What Is The Meaning Of Asthma

Examples Of Asthma In A Sentence

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How Is It Treated

At this asthma level your doctor may prescribe a low-dose inhaled corticosteroid medication. An inhaled corticosteroid is taken by quickly inhaling it. Its usually taken daily. Your doctor may also prescribe a rescue inhaler to have in case your symptoms still occur from time to time. Your doctor may also prescribe allergy medications if your asthma is triggered by allergies.

For those over the age of 5, a round of oral corticosteroids may also be considered.

How Is Asthma Diagnosed

A doctor visit is in order if you have asthma symptoms.

Asthma is diagnosed based on:

• Your medical and family history of asthma and allergies
• A physical exam
• Asthma test results.

The doctor will use a stethoscope to listen to your lungs and look for signs of asthma such as wheezing, swollen nasal passages, and runny nose.

Asthma tests may include a lung function test called spirometry that measures how much and how fast you can blow air in and out. Your doctor might recommend allergy testing, too.

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Medical Definition Of Asthma

• Medical Editor: Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Reviewed on 3/29/2021

Asthma: A common lung disorder in which inflammation causes the bronchi to swell and narrow the airways, creating breathing difficulties that may range from mild to life-threatening. Symptoms include shortness of breath, cough, wheezing, and chest tightness. The diagnosis of asthma is based on evidence of wheezing and is confirmed with breathing tests. Many allergens and irritants can precipitate attacks of asthma. Avoidance of precipitating factors can be helpful. Treatment may include lifestyle changes, activity reduction, allergy shots, and medications to prevent or reverse the bronchospasm.

How It Is Treated

You will usually only need a rescue inhaler to treat this mild form of asthma. You dont typically need daily medication since your symptoms only occur occasionally. However, your medication needs will be assessed based on how severe your attacks are when they do occur. Your doctor may also prescribe allergy medications if your asthma is triggered by allergies.

If your asthma is exercise induced, your doctor may instruct you to use your rescue inhaler before exercise to prevent symptoms.

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When And How Are Types Of Asthma Diagnosed

Asthma is diagnosed based on symptoms, a physical examination, and lung function tests.1 Your health care provider will ask about the type and frequency of your asthma symptom and attacks. Tell your provider if you have had eczema, food allergies, hay fever , long-term nasal congestion , heartburn, or reflux in the past.

Inhaled corticosteroids are usually used to treat people with asthma. For some people, these medications do not work well. The first thing to do is to make sure you are taking them properly. If you still have symptoms, more tests may be needed to know which type of asthma you have.4 The results can help your provider recommend another treatment.

What Is Asthma Symptoms Causes Diagnosis Treatment And Prevention

Asthma is a common chronic lung disease in which the lungs’ bronchial tubes, or airways, become inflamed.

Want to know more about asthma? Read on to learn what experts know about this breathing disorder, why some people develop it and others dont, lifestyle changes that can help you manage asthma, and how to avoid complications linked to the condition.

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How To Treat Asthma Effectively

The best treatment starts with, looking for the best physician whocares for the patient, at least, as much as he cares for the disease.

The use of steroids should be strictly restricted.

2.If you have asthma symptoms fromreflux, will inhalers help?

Although asthma can be triggered by food protein allergens comingfrom gastric reflux, it would be better to find a doctor first to have yourselftreated with gastric reflux. You must treat or avoid the cause first so that itwould not frequently reoccur. In other words, treating asthma without treatingthe cause would keep asthma from coming back.

Inhaler therapy or controllers are usually given along withbronchodilator therapy. So, better go back to your doctor and have yourselfchecked.

3.How do you stop an asthma attackwithout an inhaler?

The cure for asthma is mainly done through medicines but some ofthe natural methods which can relieve you from asthma without an inhaler are:

• Eucalyptus oil: It opens up nasal blockage for easy breathing.
• Mustard Oil: Mustard oil combined with camphor is the best combination for providing quiet relief.
• Ginger: Ginger is beneficial for your body and health. It is considered to be a superfood and is good for asthma.
• Figs: Figs are the best home remedy for asthma.
• Omega-3 fatty acids: They are very useful in managing inflammatory conditions. It treats almost all the conditions including depression, seasonal affective disorder, depression, heart disease along with asthma.

Treatment And Medication Options For Asthma

There is no cure for asthma, but you can alleviate and prevent your symptoms through quick-relief and long-term control medication. Long-term control medication works to reduce inflammation to make your airways less sensitive to asthma triggers. Its usually taken daily through an inhaler or as an oral pill. Quick-relief medicines help to relieve symptoms when they happen, relaxing the tight muscles around your airways and easing the flow of air.

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How Should I Use My Rescue Inhaler

Work with your doctor and pharmacist to develop an asthma action plan, particularly for when you have an asthma attack.

