What causes asthma?

 What causes asthma is a one of the main questions that is interesting for people who has this illness. Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways main symptoms of which are repetitive attacks of breathlessness. This breathlessness attacks are caused by bronchial obstruction which develops from different reasons. This condition can not be treated, but with good management and treatment person can live normal active life. There are many types of asthma:

• Child-onset asthma begins during childhood because a child becomes to be sensitized to common allergens; often child has other atopic diseases as dermatitis.
• Adult-onset asthma also can be caused some allergens, but begins after 20 years.
• Exercise-induced asthma attacks develop after physical training.
• Occupational asthma develops from chemicals that irritate person during work time. It can be pollutants, viruses, gases, smoke or dust that present in production where person works.
• Nocturnal asthma attacks occur during night time, more often it happens between 2 and 4 am
• Steroid-resistant asthma it is a severe type of asthma which can not be controlled by steroids.

What is a mechanism of asthma attack development?

The classic signs of asthma attack are breathlessness, chest tightness and wheezing. Hypoxia can develop so then skin and nails have blue color. At the end of asthma attack person expectorate clear sputum.

After contact with trigger factor inflamed bronchi become narrowed because muscles that around them contracts. Airways contraction and mucus in bronchi causes dyspnea and breathlessness.

What causes asthma?

Asthma caused both genetically and environmental factors. It is impossible to say than some one certain factor caused asthma in this or that person. All these causes of asthma work in complex.

There are many environmental triggers that can cause the disease; they are pollutants, viral or bacterial respiratory infections, psychological stress, chemicals, and tobacco. If asthma is allergic, these triggers are dust mites, pollen, pets and mold. Tobacco smoking including “passive smoking” can be the reason of asthma. You have not allow your child to be near people who smoke. Exercises, especially at the cold air can cause asthma attack. Some drugs like aspirin, naproxen, ibuprofen and other NSAIDs can cause asthma in people who are sensitive to this medication. Individual can also react on perfumes, strong smells. Climate changes are strong asthma triggers. Windy, cold weather can cause asthma attack.

People react on triggers in different way. Some of them have many triggers, some – only one. It is possible that asthma attack will not develop after contact with trigger. But sometimes it can occur just after expressing strong emotions.

Often all these trigger factors acts only with genetics. Approximately 25 genes are associated with asthma. Some genes can work with certain trigger factors from environment. Children with atopy are very susceptible to have bronchial asthma.

Atopy is a genetically determined state when individual is hypersensitive to common allergens which not cause allergy in healthy people. In infants atopy looks like atopic dermatitis or it can be a food allergy.

Signs of asthma | Asthma control test

It is important to know signs of asthma because this disease is rather common and more and more people every year suffer from it. To avoid different problems and in order to know that it is the right time for you to visit your doctor and have a conversation with him about this condition signs of asthma are worse of knowing.
As a rule signs of asthma include coughing (especially at night), shortness of breath, wheezing, chest tightness or pressure, also pain may be present. An individual who suffers from asthma may feel all this symptoms or only some of them. These manifestations of the disease appear when the airways of the person are tighten, inflamed or even filled with mucus.
It is important to admit that these signs of asthma may be experienced by different individuals in different ways. To the addition one and the same person may notice that he or she experiences different asthma symptoms at different times. And it’s not all! Even if the person feels one and the same symptom or several symptoms of this disease every time their severity may vary from one asthma attack to another taking mild and severe forms at different times.
Among other signs of asthma it is possible to distinguish severe wheezing when breathing both in and out, coughing with asthma that won't stop, very rapid breathing, chest pain or pressure, tightened neck and chest muscles, called retractions, difficulty talking, feelings of anxiety or panic, pale, sweaty face, blue lips or fingernails. These symptoms are more common for severe asthma attacks.
Conditionally it is possible to divide people who suffer from asthma into three groups. The first group is the most suffering one. To this group of people belong sufferers who are subjected by signs of asthma every day. The second group is “luckier”. To this group refer people who experience asthma symptoms from time to time. This state is called asthma attack. But in general these people live their common life and have long periods of time without worsening periods. The third group of sufferers experience asthma symptoms only during exercising or asthma with viral infections like colds.
Fortunately severe asthma attacks are not as common as mils ones. Generally mild attacks last from few minutes to several hours, during this time the airways are open up. But it is worth to remember that severe asthma attack is also possible. It usually lasts longer comparing to the mild one and in this case and immediate medical help is required. It is important to treat even the easiest symptoms of asthma to avoid serious problems in the future and not let the disease to develop in your organism. Knowing, recognizing and treating signs of asthma are also helpful in keeping the disease under control.
Asthma control test are used to know how well you control your asthma or maybe it show that you are not able to control it. As you already know asthma symptoms may vary from time to time. It means that it is good to pass the test in a month or so to know if something changes or not. Asthma control test provides you some information and it is useful to share it with your doctor, this may help to explain how asthma affects you and maybe exactly this test will help the doctor to find the best treatment especially for you.

Asthma inhalers

Using of asthma inhalers are one of the most effective way to relief the asthma attacks. Asthma inhaler units are typically used to dispense the medicines which both control the condition's attacks in the short term, and treat it in the long term with the idea of reducing the occurrence of attacks and making them less severe. These inhalers for asthma allow the active ingredients of the medicines to get straight to where they can do most good. The most important usage of them is in the quick application of medicines to immediately treat of an attack. Individuals also should use asthma inhalers extensively in applying longer term solutions.

It is important for people to understand why asthma inhalers are so effective. It is necessary to understand the nature of the condition. Asthma affects the lungs, the breathing, and the pathways through which air passes in and out of the human body. Nobody knows exactly what causes asthma, and it is thought that there are different causes for different types of the disease. It is almost settled, though, that there is a large environmental element in the cause of asthma. This is proved by the fact that Western industrialized countries with the most altered air and living environment have the highest rates of asthma.

It can be hard to differentiate between those factors which actually cause asthma and those which solely intensify it, because the results can be equally violent. In any case, anything which appears and triggers the possibility of an attack needs to be avoided. There are factors which will worsen in any asthma condition, and make the necessity for asthma inhalers even stronger. One of these is being in a dusty environment for some time, so try to expel any furniture which appears to attract dust mites and also clean rooms regularly. Avoid places where there is a lot of tobacco smoke because this smoke is a constant irritant.

Using of inhalers for asthma is one of the most important techniques for the controlling of the condition. Anyone who has diagnosis of asthma should be given minimum one inhaler, and maybe several over time. The most important of them is the reliever inhaler (it must be given first), which will dispense medicines directly into the breathing mechanism of the human body. This kind of inhalers should be carried continually as you can never be sure when an attack will happen. Corticosteroid drugs are usually used for it. They are used in these inhalers to control the condition immediately.

Once the patient has the relief and ability to control and deal with appearing of attacks, they will have greater inner peace and less stress. This single can decrease the number of attacks which make him/her suffer, and make them less severe. The patient can also then inspect the possibilities offered by more long term ways, in which medicines are taken in small doses over a long period of time. The best start is to get very small doses and increase them in the case of need, all the time control for potential side effects.

An asthma inhaler is often used to dispense these medicines, and it will usually be another color from the original reliever inhaler. This is to avert the usage of the wrong one by mistake. Such a mistake is improbable to have any serious consequences, but it would mean that the correct dose of medicines did not reach the body when an attack actually happened. Supporting long term medicines treatments is the way to reduce both the severity and the number of attacks which you face with. You will soon become used to your asthma inhaler.