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Asthma

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Asthma
Symptoms and Treatment
7/14/2013
Donna Hunter |

Asthma is a disease that affects your lungs, making it harder to move air in and out of your lungs. When we breathe, air passes through the nose, down the throat and into the lungs. Inside your lungs there are tubes called airways that become red and swollen, which makes them sensitive to things in the air every day. These things are called triggers and can be anything from dust, chemicals, a cold, the weather, smoke or pet dander. Asthma causes wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing. If you have asthma, you have it all the time, but you will have asthma attacks when something bothers your lungs. When this happens, the insides of the airways make extra mucus and swell even more and the muscles that surround your airways tighten, making it even harder to breathe. Sputum may be produced from the lungs by coughing but it is usually hard to bring up. Symptoms are usually worse at night, early in the morning, when exercising or cold air,
In most cases the cause of asthma is unknown, but is thought to be caused by environmental factors combined with genetic factors. Asthma can start at any age. Some people have asthma when they are very young and with lung development, the symptoms go away. But there is a good possibility that it will return later in life. Others develop asthma for the first time when they are older.
Asthma is a serious health problem, but the symptoms can be controlled with treatment and management. This involves taking your medications as directed and learning to avoid triggers that cause your symptoms. Everyone with asthma does not take the same medicine. Some medicines can be inhaled and some can be taken in pill form.
Quick relief, or rescue medications are used to control symptoms during an asthma attack. Controller medications are taken every day. They help you have fewer and milder attacks, but they don’t help you while you are having an attack. Combination inhalers contain an inhaled corticosteroid plus a long-acting beta-agonist. These are symptom controllers that are helpful in opening your airways, but should be used along with inhaled corticosteroids. Leukotriene modifiers are oral medications that include Singulair and similar medications. Oral and intravenous corticosteroids may be required for severe symptoms.
There is no cure for asthma, but the prognosis is generally good, especially for children. The mortality rate has decreased over the last few decades due to recognition and improvements in the medical field. It is estimated that 22 million people and around 6 million children have asthma. 40,000 people will miss school or work. 30,000 people will have an asthma attack. 5,000 people will visit an emergency room because of their asthma. 1,000 people will be admitted to the hospital, and 11 people will die due to asthma in The United States, every day.
People with asthma are at risk of developing complications from respiratory infections, which is why it is important for asthma suffers to get vaccinated annually. With proper treatment and an asthma management plan, you can decrease your symptoms and enjoy a better quality of life.

References
American Lung Association, About Us, 2013
Center for Disease Control, content source National Center for Environmental Health April 30, 2013
Wikipedia, Asthma Medicine Plus, Medical Encyclopedia, National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) (2007). "Expert Panel Report 3: Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma"

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