Asthma

Bronchial asthma or simply known as asthma among common people is a disease that quite a number of people experience. This is usually atopic in causation & can be compared to an allergy profile of any person. This disease is very disturbing to the sufferers, give them many sleepless nights mostly when associated precipitating factors are present.

Coming on to science of this breathing disease; it is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways which is characterized by increased responsiveness of the airways to various stimuli. This response include increased mucus secretion which is associated with narrowing of airways, that makes breathing very difficult. The manifestation includes paroxysms of dyspnoea, cough & wheezing. The airflow limitation is usually reversible either spontaneously, or with medical treatment. The condition can be classified broadly in to 2 categories: 1.Early onset-also called the atopic type,it has strong role of external allergens like winter,hay,dust etc in its development. These patients have increased level of circulating antibody in their serum against the antigens involved in allergic reaction.

2. Late onset-here the external allergens have no role. The antibody titer & skin test for allergy yield no result. Pathogenesis of the bronchial type involves mainly 2 things:

a> Bronchial hyper responsiveness & b>Inflammatory reactions with in the bronchial wall The patients suffering from the bronchial type should keep the profile of their allergies that would be very much helpful in avoiding the attacks.Allergens commonly involved are either from inspired air like house dust,pollen,feather ,animal dander,fungal spores etc or from food that we take.

The second category includes allergens in fish,egg,milk ,yeast etc.

TREATMENT: The management of this bronchial type, can be brought under three main headings viz, a) Education about the disease to the patient so that he can face the disease with both avoiding the cause / spark attacks (allergen), and environmental control of his life. b)Relaxation training, control of emotions and do exercises or sports that are useful to strengthen respiratory muscles, for example, swimming,so that mucus easily move out. b)Desensitization or immunotherapy and c)Drug therapy to control or suppress clinical manifestation The drugs used in bronchial asthma are beta agonists like Salmeterol,Salbutamol etc, steroids both inhalatonal & oral,methyl xanthines,leucotrine antagonists,anticholinergenics,Sodium chromoglycate etc. They all either aim to inhibit the inflammatory reaction,suppress it on a long term basis or dilate the bronchus & air ways. Hospitalization & administration of drugs through a nebulizer may be required if the patient is severely ill or distressed. The condition is labeled as"status asthmaticus"

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Asthma Treatments - Relievers and Preventers Not rated yet
Author: Bjorn Gutter Asthma is a chronic lung condition that is characterized by difficulty in breathing. People with asthma have extra sensitive ...