Roughly 25 million Americans experienced asthma. This number includes both adults and children. Asthma is a long-term respiratory disease that causes your airways and bronchial tube to become inflamed and produce extra mucus.
To better understand this ailment, it’s best to educate ourselves about what causes it, what are the different types of asthma, and its treatments.
Causes
What exactly causes asthma is still a mystery up to this date. However, genetics, pollution, and modern hygiene standards have been noticed to have a huge impact on asthma. As a result, individuals who are suffering from asthma will experience swelling of the airways.
Because of the narrowing of the airways, sticky mucus can easily get caught and obstruct it. As a result, the patient will experience difficulty in breathing. There are so many possible triggers that can cause asthma attacks in individuals who are diagnosed with it.
Common Asthma Triggers
Common asthma triggers are the causes of why a patient will have episodes of asthma attacks. These triggers are:
- Allergens such as pollen, fur, feathers, and dust mites,
- Flu and cold infections,
- Pollution, fumes, and smoke,
- Excessive emotions such as laughter and depression,
- Too much exercising,
- Weather, especially the sudden change in the temperature,
- Medicines like aspirin, ibuprofen, and anti-inflammatory medications,
- Mold
If you are one of the individuals who have asthma, you should observe and know your triggers. It will help if you have control over your asthma and prevent it from happening. Always remember that prevention is better than cure. However, when it comes to asthma, the cure is not yet available. It can only be managed with the help of certain medications.
Types of Asthma
Aside from causes, it is also important that you know what type of asthma you have. This way, you can acquire the correct treatment suitable for the type of asthma you’re currently suffering from. You can look at each of these types of asthma and figure out which your condition belongs to.
Seasonal Asthma
The first type of asthma we will talk about is seasonal asthma. This type of asthma occurs when the allergen in the air is present at certain times. For example, seasonal asthma might likely happen during the spring season.
The reason behind this is that a lot of flowers bloom during spring, and the pollen from these flowers will scatter and spread through the air. If your asthma gets triggered by pollen, then you will likely suffer from asthma attacks during this season.
Although people with asthma still have it all year round, they will not experience the symptoms with no seasonal trigger.
Occupational Asthma
Occupational asthma is one of the types of asthma you will constantly hear. This type of asthma is a response to an irritant or allergens that are present in your workplace. For example, if you have childhood asthma, any allergens and irritants in your workplace might trigger it to come back.
Moreover, these allergens and irritants can also start the onset of asthma in adults. For example, if you are working in pet shops, the animal’s fur will trigger your asthma, whether it is recurring childhood asthma or new onset-adult asthma.
Childhood Asthma
Asthma has been one of the common medical conditions that most children acquire. Although it can begin at any age, it is most commonly diagnosed in children. Therefore, a child with asthma must seek medical attention.
Asthma is deadly, which is why it is important to watch your children closely if they start experiencing asthma and manifest symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing, and chest tightness.
When one or more of these symptoms manifests, quickly bring the child to an emergency room. Opening up this topic during your regular physician visit is also a good idea. This way, you will always be one step ahead.
Adult-onset Asthma
Next on the list is adult-onset asthma. This is a type of asthma that develops in adulthood. Even though you do not have childhood asthma, you can still acquire it anytime. Asthma that develops in adulthood has more persistent symptoms compared to childhood asthma.
Adult-onset asthma can develop due to numerous factors, such as stress, obesity, smoking, respiratory illness, exposure to allergens, and hormones.
Treatment for Asthma
Although the cure for asthma is not yet available today, a person with asthma can instead undergo some treatment. Asthma treatments help control asthma symptoms, which makes them more manageable so they won’t affect your daily activities.
Inhalers are used to either prevent or relieve the symptoms of asthma and sometimes both. Tablets will also be prescribed to you by your physician to help control your asthma symptoms alongside the inhaler.
Injectables are also available for asthma treatment. Physicians will also advise you to do breathing exercises regularly to improve your breathing.
Asthma Can Be Dangerous
Asthma can be dangerous, but it is also highly manageable. Knowing your triggers to prevent it from happening to knowing what type of asthma you have will help you distinguish which treatment best fits you.