What is Asthma and What Can Cause It

Unless you have experienced it yourself, you may wonder, what is asthma?  Well, it is a medical condition that results in irritation in your breathing tubes and lungs.  When this occurs, it is often referred to as an asthma attack. These attacks can cause panic, and they can be a very frightening experience.  After all, you are having trouble breathing.

Many attacks are not real serious, and can be handled with the simple usage of an inhaler.  These provide quick relief for the user.  Other more serious attacks require more drastic measures.  It is not uncommon to make a trip to the emergency room as the result of an attack.  It is important to be able to recognize when an attack is coming on.  Some of the symptoms include wheezing, tightness in the chest, shortness of breath, and coughing. 

Asthma attacks are triggered by things that the person is sensitive to.  One of the biggest factors in causing an  attack is dust.  When in a dusty house, these attacks can be triggered at any time.  This is why it is important for asthmatics to keep their home clean and as dust free as possible.

Also, certain medications can sometimes cause asthma attacks.  Smoke, both cigarette smoke and smoke from a fire, can also be a trigger.  Perfumes, hair spray, and spray deodorants can cause a reaction for an asthmatic.

There are many ways to help control the environment in which you are living.  It is important to keep the carpet very clean.  Also, make sure to wash sheets and blankets at least once a week with hot water.  Keep your windows closed and your air conditioner on as much as possible.  Keep your animals outside as much as you can.

It is not possible to always control the environment you are in, but you can control the one you live in.  Make sure to keep everything as clean as possible.

Treatment for an asthma attack is very often done with a quick-relief inhaler.  While these inhalers do provide instant relief to someone having an attack, they do not do anything to prevent the attack from happening again.

There are also preventive medicines that can be taken daily to help prevent usage of the quick-relief inhalers.  These preventive medicines can be taken orally, or they can also be taken in the form of inhalations.  Studies have shown that the preventive medicines decrease the amount of asthma attacks.  As a result of this, the quick-relief inhalers are used less frequently.

As you can see, prescription medications are not very effective at completely eliminating your asthma symptoms and attacks. And they most definitely do not cure your asthma. Another big problem with these medications is that there are potentially dangerous side effects. Many people end up with symptoms that are worse than the ones they started with. For many people the answer to the question of what is asthma could be that it is a lifetime of dealing with nasty symptoms and attacks.