Bronchial asthma is the most common chronic inflammatory disease of the upper respiratory system. It is characterized by recurrent attacks of breathlessness, shortness of breath, chest tightness, paroxysmal cough, and wheezing. In different people, the severity and frequency of choking attacks vary. Symptoms of the disease, depending on the individual characteristics, may vary over time. Asthma is not treated, but it can be controlled for living a full life.
The causes of asthma
Causes of asthma can belong to both external and internal factors. External triggers that can activate asthma include air pollution, smoking, poor nutrition, antibiotics. Internal factors are a genetic predisposition, allergic reactions and the ability of the bronchi to contract easily and severely. In children, the likelihood of asthma increases to 30% if one of his parents is sick.
A person predisposed to asthma may never face it in his entire life. Avoiding risk factors, the disease will be in a remission state but causing the first attack, you activate it. Timely diagnosis and proper treatment with drugs will help in the fight against the disease. Asthma medicine is able to control and prevent attacks of choking and coughing, as well as help relieve them. The key to disease control is a healthy lifestyle and proper drug therapy.
Control over disease
The term “control” means that asthma symptoms, especially its exacerbations, are minimal or absent, the disease does not interfere with a normal and fulfilling life, there is no need for emergency care and hospitalizations. Achieving asthma control is possible in the vast majority of patients.
It is almost impossible to say that the disease is defeated completely. The medicine does not yet know how to overcome the disease once and for all.
What does this mean for each particular patient?
The first is that the treatment should be carried out for a long time because its unjustified drug withdrawal will allow the symptoms of the disease to return. For some people, it is difficult to come to terms with the need to take medications regularly, and they begin to look for alternative treatments that are not always safe.
Treatment
Treatment of asthma is not limited only to drug therapy with inhalers, it is complex, and therefore includes recommendations regarding the patient’s lifestyle. Therefore, it is important to find out which methods and lifestyle changes are approved and recommended by medicine, and which can conceal hidden dangers.
These are indicators such as:
- housing environment;
- flora and fauna;
- urban atmosphere.
Important information
In the city, plant pollen is more aggressive than its outside borders. Under the conditions of a megapolis, combustion products and other harmful microparticles can trigger. They facilitate the penetration of pollen through the mucous membranes and increase its allergenic potency.
Modern therapy of asthma makes possible a normal lifestyle for a person with this disease. But, of course, there are certain limitations and restrictions for patients. First of all, you need to forget about cigarettes: to smoke means to further intensify the inflammation in the bronchi, aggravate allergic reactions and provoke frequent disease’s exacerbations. It applies not only to patients with asthma but also to their families. It is especially unacceptable that parents allow themselves to smoke while having a sick child. Smoking is a factor that not only increases the inflammation in the bronchi and aggravates the severity of asthma, but also leads to the development of other, often more severe, pulmonary and non-pulmonary diseases.