Early Warning Signs Of Deteriorating Asthma

asthma symptoms

By Ashi Jas

The people who suffer with asthma generally exhibit a lot of different signs that are indicative of their having an attack. The other symptoms are also there to see like weight loss in children and elderly patients, loss of appetite, general feeling of exhaustion and lethargy, wheezing, frequent coughs and colds and many more such external symptoms.

Normally asthma is not considered to be very serious by the doctors perhaps because of the frequency with which the human population suffers with it. But the possibility that it can turn fatal also leaves us with no option but to identify the early warning signs so that they can be detected early and dealt with efficacy.

Like all other diseases an asthmatic attack also shows several signs before attacking a person in its full fury. The problem lies with the fact that these signs are so often confused with so many other diseases. It is important to understand them to reduce the impact of a full blown attack. Also if the attack has to be avoided altogether these early warning signs have to be taken seriously. All this is well understood by any reasonable person. Then why is it so that so many people fall prey to asthma and they do not even realize it in time?

The main reason attributed to this is that asthma is a disease that can attack anyone at any time. It is true that certain hereditary factors do play an important role in the manifestation of the disease but still many people fall prey to the disease without even having any known history of the disease. So understanding the fact that actually all the people in this world can be potentially at risk is the most important key factor here.

Once when someone knows that he has developed the disease certain precautions can make him lead a near normal life without many complications. The importance of proper treatment cannot be ruled out at all but with proper treatment and certain guidelines for a healthy lifestyle lot of control can be obtained over the frequency and severity of the attacks, most of the times asthma patients develop minor complications only which can be very easily managed with following the usual guidelines and treatments.

But when during the attacks a person starts to feel serious difficulty in breathing or he feels that the level of difficulty has risen while breathing he should immediately pay attention to the warning signs that the body is trying to offer. This is serious matter because many-a-times the patients tend to neglect this till they reach a stage where the attacks can no longer be controlled with normal medications and other precautions. Sometimes the attacks become so serious that the patient needs to be admitted in acute emergency care before they can be controlled. Sometimes admittance to the intensive care unit remains to the only option.

It is a well recognized fact that a human being cannot survive without oxygen for more than just a few minutes. If the difficulty in breathing and feeling of choking persist during an asthma attack for longer durations of time a person may even suffocate to death. Although the incidents of fatality are not very common, still the possibility cannot be ruled out. Each and every sufferer of asthma always has a dagger hanging over his head of this kind of thing happening to him. The good thing is that this is a condition that can be easily avoided if the mind remains open for identifying some early warning signs which go about indicating the worsening of the condition. These can be described as:

1. Cough or wheezing that does not respond to medications: This is a situation that needs serious attention. This is a sure sign of the asthmatic condition of the patient becoming serious. A persistent cough or wheezing may be resultant of excessive work related pressures or may be a resultant of some allergic reactions. But when the medications start to fail it should be taken as an early warning bell. Sometimes the wheezing is so much that the person has difficulty in speaking too.

2. Increased need for inhalers: When the frequency of use of inhalers is noticeably increased it is a sign of worsening of the situations. Some people get addicted to the inhalers and tend to use them more often without even serious difficulty. This situation therefore needs to be identified with discretion.

3. Constant wheezing during sleep: When there is constant noticeable wheezing during sleep it is indicative of worsening of the disease.

4. Persistent high fever or even low grade fever: When there is persistence of fever which either remains unresponsive to the medication or comes back after the effect of medication wears off, it may be an early warning sign of condition deteriorating.

5. Severe pain in the neck or chest: When after just a bit of exertion there seems to be pain in the neck and chest the condition should be reported and checked immediately.

6. Persistent vomiting: This may be because of many reasons but it should not go unchecked.

7. Cyanosis: This is indicative of blue colour of the lips and hands. It is mainly an indication of asthma becoming worse.

Source: EzineArticles.Com

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Allergy: Who is at risk and why?

allergy information

Allergies can develop at any age, possibly even in the womb. They commonly occur in children but may give rise to symptoms for the first time in adulthood. Asthma may persist in adults while nasal allergies tend to decline in old age.

Why, you may ask, are some people "sensitive" to certain allergens while most are not? Why do allergic persons produce more IgE than those who are non-allergic? The major distinguishing factor appears to be heredity. For some time, it has been known that allergic conditions tend to cluster in families. Your own risk of developing allergies is related to your parents' allergy history. If neither parent is allergic, the chance that you will have allergies is about 15%. If one parent is allergic, your risk increases to 30% and if both are allergic, your risk is greater than 60%.

Although you may inherit the tendency to develop allergies, you may never actually have symptoms. You also do not necessarily inherit the same allergies or the same diseases as your parents. It is unclear what determines which substances will trigger a reaction in an allergic person. Additionally, which diseases might develop or how severe the symptoms might be is unknown.

