Asthma is a chronic long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. Asthma causes recurring periods of wheezing (a whistling sound when you breathe), chest tightness, shortness of breath, and coughing.
The reason why I selected this topic on asthma is that I am asthmatic and this condition really affects me. I wanted to know what triggers or causes asthma, and if there is a cure to it. Though there is no cure for asthma you can prevent frequent attacks by following your doctor's instructions, getting vaccinated for influenza and pneumonia, identifying and avoiding asthma triggers, monitoring your breathing, identifying and treating attacks early, taking your medication as prescribed and also paying attention to increasing quick-relief inhaler use. Also wanted to learn or have knowledge if there is a complication when someone is asthmatic where I discovered that some of the complication (Lambrecht and Hammad, 2015). Some of these include permanent narrowing of the bronchial tubes (air remodeling) that affects how well you can breathe and also side effects from long-term use of medication used to stabilize severe asthma.
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Asthma affects people of all ages, but it most often starts during childhood. In the United States, more than 25 million people are known to have asthma. About 7 million of these are children. In children under the age of 5, the most common cause or trigger of asthma-like symptoms is an upper respiratory viral infection such as common cold. Not all children have the same asthma symptoms, and these symptoms can vary from episode to episode in the same child. Possible sign and symptoms of asthma children include frequent coughing spells which occurs mostly during play and at night or even when laughing or crying. With adult’s symptoms are typically persistent. At least 30 percent of adult asthma cases are triggered by allergies. Among adults who develop asthma, women are more likely than men to develop asthma after age 20, and obesity increase the risk of developing it.
Having asthma can affect a person in many ways. Physical effects range from the somewhat annoying coughs all the way to the life-threatening difficulties in breathing. Also the common physical effects include; wheezing, tightness in the chest, shortness of breath and awakening in the night from coughing or wheezing. People suffering from asthma can be affected emotionally. Strong emotions such as fear, excitement, anger, or even stress can affect the way we breathe. Even when you aren’t currently having asthma symptoms, the fear of another attack could cause you to feel constantly anxious and afraid. Other people react in different ways instead of fear, they might feel embarrassed, angry, confused or guilty especially when in public.
Reference
Lambrecht, B. N., & Hammad, H. (2015). The immunology of asthma. Nature Immunology , 16 (1), 45.
