Monday, December 27, 2010

Asthma- causes, symptoms and treatments

Asthma is known as the long term respiratory disorder mainly affecting the lungs. It is the inflammatory disorder of the air passages of the lungs. Asthma is common disorder affecting millions of people including large number children. The chronic inflammation of the air passages of the lungs causes the narrowing and the swelling of the air passages. Because of this breathing becomes difficult resulting in suffocation. The bronchial tubes becomes over sensitive to the allergens or the irritants due to chronic inflammation.


The worst condition for an asthma patient could be the time when he or she gets the asthma attack. An asthma attack occurs when the bronchial tubes becomes narrow and inflamed due to chronic inflammation. They get filled up with the mucus cells and a sticky fluid resulting in the blocking of the air passages. The muscles that surround the air passage get tighten up making the condition even worse than before. This condition is known as “bronchospasm”. In some patients the mucus glands in the air ways produces more thick mucus further blocking the air ways.  The warning signs or symptoms of asthma attack are coughing, wheezing – breathing with a heavy sound or trouble breathing, shortness of breath and fast or noisy breathing which can make you tired.

The causes of asthma depend on the life style of the person. The causes of asthma include family history of asthma or allergy, life style aspects such as changes in diet, surrounding environment, pets, air pollution. The causes of asthma can also be air pollution, irritants that found at work place or home like dust, pollen grains etc. Other than these the causes of asthma also includes viral infection.

In the treatment of asthma it is very important to make an effort to control the asthma symptoms. The treatment itself suggests that one should lessen the intensity of the symptoms of asthma to get relief. The symptoms of asthma include sneezing, headache, mood swings, blocked nose, throat sensitivity, tiredness and difficulty sleeping. The symptoms of asthma may vary from person to person but the intensity goes beyond the limit when a person gets an asthma attack. The severity of the symptoms of asthma also differs from person to person but sometimes asthma symptoms can become fatal too.

In the treatment of asthma it is very important to diagnose the problem accurately. Not only in asthma but in any kind of diseases before starting the treatment it is vital to diagnose the problem and accordingly medications can be given. As said earlier in the treatment of asthma, the intention is to decrease the intensity of the symptoms of asthma. Following are the pulmonary functioning tests which are useful in the diagnosis of asthma.
1)    Routine pulmonary function test
2)    Bronchial provocation test
3)    Exercise induced bronchoconstriction test
4)    Allergy intradermal skin test
5)    Allergy prick skin test
6)    Bone density test
7)    Bone scan
8)    CT scan of sinuses

The treatment of asthma is connected with the severity of the symptoms of asthma. The treatments of asthma include the drugs known as bronchodilators or corticosteroid. The bronchodilators relax the bronchospasm and the corticosteroid reduces the inflammation of the air passages. In the treatment of asthma the inhaled medication is preferred over the oral or liquid medications. The inhaled medication is known as asthma inhalers. When a person get attack of asthma, the situation can be controlled by the use of asthma inhalers. The preventive measures for asthma includes staying away from irritant, quitting smoking can save you from asthma and making your workplace and your home free from dust particles.

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