Asthma is a type of chronic lung disease that inflames and narrows your airways.
How your lungs normally work is as you breathe, air travels freely through your trachea, or windpipe, then through large tubes known as bronchi, smaller tubes called bronchioles, and finally into microscopic sacs known as alveoli. Miniscule blood vessels called capillaries fill all sides of your alveoli.
Oxygen from the air you breathe will enter your capillaries. Carbon dioxide expands from your capillaries into your alveoli. Therefore, you can breathe out carbon dioxide when your lungs expel it. Your bronchioles will open to air that is warm; moist, free of allergens and irritants.
The bronchioles constrict, or close, to air that is cold, dry, or that carries allergens and irritants.
If you have asthma: Asthma means that your airways are often inflamed and swollen. Your inflamed airways can be triggered to respond more strongly at times by a stimulus that has the potential to cause an asthma attack, as it is popularly called; in the medical literature, bronchospasm.
Symptoms of an asthma attack An asthma attack makes you feel all of the following: • You are wheezing • Breathlessness • You feel breathless What happens during an asthma attack
Your muscles around your airways will contract, and the walls of your airways will swell. Your airways may also produce thick mucus that narrows the passage through which air passes. Thus breathing will be difficult.
Asthma Drugs
If you suffer from the condition known as asthma, your doctor is more likely to treat you with drugs that control: • inflammation of your airways • the muscles that squeeze around the airways to push mucus or sputum through your airways. There are two classes of medication for this medical condition. • Bronchodilators. Bronchodilator drugs are just those that are meant to relax the muscles inside the walls of the airways, so as to relax them during an attack to provide relief from asthma attacks. They come in two different forms: • Inhalation type • Formulation in a nebulizer. • Long-acting anti-inflammatory drug. • Anti-inflammatory drugs, also referred to as long-acting anti-inflammatory drugs, give rise to avoid asthma attacks. These have to be taken daily. These medications reduce airway inflammation and the likelihood that your airways will become more sensitive to asthma. Lifestyle changes
Asthma cannot be prevented, but can be controlled with the use of medications along with certain lifestyle changes.
• Use your asthma action plan. Work with your doctor to establish a plan of action for using medications and managing attacks.
• Identify and try to avoid asthma triggers.
• Monitor breathing. Regularly measure and keep track of lung function using a peak flow meter.
• Spot attacks early. Know the signs of an attack and use medications according to established guidelines.
• Follow an upward trend in the use of a quick-relief inhaler. Overuse of a quick-relief inhaler may mean your asthma was not being controlled. Discuss medication changes with your health care professional.
• Attend all visits with your health care professional. Don't let yourself get sick. Monitor your follow-up visits with your doctor. Stay up to date on flu and pneumonia vaccines.
• Nutrition: Eat a healthy diet of fresh foods. Keep track of what you're sensitive to, and which foods contain preservatives or other chemicals. If you suffer from GERD, your asthma may worsen or your medications may need adjustments. Discuss your diet and asthma with your health provider.
• Healthy weight and regular exercise. Exercise strengthens your heart and lungs and keeps excess fat off your body. This worsens asthma attacks. Generally, obesity predisposes you to other conditions.
When emergency services will call Signs of an acute asthma attack include: Severe shortness of breath or wheezing You feel like you can't breathe; you only complete a few brief sentences at a time because of difficulty breathing Have to strain your chest to breathe Low peak flow measurement