• Be sure you are using your quick-relief inhaler correctly and keep it with you at all times.
• If you use the rescue inhaler more than two times a week, contact your prescriber your asthma may not be well-controlled and you might need to add or change a medication.
• If you aren’t sure how to use your metered dose inhaler , ask your pharmacist or learn more here.

You should be able to sleep at night without symptoms, like coughing or wheezing. Be sure a caregiver or your child’s school nurse understands your asthma action plan and inhaler use, too.

What Are The Symptoms

Asthma can be different for everyone. Asthma symptoms can also vary over time, with few or no symptoms when asthma is well controlled. The common signs and symptoms of poorly controlled asthma include:

• Shortness of breath
• Trouble sleeping because of breathing difficulty
• Being unable to take part in physical activities without breathing difficulty

These symptoms can occur slowly over hours or days, or they can come on as sudden, recurring attacks after which the symptoms can persist for some time before disappearing. If left untreated, asthma can cause permanent structural changes in your airways called airway remodelling, which is why it is important to get your asthma under control and keep treating it over the long term.

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The Hidden Spiritual Cause Of Asthma

With asthma, breathing in emotionally represents taking on too much, to the extent of taking on more than you can cope with. Also, there will be great difficulty in giving some back. You will not admit to any limitation, even to yourself. There is a need to be stronger than you are just to be loved by others. You may want things to be done your way and when this does not happen, an asthma attack is just the excuse you need to not be as strong as you seem. It is an emotional cause of asthma.

Mentally asthma is sending an urgent message that taking on too much is poisoning and suffocating you. By loving and accepting yourself with all your weaknesses and limitations, it will free you up. When listening closely to an asthmatics breathing it might sound like a stifled cry coming from the lungs, as if they are expressing a fear of being unloved, abandoned, without emotional support. Stifled, as if they are not allowed to cry. If they did so, it would be fruitless. This is a fear that is held in the body in an area that we breathe and cry, the lungs.

Asthma Defined As A Chronic Inflammatory Disorder

Recently the major clinical and physiological characteristics of asthma have been incorporated in an operational definition, which also recognises the underlying disease mechanisms. In this way the International Consensus Report on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Asthma defines asthma as “a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways in which many cells play a role, including mast cells and eosinophils. In susceptible individuals this inflammation causes symptoms which are usually associated with widespread, but variable, airflow obstruction that is often reversible either spontaneously or with treatment, and causes an associated increase in airway responsiveness to a variety of stimuli.”

These three components: chronic airways inflammation, reversible airflow obstruction and enhanced bronchial reactivity form the basis of this current definition of asthma. They also represent the major pathophysiological events leading to the symptoms of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, cough and sputum production by which physicians clinically diagnose this disorder.

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How To Tell If You Have Asthma

When something triggers your asthma symptoms, the membrane lining your airways swells, the muscles around the tubes constrict, and the airways fill with mucus. As these tubes narrow it becomes more difficult to breathe, causing symptoms such as wheezing and coughing, congestion, shortness of breath, and chest tightness or pain. If you have asthma, performing normal daily activities can be strenuous, and it may take longer to recover from a respiratory infection, such as a cold or flu.

An asthma attack or flare-up is a sudden worsening of these symptoms, including severe wheezing, uncontrollable coughing, rapid breathing, sweating, and anxiety. These symptoms require immediate medical attention.

But not everyone experiences asthma in the same way. Symptoms vary from person to person, can change with age, differ between attacks and may intensify during exercise, with a cold, or under periods of elevated stress.

How Is Asthma Prevented And Treated

There is no cure for asthma. Control symptoms by taking asthma medicines and avoiding your triggers. With proper treatment and an asthma management plan, you can reduce your symptoms and enjoy a better quality of life.

Talk to your health care provider about your asthma symptoms and be sure to discuss any changes in your asthma management or status.

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Asthma Spiritual Meaning And Causes

When you suffer from asthma you are breathing in a lot of air but you have difficulty releasing it again. Because you release such a small amount, you may not be able to breathe in enough, so your respiratory capacity will diminish increasingly more.

You are probably a person who yearns for love but who has not yet learned to offer it. Always taking without giving it back creates an imbalance.

What do you keep for yourself and what do you refuse to offer? Do you experience any aggression or anger you do not accept?

All the life you have to offer is already within yourself.

Give others what you already have, therefore, you will create a new life for yourself. Do not be afraid to admit your current status as a helpless man and the feeling that you are insignificant, because if you do so, you will only receive support.

Become aware of what you have recently rejected or removed.

Accept and encompass life in its totality and realize that there are no enemies anymore they were just a product of your conscious mind. In the end, you will be able to breathe freely again such a wonderful feeling.

How To Tell If Your Asthma Is Severe

Doctors differentiate severe asthma from other, milder forms of asthma according to the frequency and intensity of a persons symptoms.

