Asthma Answers

Asthma can be a very scary disease. I’ve been fighting with it for over thirty years and I know just horrible it an make a person feel. If you’ve ever been without your inhaler during an attack or had an attack that wouldn’t go away, you know just how scary it can be too. Luckily, there are ways to treat serious outbreaks and prevent future problems.

More than twenty million people in the United States have asthma. Experts are now saying that the disease is reaching epidemic levels even in developed parts of the world like the U.S. Three to five percent all adults and seven to ten percent of all children in the country are affected by it. In urban areas, as many as one in every four children now has asthma.

Many famous people have asthma, including athletes like former Chicago Bulls superstar Dennis Rodman, track and field Olympic Medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Hall Of Fame pitcher Jim “Catfish” Hunter.

What is asthma?

Asthma is a chronic (long term and recurring) disease that affects a person’s repository system. While it can’t be cured completely, it can be treated, even controlled so that a person can live a normal life. However, left untreated it can be fatal.

Asthma causes a person’s airways to narrow or constrict, become inflamed, create excess amounts of mucus, all making it difficult for a person to breath. A person’s airways are the tubes that bring air in and out of your lungs and when they’re constricted, it can make it really hard to breath. If you’ve ever had an asthma attack, you know it feels like you’re trying to breath through a straw.

Symptoms of an asthma attack include periods when a person is wheezing. That’s whistling sound that you’ll hear when a person is having difficulty breathing. A person experiencing an attack will feel a tightness in their chest and a shortness of breath. Often periods of coughing go along with it, especially in the mornings or nights.

A minor asthma attack can go away by itself or with the help of asthma medicine like a rescue inhaler. More severe attacks could require treatment at a doctors or emergency room.

Triggers of asthma?

The most common trigger of asthma is allergies. This includes things like dust, mold and pollen. It can also include the family pet like a cat or dog because of their dander.

Airborne irritants and pollutants are another major trigger. This includes air pollution, smoke, perfumes and some cleaning solutions.

Exercise induced asthma is another common trigger of an asthma attack. Asthma attacks can be caused by something as simple as running, riding a bike or even playing sports.

Weather can also cause asthma, especially cold or dry air.

Because an asthmatic person has red and swollen airways, even something like laughing or crying can cause an asthma attack.

What causes asthma?

Asthma isn’t contagious, instead it’s most often caused by a person’s genes or environmental factors.

The four main causes include:

Family history/heredity.

Living In An Urban Area.

Second Hand Smoke.

Health problems like obesity, acid reflux disease and chronic sinusitis.

A fifth but not as often cause is exposure in job related environments.