• Frequent or persistent cough You have a cough
  that doesnt go away for many days, and you find
  that you often cough at night or after
  exercising.
• Wheezing You hear a whistling sound every time
  you breathe out.
• Tightness in the chest You get a tight feeling
  in the chest, like someone is squeezing or
  sitting on your chest.
• Its not necessary that every person with asthma
  shows all of these symptoms. For instance, some
  people may have disturbed sleep at night due to
  excessive coughing, while others may experience
  breathlessness while exercising.

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Asthma Management

• With proper treatment and asthma action plan, you
  can control your asthma completely, and almost
  forget that you have it.
• Regular medication
• Asthma medicine is usually given via inhalers, so
  that it reaches the lung directly and causes
  minimal side effects.
• Asthma action plan
• An asthma action plan is a written plan that you
  develop with your doctor to help control your
  asthma.
• The asthma action plan shows how to control your
  asthma on a daily basis, such as what kind of
  medicines to take and when to take them.

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