The people who suffer with asthma generally exhibit a lot of different signs that are indicative of their having an attack. The other symptoms are also there to see like weight loss in children and elderly patients, loss of appetite, general feeling of exhaustion and lethargy, wheezing, frequent coughs and colds and many more such external symptoms.
Normally asthma is not considered to be very serious by the doctors perhaps because of the frequency with which the human population suffers with it. But the possibility that it can turn fatal also leaves us with no option but to identify the early warning signs so that they can be detected early and dealt with efficacy.
Like all other diseases an asthmatic attack also shows several signs before attacking a person in its full fury. The problem lies with the fact that these signs are so often confused with so many other diseases. It is important to understand them to reduce the impact of a full blown attack. Also if the attack has to be avoided altogether these early warning signs have to be taken seriously. All this is well understood by any reasonable person. Then why is it so that so many people fall prey to asthma and they do not even realize it in time?
The main reason attributed to this is that asthma is a disease that can attack anyone at any time. It is true that certain hereditary factors do play an important role in the manifestation of the disease but still many people fall prey to the disease without even having any known history of the disease. So understanding the fact that actually all the people in this world can be potentially at risk is the most important key factor here.
Once when someone knows that he has developed the disease certain precautions can make him lead a near normal life without many complications. The importance of proper treatment cannot be ruled out at all but with proper treatment and certain guidelines for a healthy lifestyle lot of control can be obtained over the frequency and severity of the attacks, most of the times asthma patients develop minor complications only which can be very easily managed with following the usual guidelines and treatments.
But when during the attacks a person starts to feel serious difficulty in breathing or he feels that the level of difficulty has risen while breathing he should immediately pay attention to the warning signs that the body is trying to offer. This is serious matter because many-a-times the patients tend to neglect this till they reach a stage where the attacks can no longer be controlled with normal medications and other precautions. Sometimes the attacks become so serious that the patient needs to be admitted in acute emergency care before they can be controlled. Sometimes admittance to the intensive care unit remains to the only option.
It is a well recognized fact that a human being cannot survive without oxygen for more than just a few minutes. If the difficulty in breathing and feeling of choking persist during an asthma attack for longer durations of time a person may even suffocate to death. Although the incidents of fatality are not very common, still the possibility cannot be ruled out. Each and every sufferer of asthma always has a dagger hanging over his head of this kind of thing happening to him. The good thing is that this is a condition that can be easily avoided if the mind remains open for identifying some early warning signs which go about indicating the worsening of the condition. These can be described as:
1. Cough or wheezing that does not respond to medications: This is a situation that needs serious attention. This is a sure sign of the asthmatic condition of the patient becoming serious. A persistent cough or wheezing may be resultant of excessive work related pressures or may be a resultant of some allergic reactions. But when the medications start to fail it should be taken as an early warning bell. Sometimes the wheezing is so much that the person has difficulty in speaking too.
2. Increased need for inhalers: When the frequency of use of inhalers is noticeably increased it is a sign of worsening of the situations. Some people get addicted to the inhalers and tend to use them more often without even serious difficulty. This situation therefore needs to be identified with discretion.
3. Constant wheezing during sleep: When there is constant noticeable wheezing during sleep it is indicative of worsening of the disease.
4. Persistent high fever or even low grade fever: When there is persistence of fever which either remains unresponsive to the medication or comes back after the effect of medication wears off, it may be an early warning sign of condition deteriorating.
5. Severe pain in the neck or chest: When after just a bit of exertion there seems to be pain in the neck and chest the condition should be reported and checked immediately.
6. Persistent vomiting: This may be because of many reasons but it should not go unchecked.
7. Cyanosis: This is indicative of blue color of the lips and hands. It is mainly an indication of asthma becoming worse.
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