For starters, severe asthma is persistent, which doctors define as asthma that causes symptoms more than twice a week, explains Patricia Takach, MD, an associate professor of clinical medicine in the section of allergy and immunology at the University of Pennsylvanias Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia. For many severe asthma sufferers, symptoms occur daily.

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What Is The Prevention Of Asthma

Asthma attacks can be prevented by taking care of few points:

• You should follow your asthma action plan. Plan yourself for taking medications properly in time. Start monitoring the on-going conditions of asthma.

• Get vaccinated for influenza and pneumonia.

• Vaccinating yourselfcan prevent flu and pneumonia from triggering asthma flare-ups.

• You should learn to monitor your breathing by recognizing symptoms of cough, wheezing, or shortness of breath. You can measure your breathing rate by a device called a peak flow meter.

• Avoid asthma triggers by finding out the cause that worsens your asthma.

• Dont wait for your condition to be worsened. If you identify the symptoms as early as possible then you might likely have severe attacks.

• Take your medicines on time without skipping them. Do not change your medications if you see improvements in yourself. Consult your doctor so that he can make sure you’re using your medications correctly and taking the right dose.

• Consult doctors if you are using inhalers many times.

Signs Symptoms And Complications

How often signs and symptoms of asthma occur may depend on how severe, or intense, the asthma is and whether you are exposed to allergens. Some people have symptoms every day, while others have symptoms only a few days of the year. For some people, asthma may cause discomfort but does not interfere with daily activities. If you have more severe asthma, however, your asthma may limit what you are able to do.

When asthma is well controlled, a person shows few symptoms. When symptoms worsen, a person can have what is called an asthma attack, or an exacerbation. Over time, uncontrolled asthma can damage the airways in the lungs.

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The Cardinal Feature Of Asthma Defined

In modern times, the cardinal clinical feature of asthma, reversible airflow obstruction, has formed the basis of the definition of asthma. For example, the definition initially proposed at the CIBA Foundation conference in 1959, and endorsed by the American Thoracic Society in 1962, is that “asthma is a disease characterised by wide variation over short periods of time in resistance to flow in the airways of the lung”. In elaborating this definition, the American Thoracic Society introduced the characteristic of hyperreactivity of the airways as a feature that would usually be present in asthma.

Subsequently it has been proposed that this phenomenon of bronchial hyperreactivity might be the unifying mechanism underlying the range of disorders encompassed by the term asthma. However, it has been demonstrated that people with clinical asthma may have normal bronchial reactivity, that people without clinical asthma may have enhanced bronchial reactivity, and that there is a poor correlation between current asthma severity and the degree of bronchial hyperreactivity. As a result, while bronchial hyperreactivity may be present in many asthmatics, it is no longer considered to be synonymous with asthma.

What Is An Asthma Action Plan

Your healthcare provider will work with you to develop an asthma action plan. This plan tells you how and when to use your medicines. It also tells you what to do if your asthma gets worse and when to seek emergency care. Understand the plan and ask your healthcare provider about anything you dont understand.

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Treatment Of Severe Asthma

There is no single treatment or medication solution. Everyone is affected differently and what works well for one person may have no effect on another. The same medications may be prescribed as someone who has a milder asthma, but at a much higher dose.

Treatment of severe asthma focuses on trying to control the symptoms. Youll be prescribed medication and treatment to manage the inflammation in your airways and prevent lung damage. Youll also be advised to reduce the risk of coming into contact with asthma triggers as much as possible, as this will reduce your risk of having a severe asthma attack.

As a starting point, everyone with asthma is prescribed:

• A reliever inhaler usually blue, this inhaler is used to provide relief when you need it and should be carried with you at all times.
• A preventer inhaler often brown, contains corticosteroids that help to reduce swelling and inflammation in the airways. This needs to be taken every day, as prescribed by your doctor.

If youre diagnosed with severe asthma, you should speak to your doctor about a referral to a specialist clinic. While some primary care surgeries have dedicated asthma nurses that can offer specialist support.

Bipoc Communities And Asthma

The causes driving these disparities are multifactorial.

Journal of Clinical Asthma and Immunology American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

“Poverty, exposure to pollution, and limited access to medical care play a big role in racial disparities in asthma,” says Kenneth Mendez, AAFA’s president and CEO.

“These factors are interrelated and intergenerational, he explains. Discriminatory housing policies, for example, have caused long-lasting residential segregation, in which poverty is concentrated in Black and Hispanic communities, which then perpetuates a cycle of limited access to education, employment, and quality healthcare services, he says. This residential segregation is also responsible for the disproportionate proximity of minority populations to sources of pollution, such as industrial centers, major roadways, oil and gas refineries, distribution hubs, and traffic-related pollution, which can put people at higher risk for asthma and having worse outcomes, Mendez explains.

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