Bronchial Asthma
The symptoms for bronchial asthma may vary from individual to individual and depends on environmental factors. A person may show regular symptoms of the disease or periodic symptoms that may prompt at a certain time.
Signs and symptoms:
- Breathlessness or short breath while talking, laughing, or running.
- Chest Pain or tightness.
- Sleep apnea or trouble while sleeping caused by breathlessness.
- Coughing or wheezing (whistling sound from chest while sleeping or lying down). Cold and flu due to viral infection.
How to diagnose?
- To diagnose asthma, your doctor will discuss your medical history and perform a physical exam.
- You may need a lung function test and maybe other tests, such as a chest or sinus X-ray.
Asthma is common in childhood, but you can develop it at any point in your life. It’s not uncommon for people over the age of 50 to be diagnosed with this lung disorder. Childhood asthma and adult-onset asthma have the same symptoms, and both have similar treatments.
Types of Asthma include:
Adult-Onset Asthma, Allergic Asthma, Asthma-COPD Overlap, Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction (EIB), Nonallergic Asthma & Occupational Asthma.
Asthma triggers may include:
- Exposure to various irritants and substances that trigger allergies (allergens). Asthma triggers are different from person to person and can include: Airborne allergens, such as pollen, dust mites, mold spores, pet dander or particles of cockroach waste.
Asthma can go away, although this happens more often when asthma starts in childhood than when it starts in adulthood. When asthma goes away, sometimes that’s because it wasn’t there in the first place. Asthma can be surprisingly hard to diagnose. The three main symptoms are wheezing, coughing, and shortness of breath.
Foods to avoid:
- Eggs, Cow’s milk, Peanuts, Soy, Wheat, Fish, Shrimp and other shellfish & Tree nuts.
- Though fresh fruit, especially oranges and apples, can help control your asthma, the sulfites that help preserve dried fruit could make the condition worse for some people. Alcohol (especially red wine), shrimp, pickled vegetables, maraschino cherries, and bottled lemon juice also often have sulfites.
Role of exercise:
- People with asthma should still get regular exercise, and with the right approach, physical activity can benefit your asthma symptoms.
- Exercise helps by increasing lung capacity and reducing inflammation, which improves the overall lung health.
Despite these benefits, patient should still take their medicine as prescribed by their doctors.
What to do in case of acute asthmatic attack?
- If patient was subjected to an asthmatic attack while not having inhaler, they have to Sit upright.
- Stop whatever you are doing, take long, deep breaths. This helps to slow down the breathing and prevent hyperventilation.
- Stay calm, get away from the trigger.
- Take a hot caffeinated beverage & Seek emergency medical help.
- Some quick-relief asthma medicines include: Albuterol (ProAir HFA, Proventil HFA, Ventolin HFA), Levalbuterol (Xopenex HFA), Metaproterenol, Terbutaline.
Here are 13 complementary therapies patient can try for the asthma; Dietary changes. Although there’s no specific diet for people with severe asthma, there are a few steps can be taken that may help with the symptoms, Buteyko Breathing Techniques, Papworth method, eat garlic, ginger, honey, Omega-3 oils & Caffeine.