What To Do If My Child Has An Asthma Attack

Homeostasis And Its Relation To Asthma

What is homeostasis? Like most medical terms, theres a dictionary definition, but thats not always very helpful in understanding what a concept actually looks like and how it operates in the body. Biology dictionaries define homeostasis as the tendency of an organism or a cell to regulate its internal conditions, usually by a system of feedback controls, so as to stabilize health and functioning, regardless of the outside changing conditions. In terms of asthma, homeostasis refers to your bodys respiratory system functioning correctly without increases in inflammation or other parts of the pathophysiology of asthma negatively impacting you. If that definition seems overly complicated and contrived, dont worry, we will be discussing what it means and how it relates to the body thoroughly.

Exercise Is Good For Children With Asthma

Exercise is good for children with asthma, as long as their asthma is well managed.

• You can give your child their reliever inhaler before exercise, if exercise usually triggers their asthma.
• If your child already has asthma symptoms, its best for them to avoid exercise until they improve.
• Sports with lots of stopping and starting are less likely to cause problems eg, swimming, tennis, martial arts and most team sports.
• Warming up before exercise is important.
• If your child shows any sign of asthma, STOP the activity immediately and treat the symptoms.

Researchers Now See Both The Forest And The Trees With 3d Imaging Method

Date:

Oregon Health & Science University

Summary:

A new study implicates remodeling of nerves in the airways as a key contributor to heightened sensitivity and airway constriction in patients with asthma. The results provide new insight into a little-understood factor in the development of asthma, a condition that affects about 235 million people worldwide. The study is the first to demonstrate that inflammatory cells can alter nerve structure in the lungs to cause disease.

A new study implicates remodeling of nerves in the airways as a key contributor to heightened sensitivity and airway constriction in patients with asthma.

The study published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The results provide new insight into a little-understood factor in the development of asthma, a condition that affects about 235 million people worldwide. The study is the first to demonstrate that inflammatory cells can alter nerve structure in the lungs to cause disease.

Airway nerves sense inhaled particles, such as pollen and smoke, in the environment and help regulate airway constriction. In asthma, these nerves become more sensitive, causing patients to develop symptoms of wheezing and cough. Although previous research had shown that two-thirds of patients with asthma have an overabundance of a type of immune cell, called eosinophils, the effects of eosinophils on airway nerves were not fully understood.

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How Do I Treat My Child’s Asthma Attack

You will need to use the blue inhaler with a plastic tube called a spacer.

• give 2 puffs of the blue inhaler, one puff at a time, using the spacer, every 4 hours
• for each puff of the blue inhaler, your child will need to take 6 breaths through the spacer

If your child is still not improving:

• you can give up to 6 puffs of the blue inhaler every 4 hours

You need to take your child to your family doctor, or an after-hours clinic, or the hospital:

• if you need to give the blue inhaler more often than every 2 hours
• if there is no improvement 30 minutes after giving 6 puffs of the blue inhaler

Whats An Asthma Attack

When you breathe normally, muscles around your airways are relaxed, letting air move easily. During an asthma attack, three things can happen:

• Bronchospasm: The muscles around the airways constrict . When they tighten, it makes the airways narrow. Air cannot flow freely through constricted airways.
• Inflammation: The airway linings become swollen. Swollen airways dont let as much air in or out of the lungs.
• Mucus production: During the attack, your body creates more mucus. This thick mucus clogs airways.

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Getting An Asthma Diagnosis For Your Child

Asthma is the most common lung condition in children and affects around 1 in 11 children in the UK.

Finding out if your child has asthma can take time. From spotting symptoms, to having tests, to getting that final diagnosis, Asthma UKs expert guide explains each step and gives you easy tips to follow.

Keep Taking Your Asthma Medicines As Prescribed

You can speed up your recovery and lower your risk of another attack by taking your asthma medicines as prescribed. Use your asthma action plan to help you.

This means continuing to take your usual preventer medicine and finishing the course of steroid tablets if your doctor prescribed this for you.

• Your usual preventer medicine works away in the background to prevent your airways from getting too inflamed or swollen. If you take it every day as prescribed you should have fewer symptoms and lower your risk of another attack.
• A short course of steroid tablets prescribed by your GP helps you recover from your asthma attack by dealing with the inflammation and swelling in your airways.If youre still getting symptoms once youve finished a course of oral steroid tablets, book a follow-up appointment, says Dr Andy. “Your GP or asthma nurse may decide to extend your course of steroid tablets by another week.

If you are on a high dose of steroid medicine you should be given a steroid card. This is a card that lets health care professionals know you take steroids. It is useful in emergency situations, as your body may not produce enough natural steroids to help you deal with illness or injury. In this situation, doctors will need to give you extra corticosteroids.

