Asthma

Keeping the use of medications to a minimum – or not using them at all – is often a choice women make when they become pregnant. But this is not always possible, nor wise.

In an individual who has been diagnosed with asthma, the focus of contemporary treatment emphasizes prevention of symptoms such as breathlessness, chest discomfort, cough, mucus production, and wheezing. Certain asthma medications, sometimes referred to as “controller medicine,” are designed and prescribed to maintain normal lung function, and to prevent an exacerbation of asthma — what used to be called an asthma “attack”. Identification of an individual’s asthma triggers and avoidance of exposure to the triggers are other ways to prevent an asthma exacerbation.

To help prevent an asthma attack, it’s important to identify your triggers and avoid them. Avoid these foods whenever possible.

Asthma has no single, easily identified cause. Multiple Asthma has no causes and the interaction of several factors may be single, easily necessary to cause the disease.

Although great strides have been made in the treatment of bronchial asthma, asthma-associated mortality is increasing in many countries. The first record of asthma dates back 30 centuries, but it is only during recent decades that systematic attempts have been made to understand the pathophysiology of this condition and to treat the disorder. At the beginning of this century, William Osier reported that acute attacks of bronchial asthma never result in death.

Up to the mid-1980s there was a fairly general consensus that the mast cell was central in the pathophysiology of asthma. In 1983 on the occasion of the Third International Symposium on Asthma, it was suggested that ‘perhaps asthma is no more than physical allergy of the mast cells of the lung’, the analogy being made with urticaria where it was established that allergic and non-allergic triggers could release histamine (and presumably other mediators) from mast cells, which in turn produced the urticarial lesion. Thus asthma, which was characterized clinically as intermittent airway narrowing, was believed to result, in atopic asthma, from intermittent type I (immediate-type hypersensitivity) reactions by IgE-dependent mast cell mediator release or by mast cell degranulation owing to physical or other stimuli in non-atopic (‘intrinsic’) asthma.

The prevalence of asthma, frequency of acute exacerbations of asthma, and sensitization to antigens have all been increasing throughout the past decade. Researchers have proposed that this trend may be related to concurrent increases in air pollution.

For many years, asthma was viewed as a disease of airway narrowing, or bronchoconstriction. In the traditional view, the bronchial passages, especially those encircled by specialized muscle fibers, became narrowed or constricted, and an inevitable “attack” would follow.

Asthma affects more than 15 million adults in the United States. The incidence of asthma has risen in the past few decades. It is a significant health concern and a tremendous economic burden in modern societies.

Apart from possible adverse effects of medications, can acute asthma by itself be dangerous for the fetus? Acute asthma causes lack of oxygen in the mother’s blood, and thus the fetus also suffers from lack of oxygen, sometimes more than the mother. While the fetus can tolerate this lack for some time, the same kinds of damage can be done that a lack of oxygen can produce during delivery: varying degrees of brain damage.

The hygiene hypothesis is a theory that attempts to explain the increased prevalence of allergy and asthma in affluent, industrialized nations. It also strives to elucidate factors that are responsible for the development of asthma in individuals.

The lungs are part of the respiratory system. A good way to understand the workings of the lungs is to first get an overview of their structure, or anatomy. The human respiratory system begins at the nose and includes the nasal passages, which allow air to pass by the back of the throat and to enter the windpipe, or trachea.

Asthma is a very common lung disease. Asthma affects approximately 17 million Americans, including 6.3 million children younger than 18 years of age.

In patients arriving at the emergency department (ED) with acute asthma attacks, the first step is to differentiate between an uncomplicated acute episode of short duration and a prolonged acute episode, especially if the patient is steroid-dependent. Determine whether superimposed infection exists (viral or bacterial); the most recent National Asthma Guidelines reaffirm that antibiotics should not be used to treat acute asthma attacks except when a bacterial infection, due to another condition such as pneumonia or sinusitis, is present. If an antibiotic needs to be prescribed for asthma and chronic bronchitis patients, amoxycillin, augmentin, bactrim DS, biaxin, or vibramycin are good choices.

Acute symptoms of asthma are one of the most common acute illnesses primary care physicians are called upon to manage, either in the office or, often, at night in the emergency department (ED). Acute attacks are increasing, particularly in children, and these attacks often require aggressive emergency treatment. The symptoms can range from persistent coughing to the full-blown manifestations of respiratory failure.

Sarah forgot something when she went sledding last week. It wasn’t her gloves, her hat or her sled.

Asthma is a chronic lung (respiratory) condition. From a patient’s perspective, it is characterized by symptoms of varying intensity and frequency.

Magnesium is fourth on the list of the most abundant cations in the body (following calcium, sodium, and potassium), and it is second only to potassium as the most abundant intracellular cation. It is an essential cofactor in more than 300 different enzymatic reactions, including carbohydrate utilization, ATP metabolism, muscle contraction, transmembrane ion transport (calcium, sodium, chloride, potassium), and the synthesis of fat, protein, and nucleic acids. Magnesium also appears to play an important role in lung function.