Another major piece of the allergy puzzle is the environment. It is clear that you must have a genetic tendency and be exposed to an allergen in order to develop an allergy. Additionally, the more intense and repetitive the exposure to an allergen and the earlier in life it occurs, the more likely it is that an allergy will develop.

There are other important influences that may conspire to cause allergic conditions. Some of these include smoking, pollution, infection, and hormones.

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Daily Precautions For Asthma Patients

asthma information

By Ashi Jas

Asthma is a chronic disease of the respiratory system and may turn even fatal at times. It is therefore important for the asthma patients to take proper care and precautions regularly. Asthma patients suffer from attacks that enforce the system to breathe with difficulty. Wheezing, choking, gasping for breath and suffocation are the symptoms of asthmatic attack.

The attacks may last up to several minutes and leave a person thoroughly exhausted. There can be severe organ damage due to problem in respiration during the asthma attack. Also the system may suffer from lack of oxygen for a longer duration of time. It is therefore imperative to exercise proper caution and avoid the onset of an attack to the extent possible.

Some easily followed precautions everyday may keep an asthmatic without suffering an attack. These precautions are:

1. An asthmatic needs to follow routines. This is because it is generally seen that people do not suffer the agony of an asthmatic attack if they continue to live their life in a regular way. The problem arises mainly when the people go out of their way and break all the routines. The system thus gets unnecessarily pressured and reacts badly by manifesting the symptoms of the disease in the oddest of ways and without many warning signs. Sometimes the body does give the warning signs but the person may ignore them completely.

2. Daily morning walk does wonders to the system. But in the case of asthma patients the benefit from early morning exercise is enhanced manifold. This is because the early morning is the time when the air is pure and at its best. Exercising the lungs with the early morning air does wonders to the asthmatic lungs and respiratory tract.

3. Daily morning exercise schedule needs to be followed religiously in case of an asthma patient. Not only does this help in exercising the whole system but it also makes a person live a more disciplined and regularised life. This is because if a person gets into the habit of getting up early, in all probability he would try and sleep early too and his routine will automatically be set and fixed.

4. The daily diet of an asthma patient should be kept simple and nutritious. He should take care of not eating heavy meals as they would tax the system unnecessarily. Care should be taken to keep the meals small and frequent if need be, rather than consuming standard heavy meals at set hours. Also the food should be cooked with less oil and spices to keep it easily digestible. The diet should be mainly vegetarian with less of fats and carbohydrates. Sweets should best be avoided at night time. Dinner should be consumed at least two hours before sleeping so that the stomach is almost empty before sleeping. Dietary intake of fruits and vegetables should be enhanced. Snacks should be mainly in the form of fresh fruits and vegetables only and fatty, oily and salty or sweet snacks should be avoided completely.

5. Asthma patients should avoid smoking completely. Smoking fills the system with many toxins and the respiratory system gets flooded with them. These toxins are major irritants to the respiratory tract and create an undue pressure on the system that may be too much for an asthmatic to handle. An asthmatic may get more bronchial spasms and is more likely to be affected with respiratory infections if he continues to smoke.

6. An asthmatic person should also not indulge in drinking too much. This is because drinking causes a person to lose sense and become more prone to breaking disciplines of routine and diets. An asthmatic may become careless with his diet and may tend to overeat to counteract the influence of alcohol if he indulges in drinking too much.

7. Asthma patient’s surroundings should be kept neat and tidy. As far as possible clutter should be completely avoided to steer clear of dust induced allergies that may create an attack. Clutter in the surroundings inhabits several mites and allergy causing organisms. It is therefore necessary that the furniture and other stuff should be arranged in such a way, which allows proper dusting and cleaning on a daily basis.

8. Asthma patients may have difficulty with the atmospheric pollution also. It is very important to assess whether the patient may be allergic to any particular kind of allergen present in the atmosphere around his place of dwelling or occupation. Sometimes certain professions support the excessive usage of one kind of toxin or the other, in which case a change in profession or occupational conditions may remain to be the only option.

9. Asthmatics should also be very careful of not getting mentally excited too much. This is because the mental aggravation may lead to appearance of asthmatic symptoms in patients. On a daily basis it is better not to accumulate taking decisions, whether in the personal life or in the professional life. The work should also be handled as far as possible on a daily basis to avoid excess stress and anxiety.

10. In order to manage asthma it is very necessary to accept the disease and the limitations attached with it in one’s daily life. If proper discipline is maintained a patient can have a long and problem free life.

