Asthma
What is Asthma?
Asthma is a chronic or long term condition of the lungs where inflammation of the bronchial tubes (airways) cause swelling and narrowing of the air passages. This results in difficulty in breathing.
Asthma affects people of all ages, but it most often starts in childhood. In Singapore, 1 in 5 children has asthma.
What causes Asthma?
Asthma is a chronic, inflammatory lung disease caused by oversensitivity of the lungs and airways, which overreact to certain "triggers" by becoming inflamed and clogged. This causes recurrent breathing problems, wheezing, and coughing.
Some of the triggers are dust mites, animal’s dander, cockroaches, moulds, pollens, viral infections and certain air pollutants.
The exact cause of asthma is not known.
What happens when you have Asthma?
In an asthma episode, the muscles surrounding the airways in the lungs constrict, and become swollen and inflamed. This narrows the air passages. The membranes lining these airways begin to secrete extra mucus, which further blocks the air passages. As the person with asthma tries to breathe, air forced through the narrowed bronchial passages produces a characteristic wheezing sound. Hence the person may experience the following symptoms:
- Wheezing - a whistling or squeaky sound that occurs during breathing.
- Coughing - often worse at night or early in the morning, making it hard to sleep.
- Chest tightness - feeling like something is squeezing or sitting on the chest.
- Shortness of breath - feeling out of breath.
If the symptoms are not relieved and the breathlessness is severe, it can be life threatening.
How can you tell whether you have Asthma?
Because its symptoms can resemble those of other respiratory problems — such as emphysema, bronchitis, and respiratory infections — asthma often goes undiagnosed. Many people live with the disease for years without knowing they have it. They only know they have a chronic cough, often at night, or that they have difficulty breathing in cold air, especially while working or exercising. Some think they have chronic bronchitis.
To diagnose asthma, doctors use a combination of medical history, physical examination, and laboratory tests such as spirometry (a method of measuring the air taken into and expelled from the lungs), peak flow monitoring (a method of measuring how much air a person can expel from his or her lungs), chest x-rays, and blood or allergy tests.
How is Asthma treated?
Asthma is treated with two types of medicines: long-term control (preventive) and quick-relief (reliever) medicines. Preventive medicines help reduce airway inflammation and prevent asthma symptoms. Reliever or "rescue" medicines relieve asthma symptoms that may flare up. There are many different medicines under these 2 types. Theses medicines are usually taken through inhalers (devices to help you breathe in these medicines). Some are taken orally.
The amounts and types you need to treat your asthma depend on how well controlled your asthma is when you're closely following your asthma action plan. This may change over time.
How is an Asthma attack prevented?
To prevent asthma attacks, the disease needs to be well controlled by following the steps below:
- Follow the asthma action plan that you create with your doctor.
- Take asthma medicines as prescribed.
- Learn what things make your asthma worse (triggers) and take steps to avoid exposure to them.
- Track your level of asthma control, and respond quickly to worsening symptoms.
Useful Links
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/asthma.html
http://www.medicinenet.com/asthma/article.htm
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/asthma/DS00021
http://www.ican.com.sg