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What Is Flare In Asthma

What Causes An Asthma Flare

Asthma flare-up season is here!

Things that can cause you to have an asthma flare-up are called triggers. Different kids have different triggers. Common triggers include:

  • breathing in things that cause allergies , such as dust, pollen, dander from animals, and mold
  • breathing in things that irritate your airways, like cigarette smoke, perfume, and chalk dust
  • infections, like a cold or the flu
  • breathing in cold air

These Are The Most Common Asthma Triggers

Among those who have asthma, symptoms present in various ways and for some more often than for others. While some people experience asthma symptoms on a daily basis, others have symptoms only when they encounter specific triggers.

Some common asthma triggers are:

  • Airborne allergens or irritants, including dust, pollen, mold, and pet hair
  • Infections, including the flu, sinusitis, and, in some cases, upper respiratory tract infections
  • Smoke or chemical fumes

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What Does A Virus Do To The Cell

It essentially turns it into a virus making a factory. The Rhinovirus is the most common virus to cause asthma . So, to keep it simple, well just focus on the Rhinovirus. Once it binds to a respiratory epithelial cell, it forces the cell to take it in. Once inside, the capsid separates itself from the genome . This RNA strand enters the cells nucleus and integrates itself to the cells DNA. The cell then replicates the viral RNA over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.4,6

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What Asthma Treatment Options Are There

You have options to help manage your asthma. Your healthcare provider may prescribe medications to control symptoms. These include:

  • Bronchodilators: These medicines relax the muscles around your airways. The relaxed muscles let the airways move air. They also let mucus move more easily through the airways. These medicines relieve your symptoms when they happen and are used for intermittent and chronic asthma.
  • Anti-inflammatory medicines: These medicines reduce swelling and mucus production in your airways. They make it easier for air to enter and exit your lungs. Your healthcare provider may prescribe them to take every day to control or prevent your symptoms of chronic asthma.
  • Biologic therapies for asthma: These are used for severe asthma when symptoms persist despite proper inhaler therapy.

You can take asthma medicines in several different ways. You may breathe in the medicines using a metered-dose inhaler, nebulizer or another type of asthma inhaler. Your healthcare provider may prescribe oral medications that you swallow.

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By the way, medical professional: Does asthma disappear?

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What Drink Is Good For Asthma

Drink plenty of water. Water is essential to maintain the healthy functioning of the human body and that includes asthma. Asthma is caused when the windpipe becomes inflamed and narrows. The symptoms of asthma include wheezing and gasping for breath and water is considered to have a soothing effect on the airways and alleviates asthma symptoms..

When To Call A Professional

  • Difficulty breathing

Some children with asthma may not complain specifically of shortness of breath. However, they may flare their nostrils or use their chest and neck muscles when breathing. These are signs that they are having trouble.

If you already have been diagnosed with asthma, call your doctor if your symptoms:

  • Are getting worse
  • Are not being controlled by your regular medications

For example, call your doctor if you must use your rescue bronchodilator more than four times a day. Also call if your peak-flow-meter readings are in the yellow or red zones.

If you have an asthma attack and your symptoms persist despite your usual medications, seek emergency help immediately.

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Develop An Action Plan

Your asthma action plan is a detailed guide to managing and treating your asthma symptoms. In addition to providing information for you, your healthcare providers, and family and friends on what to do during a mild, moderate, or severe asthma flare-up, an asthma action plan should include:

  • Your medical history, including allergies and co-occurring medical conditions
  • Contact information for your loved ones, the emergency department, your healthcare provider, and any other pertinent people
  • Information about your medications, including the dose, frequency, and instructions on how to administer them in an emergency

Cold Air Can Trigger Asthma Attacks

Asthma flare-up season is here!

Asthma sufferers are sensitive to their environment and the air they breathe. Triggers can cause your bronchial passageways to spasm and close off. When this happens, you can feel short of breath and start wheezing or coughing. Its a swelling response in your airways that creates an asthma attack.

Cold air can cause your airways to seize up, triggering an asthma attack. Winter air can also be moist, harboring mold spores and dust mites. When you breathe damp, cold air, you put your lungs at risk for inhaling particles that cause flare-ups and airway swelling.

Cold and flu viruses are prevalent in winter, and cold air makes them spread easily. If you have asthma and you get sick, the mucus your body develops can clog your airways. While you naturally have a thin layer of mucus in your airways, getting sick can create more mucus that fills your narrow breathing passages.

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Where Can I Find Out More About Asthma

You can find out more about asthma by telephoning or writing to the following groups:

  • American Lung Association

    Telephone :

    1-800-LUNG-USA , or check your local telephone directory

  • American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology

    611 East Wells St.

  • Allergy and Asthma Network/Mothers of Asthmatics, Inc.

