Sunday, August 11, 2013

Asthma Treatment And Symptoms


Asthma is a disease that affects an estimated twenty five million people in America and the exact cause of the disease isn't even known. Seven percent of the population of the United States has asthma and over three hundred million worldwide.

Although asthma is primarily known to develop among children, asthma can strike at any age. One quarter of the asthma sufferers in the United States are children and, even though children can grow out of it, asthma tends to remain a problem into adulthood.

Asthma is a lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways in the lungs. A chronic disease, asthma causes recurring periods of shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing and a tight feeling in the chest. These symptoms manifest themselves most often in the early morning.

Because asthma causes the airways to swell up and become narrow the airways become inflamed. The inflammation causes the production of extra mucus making breathing difficult. The most common asthma signs and symptoms are coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath. The symptoms of asthma vary quite a bit from one person to the next. For some, asthma symptoms are a minor nuisance while for others, they become a major problem that interferes with every aspect of daily life. In cases of severe asthma, there is a risk of a life-threatening asthma attack.

Even though the cause of asthma isn't known, medical researchers think that there are several factors that can all play a part in causing the onset of asthma symptoms. Family history is an important factor as many adult sufferers of asthma have children that share the disease. If a child comes into contact viral infections or airborne allergens, or contract many respiratory infections this can weaken the immune system and cause the onset of asthma.

At present, asthma can't be cured, but the symptoms of asthma can be brought under control. Treatments include using long-term control medications that control symptoms and prevent flare-ups as well as using an inhaler to control symptoms once they start.

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