Dear Mirror Doctor, I am 29 years of age and diagnosed with asthma a year ago. I don't know how it came about and also I don't know what category I fall in but all I know is that it leaves me sleepless every night.Kindly help me with what to do, be it, exercise or whatever medications I should take to control it permanently. And also what type of food I should stop eating or start taking to help cure me.
Dear Jones, Asthma is a disorder caused by inflammation in the airways that lead to the lungs. This inflammation causes airways to tighten and narrow, blocking air from flowing freely into the lungs. The end result is that it makes breathing difficult. The inflammation may be completely or partially reversed with or without medication.
These events in the airways, lumped up as inflammation, make the airways very sensitive, resulting in spasm of the airways that tend to narrow, particularly when exposed to a viral infection. Things that trigger asthma differ from person to person. Some common triggers are exercise, allergies, viral infections and smoke.
Identifying the real trigger may be difficult. When a person with asthma is exposed to a trigger, their sensitive airways become inflamed, swell up, and fill with mucus. In addition, the muscles lining the swollen airways tighten, making them even more narrow and blocked.
Anyone can have asthma, including infants and adolescents. The tendency to develop asthma is often inherited. Moreover, certain environmental factors may bring the onset of asthma.
It’s been suggested that there is an association between day-care environment and wheezing. Other environmental factors, such as exposure to smoke, allergens, automobile emissions and environmental pollutants have been associated with asthma.
In contrast, living away from the urban areas has been associated with reduced incidence of asthma. It is postulated that the clean and fresh air dropping directly from the leaves, totally devoid of industrial pollutants, accounts for this.
So far as one has not become exposed to these triggers, one can live a normal life. However, the symptoms of asthma become evident when exposed to the triggers. These periods are known as flares.
Many people with asthma can breathe normally for weeks or months between flares. When flares do occur, they often seem to happen without warning. Once the trigger is known and avoided, you may be free from attacks.
Patients with asthma present usually with wheezing. Wheezing is when the air flowing into the lungs makes a whistling sound. More severe wheezing is heard during the whole exhaled breath. However, during most extreme asthma attacks, wheezing may be absent because no air (or very little) is passing through the airways.
It is worth noting that asthma can occur without wheezing and wheezing can also be associated with other lung disorders. Cough may be the only symptom of asthma, especially in cases of exercise-induced or night-time asthma.
Chest tightness is another important symptom. One may feel the chest is tight or won't expand when breathing in, or there may be pain in the chest with or without other symptoms of asthma.
Symptoms can be different depending on whether the asthma episode is mild, moderate, or severe. This ranges from out of breath after strenuous activity through panting after mild activity to panting at rest and inability to complete sentences.
Infants usually are restless, not interested in feeding and may not be able to sleep.
Diagnosing asthma can be difficult and time consuming because different people with asthma have very different patterns of symptoms. In terms of severity it is classified into mild intermittent asthma, brief episodes of wheezing, coughing, or shortness of breath that occur no more than twice a week. Patients rarely have symptoms between episodes, maybe just one or two flare-ups per month involving mild symptoms at night.
Mild persistent asthma: Episodes of wheezing, coughing, or shortness of breath that occur more than twice a week but less than once a day. Symptoms usually occur at least twice a month at night and may affect normal physical activity.
Moderate persistent asthma: Symptoms occurring every day and requiring medication every day. Night time symptoms occur more than once a week.
Episodes of wheezing, coughing, or shortness of breath occur more than twice a week and may last for several days. These symptoms affect normal physical activity.
Severe persistent asthma: Patients with severe persistent asthma have symptoms continuously. Episodes of wheezing, coughing, or shortness of breath are frequent and may require emergency treatment and even hospitalisation.
People with exercise-induced asthma develop asthma symptoms after vigorous activity, such as running, swimming, or biking. Medications can be taken before exercising to prevent airways from tightening up.
Medicines that are available fall into two general categories. One category includes medications that are meant to control asthma in the long term and are used daily to prevent asthma attacks.
These include inhaled corticosteroids, inhaled cromolyn, long-acting bronchodilators, and leukotriene antagonists.
The other category is medications that provide instant relief from symptoms. These include short-acting bronchodilators (ventolin) and systemic corticosteroids, commonly prednisolone. Inhaled ipratropium may be used in addition to inhaled bronchodilators following asthma attacks or when asthma worsens.
In general, a high level of therapy following an asthma attack is instituted and then decreased to the lowest possible level that still prevents asthma attacks and allows normal life.
Asthma cannot be cured but can be managed properly with the aid of a physician. It is up to you to check if your asthmatic attack is triggered by food, avoidance of which will ameliorate your symptoms.