    3554 Chain Bridge Road, Suite 200

    Fairfax, VA 22030-2709

  • National Asthma Education and Prevention Program,

    National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Information Center

    P.O. Box 30105

Treating Symptoms Versus Controlling The Disease

It is important to understand the difference between coping with asthma attacks and controlling the disease over time.

Medications for asthma fall into two categories:

  • Rescue Medication. Medications that open the airways are used to quickly relieve any moderate or severe asthma attack. These drugs are usually short-acting beta-adrenergic agonists taken through an inhaler. Beta2-agonists and other rescue medications do not have any effect on the disease process itself. They are only useful for treating symptoms.
  • Long-Term Control Medication. Long-term control medications focus on controlling the damaging inflammatory response associated with asthma and not simply treating symptoms. For adults and children over age 5 with moderate-to-severe persistent asthma, doctors recommend inhaled corticosteroids, which are sometimes accompanied by long-acting beta2-agonists when corticosteroids alone fail to control the disease.

Unfortunately, many patients do not understand the difference between medications that provide rapid short-term relief and those that are used for long-term symptom control. Make sure your doctor explains how to avoid overusing your short-term bronchodilator medications and underusing your long-term corticosteroid medications. The overuse of bronchodilators can have serious consequences, while not properly using steroids can lead to permanent lung damage.

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Causes Of Asthma Flare

People with asthma have airways that are overly sensitive to certain things that normally dont bother those without asthma, and exposure to triggers can bring on asthma symptoms.

Common triggers include:

Many people with asthma also have allergies. In them, allergens the things that cause the allergic symptoms also can cause asthma flare-ups.

Left untreated, a flare-up can last for several hours or even several days. Quick-relief medicines often take care of the symptoms pretty quickly. A person should feel better once the flare-up ends, although it can take several days to completely go away.

Personal Asthma Action Plan

Asthma and COVID

As part of your initial assessment, you should be encouraged to draw up a personal asthma action plan with your GP or asthma nurse.

If youâve been admitted to hospital because of an asthma attack, you should be offered an action plan before you go home.

The action plan should include information about your asthma medicines, and will help you recognise when your symptoms are getting worse and what steps to take. You should also be given information about what to do if you have an asthma attack.

Your personal asthma action plan should be reviewed with your GP or asthma nurse at least once a year, or more frequently if your symptoms are severe.

As part of your asthma plan, you may be given a peak flow meter. This will give you another way of monitoring your asthma, rather than relying only on symptoms, so you can recognise deterioration earlier and take appropriate steps.

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What Are The Signs Of An Asthma Flare

Asthma flare-ups can vary in strength and length. They can happen without warning, causing sudden coughing, shortness of breath, and wheezing.

Flare-ups should be treated right away. So it’s important to know their early warning signs, including:

  • restless sleep or coughing that prevents sleep
  • mild chest tightness or wheezing
  • shortness of breath

If the flare-up is severe, a kid might:

  • struggle to breathe or have fast breathing even when sitting still
  • be unable to speak more than a few words at a time without pausing
  • have retractions while breathing in

Because they can be life-threatening, flare-ups demand attention. Your child might need to take quick-relief medicine , visit the doctor, or even go to the hospital.

Following the instructions in your child’s asthma action plan can help you know what to do when a flare-up happens.

Symptoms Of A Life Threatening Attack

The following signs and symptoms may indicate a life threatening situation:

  • Anxiety or panic
  • Grogginess, confusion, or difficulty talking

Asthma often progresses very slowly, but it may sometimes develop to a fatal or near-fatal attack within a few minutes. It is very difficult to predict when an attack will become very serious. Any symptoms that suggest a serious attack should be immediately treated with a rescue bronchodilator. If symptoms persist, call for emergency help.

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When Should I Go To The Er

Don’t be embarrassed to get medical help if you think you need it. These situations call for emergency care:

  • You take your asthma medicine and your flare-up doesn’t get any better.
  • You feel a little better after taking your medicine, but your symptoms come back quickly.
  • You have frequent wheezing, a lasting cough, or chest pain.
  • Your lips and fingernails are bluish or grayish.
  • You have trouble breathing, talking, or walking.

Symptoms Of An Asthma Attack

Asthma Flare-ups during Allergy Season

Signs that you may be having an asthma attack include:

  • your symptoms are getting worse
  • your reliever inhaler is not helping
  • youre too breathless to speak, eat or sleep
  • your breathing is getting faster and it feels like you cannot catch your breath
  • your peak flow score is lower than normal
  • children may also complain of a tummy or chest ache

The symptoms will not necessarily occur suddenly. In fact, they often come on slowly over a few hours or days.