Source: EzineArticles.Com

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Non-Allergic Asthma

Non-Allergic (intrinsic) asthma is triggered by factors not related to allergies. Like allergic asthma, non-allergic asthma is characterized by airway obstruction and inflammation that is at least partially reversible with medication, however symptoms in this type of asthma are NOT associated with an allergic reaction. Many of the symptoms of allergic and non-allergic asthma are the same (coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath or rapid breathing, and chest tightness), but non-allergic asthma is triggered by other factors such as anxiety, stress, exercise, cold air, dry air, hyperventilation, smoke, viruses or other irritants. In non-allergic asthma, the immune system is not involved in the reaction.

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Double trouble: The link between allergies and asthma

James T. Li, M.D.

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If you have both allergies and asthma, you may wonder what they have in common besides a maddening ability to make you miserable. A lot, as it turns out. Allergy-induced asthma is the most common type of asthma in the United States; 60% of people with asthma have the allergic type. James T. Li, M.D., a Mayo Clinic allergy specialist answers your questions about the similarities and the differences between allergies and asthma.

What's the link between allergies and asthma?

Simply put, allergies can trigger or induce asthma. For people with allergic asthma, breathing in substances such as pollen, mold, dust mites and animal dander triggers the inflammation and swelling of the airways, leading to symptoms of asthma.

The lining of the nose and the lining of the airways are similar and are affected similarly by the allergic inflammatory process. Allergies are caused by the production of an antibody called IgE. The IgE antibodies cause a cascade of reactions in the body, including itchy skin or scratchy eyes or, for some, tightening of the airways. Simply put, if your immune system produces IgE antibody toward cat proteins, you're said to be allergic to cats. Exposure to cats triggers inflammation and swelling of the lining of the nose, bronchial tubes or both.

If I treat my allergies, will it prevent asthma?

Some studies suggest that treatment of allergic rhinitis actually improves asthma. Allergen immunotherapy (desensitization allergy shots) is a type of allergy treatment that can significantly improve asthma. In addition, if you have allergic asthma, reducing your exposure to the allergic substance can reduce your asthma problems and in some cases, completely control it.

Are allergies and asthma treated differently?

Medications aimed at reducing inflammation are effective for allergic rhinitis, allergic asthma, as well as nonallergic asthma. Corticosteroids for example, reduce inflammation. Intranasal corticosteroids, which you spray into your nose, reduce inflammation from hay fever. Corticosteroid creams applied to your skin reduce the inflammation of eczema. And inhaled corticosteroids, which you inhale into your lungs using an inhaler device, reduce inflammation of the bronchial tubes in asthma.

Another medication, called a leukotriene modifier, also is used to reduce inflammation. Leukotriene modifiers are taken in pill form and are used for both asthma and allergic rhinitis symptoms.

Other medications are clearly more effective for one condition over another. Antihistamines, for example, are commonly used to treat allergic rhinitis but have a very minor benefit for asthma. Bronchodilator inhalers, which open congested airways, are a big part of asthma treatment, though they aren't used to treat allergic rhinitis.

Who's at risk of allergic asthma?

A family history of allergies is the strongest risk factor having allergic asthma. If you have allergies, you're more likely to develop asthma — up to 78 percent of people who have asthma also have hay fever.

Is all asthma caused by allergies?

Though allergic asthma is the most common form of asthma, there are other forms and triggers of asthma, including exercise-induced asthma and nonallergic asthma triggered by infections or cold air or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Nothing to sneeze at

While it may be a manner of semantics to those who suffer from allergy or asthma symptoms, recognizing the relationship between the body's immune system and how the airways react has led to improved treatment of asthma symptoms for many people.

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Allergic Asthma

allergy asthma

Allergic (extrinsic) asthma is characterized by symptoms that are triggered by an allergic reaction. Allergic asthma is airway obstruction and inflammation that is partially reversible with medication. Allergic asthma is the most common form of asthma, affecting over 50% of the 20 million asthma sufferers. Many of the symptoms of allergic and non-allergic asthma are the same (coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath or rapid breathing, and chest tightness). However, allergic asthma is triggered by inhaled allergens such as dust mite allergen, pet dander, pollen, mold, etc. resulting in asthma symptoms.

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Typical symptoms and signs of asthma

asthma symptoms

The symptoms of asthma vary from person to person and in any individual from time to time. It is important to remember that many of these symptoms can be subtle and similar to those seen in other conditions. All of the symptoms mentioned below can be present in other respiratory, and sometimes, in heart conditions. This potential confusion makes identifying the settings in which the symptoms occur and diagnostic testing very important in recognizing this disorder.

The Four Major Recognized Symptoms:

• Shortness of breath - especially with exertion or at night
• Wheezing - a whistling or hissing sound when breathing out
• Coughing - may be chronic; usually worse at night and early morning; and may occur after exercise or when exposed to cold, dry air
• Chest tightness - may occur with or without the above symptoms

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