As far as asthma goes, triggers for asthma are: allergies, family history (because there is a genetic influence) dust mites, pet dander, dust, cockroaches, pollen, mold, anything like that, pollutions and factory immetions can trigger some allergies. And often your patient will give you a history of GERD and exema (especially when they were a kid).
In asthma we have reversible narrowing of the bronchioles. When they narrow they swell, so it gets hyper responsive, the airway tends to remodel, and they tend to look differently when you look at them. This is due to all the chemical mediators at are released. And because these mediators are released it is how we look at the meds. Chromin is for you mask cell. Singular is your leukotyrines. So all these mediators which get released when the body is exposed to an allergen is why they give people with asthma these different kind of meds.
Symptoms of asthma include: wheezing, both inspiration and expiration. They tend to cough more at night, because the air is moister, the stuff has been stirred up all day long, the dust and everything. They need to be told to get the carpets up out of their house and bedrooms, get the pet out of the bedroom. They should not do the dusting; someone else should do the dusting. So make sure there are not a lot of knickknacks around the house and clutter is reduced. The other thing they need to know too is that just like your patients with emphysema and bronchitis, cover their mouth if they are out with a cold, and get into the air conditioning in summer, because they don’t tolerate it.
They need to know how to do peak flows; they need to know how to determine their personal best. Done once a day with three breaths to determine what their personal best is. And what they do with this is determine what they should do with their meds. Medications are based on their peak