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How To Stop An Asthma Attack

Stopping an asthma attack is easier if you know what to do once one starts. In some cases, it may not be possible to stop an asthma attack entirely without an inhaler. However, there are certain steps you can take to lessen the duration and intensity of an asthma attack. These include:

  • Use your inhaler

Ruling Out Other Conditions

Many other health conditions have symptoms similar to asthma:

  • Asthma and chronic obstructive lung diseases affect the lungs in similar ways and both may be present in the same person. Unlike other chronic lung conditions, asthma usually first appears in patients younger than age 30 and with chest x-rays that are normal.
  • Panic or anxiety disorder can coincide with asthma or be confused with it.
  • Other conditions that must be considered during diagnosis are pneumonia, aspirin sensitivity, severe allergic reactions, pulmonary embolism, other lung obstructions, cancer, heart failure, tumors, psychosomatic illnesses, sarcoid, and certain rare disorders such as cystic fibrosis.

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The Dangers Of Asthma

Even prior to the pandemic, asthma attacks could be fatal in the United States.

What people dont realize is that we have 10 deaths per day from asthma, even pre-pandemic, said Dr. Purvi Parikh, an immunologist and vaccine researcher at NYU Langone.

People dont realize the severity of the toll of asthma. It puts you at a higher risk of COVID-19 when you have uncontrolled asthma because you are more likely to catch respiratory viruses and they will be more severe.

Dr. Gina T. Coscia, an allergist-immunologist at Northwell Health, said that having poorly controlled asthma means having airway inflammation that isnt well controlled with medication.

This inflammation can lead to symptoms of cough, wheeze, breathlessness, and functional impairment, as well as outcomes such as hospitalization or the need for multiple courses of oral corticosteroids, said Coscia.

Poorly controlled asthma is much more common than one might think. Many people are poorly controlled and dont realize it, added Parikh. You need two flare-ups in a whole year. Even two courses of steroids or unexpected ER or doctor visits that are unplanned are considered uncontrolled.

For the purpose of this study, poorly controlled asthma was defined as hospitalization for asthma or being prescribed at least two courses of oral steroids in the previous 2 years.

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Treating Seasonal Allergies And Sinusitis

Does Your Child Have an Asthma Action Plan?

Patients with asthma and chronic allergic rhinitis may need to take medications daily. Patients with severe seasonal allergies may need to start medications a few weeks before the pollen season, and to continue medicine until the season is over. Treatment of allergies and sinusitis can help control asthma.

Immunotherapy may help reduce asthma symptoms, and the use of asthma medications, in patients with known allergies. They may also help prevent the development of asthma in children with allergies. Immunotherapy poses some risk for severe allergic reactions, however, especially for children with poorly controlled asthma.

An oral form of immunotherapy that uses a sublingual tablet has been researched. Recent reviews indicate that sublingual therapy may be helpful for milder asthma. However, this therapy has not been shown to improve more persistent asthma, and safety has not been well studied in patients with more severe asthma. Furthermore, many questions remain including dosage and duration of treatment. Sublingual therapy has recently been FDA-approved for allergic rhinitis caused by grass and ragweed allergies. At this time, sublingual immunotherapy is not approved or recommended for asthma treatment in the United States.

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What’s An Asthma Flare

An asthma flare-up is when asthma symptoms get worse, making someone wheeze, cough, or be short of breath. An asthma flare-up can happen even when asthma is controlled.

Asthma flare-ups are also called asthma attacks or exacerbations.

Triggers like allergies, respiratory infections , cigarette smoke, exercise, or even cold air can cause a flare-up and make asthma symptoms worse.

How To Treat An Asthma Flare

To treat asthma flare-ups, start by creating a plan with the help of your healthcare provider. An asthma action plan is a step-by-step guide to monitoring your asthma symptoms, as well as preventing, managing, and treating your asthma flare-ups. Include details about your medical history, allergies, medications, and emergency contacts so you can get help right away if needed.

If your child has asthma, you can distribute the asthma action plan to their teachers, school administrators, family, friends, and healthcare providers.

In addition to creating an asthma action plan, here are some of the steps you can take to treat an asthma flare-up:

Take quick-relief medications: Many people with asthma take quick-relief medications, usually through an inhaler, to open and relax the muscles in their airways right away. These bronchodilators are usually short-acting beta-agonists, such as albuterol.

Increasingly, combination inhalers that include the quick-acting, long-acting bronchodilator named formoterol are also being prescribed as daily controller medications and for treatment of asthma flares. If you have any questions about which inhaler you should use during a flare, talk with your healthcare provider.

See a specialist: If your asthma symptoms persist, your healthcare provider can refer you to a specialist to identify and treat the root cause.

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What Are The 3 Types Of Asthma

The three types of asthma include: __% Asthma is a chronic disease of the respiratory system. It is a disorder of airway inflammation that causes the airways to constrict and produce mucus secretion, making it difficult for one to breathe. The causes of asthma include allergens , respiratory infections, exercise and exposure to certain substances. Asthma is divided into two types: __% Asthma is a chronic disease of the respiratory system. It is a disorder of airway inflammation that causes the airways to constrict and produce mucus secretion, making it difficult for one to breathe. The causes of asthma include allergens , respiratory infections, exercise and exposure to certain substances. Asthma is divided into two types: __%.

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