Make sure you always carry your steroid card with you. If you lose it, you can get a replacement from your pharmacy or GP.

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Childhood Asthma Often Has A Pattern That Parents Can Help Identify

Identifying your childs asthma triggers is vital to effective treatment. But triggers vary widely and can be difficult to spot. However, paying attention to the timing of your childs symptoms can highlight a pattern that helps Dr. Soos zero in on the trigger.

For instance, asthma attacks that most often occur during the height of ragweed pollen season, mid-August through the first hard frost, are often triggered by seasonal/fall allergies.

Other patterns to watch for include symptoms that typically occur:

• During or shortly after exercise
• At night or very early in the morning
• After laughing or crying
• With exposure to perfumes, including candles, air fresheners, and skin- and hair-care products

Once your child is diagnosed with asthma, Dr. Soos develops an asthma action plan that provides detailed information to you and your child about asthma, including:

• What medicines to take and when
• A list of possible triggers
• When to seek emergency care

Schedule a visit with us at Dr. Soos Pediatrics today for further information about childhood asthma and a treatment plan that can restore your childs active life. Call our office in Dublin, Georgia, or book an appointment online.

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What To Do If You Have An Asthma Attack

If you think you’re having an asthma attack, you should:

Never be frightened of calling for help in an emergency.

Try to take the details of your medicines with you to hospital if possible.

If your symptoms improve and you do not need to call 999, get an urgent same-day appointment to see a GP or asthma nurse.

This advice is not for people on SMART or MART treatment. If this applies to you, ask a GP or asthma nurse what to do if you have an asthma attack.

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Avoid Exposure To Pollutants

Radon, second-hand smoke, household chemicals and air pollution can worsen asthma symptoms. According to an American Lung Association State of the Air 2011 report, the area comprised of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Riverside, is fourth in the nation with the worst short-term air pollution. It’s the second worst for year-round air pollution and number one for worst ozone pollution.

That’s why it’s so important for local parents to check news reports and keep asthmatic children inside when pollution levels are particularly high. A simple way to prevent your child’s exposure to smoke is also not to do it around your children.

Childhood Asthma Risk Factors

Asthma is the leading cause of long-term illness in children. It affects about 7 million kids in the United States. Those numbers have been going up, and experts arenât sure why.

Most children have their first symptoms by age 5. But asthma can begin at any age.

Things that can make a child more likely to have asthma include:

• Exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke before or after birth
• African-American or Puerto Rican descent
• Being raised in a low-income environment

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How Asthma Is Treated

While there is no cure for asthma, there are a number of treatments that can help control the condition.

Treatment is based on two important goals, which are:

• relieving symptoms
• preventing future symptoms and attacks

For most people, this will involve the occasional or, more commonly, daily use of medications, usually taken using an inhaler. However, identifying and avoiding possible triggers is also important.

You should have a personal asthma action plan agreed with your doctor or nurse that includes information about the medicines you need to take, how to recognise when your symptoms are getting worse, and what steps to take when they do so.

These symptoms are often worse at night and early in the morning, particularly if the condition is not well controlled. They may also develop or become worse in response to a certain trigger, such as exercise or exposure to an allergen.

Read our page on the causes of asthma for more information about potential triggers.

Speak to your GP if you think you or your child may have asthma. You should also talk to your doctor or asthma nurse if you have been diagnosed with asthma and you are finding it difficult to control the symptoms.

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Warning Signs Of An Asthma Emergency

Some warning signs of asthma are more serious. They include:

• Symptoms that keep getting worse, even with treatment
• Difficulty catching your breath or talking
• Sucking in your chest or stomach with each breath
• Trouble walking
• A bluish or grayish tinge to your lips or fingernails
• Flaring your nostrils as you breathe

If you have any of these asthma symptoms, call 911.

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Which Children Are At Risk For Asthma

Certain factors raise the risk of asthma in children:

• Being exposed to secondhand smoke when their mother is pregnant with them or when they are small children
• Genetics and family history. Children are more likely to have asthma if one of their parents has it, especially if its the mother.
• Race or ethnicity. Black and African Americans and Puerto Ricans are at higher risk of asthma than people of other races or ethnicities.
• Having other medical conditions such as allergies and obesity
• Often having viral respiratory infections as young children
• Sex. In children, asthma is more common in boys. In teens, it is more common in girls.

Take Asthma Medications As Prescribed

Long-term asthma medications are designed to prevent symptoms and attacks. You need to take them every day, even if you donât have symptoms. Theyâll ease inflammation in your airways and keep your asthma under control, so itâs less likely to flare up. If side effects bother you, talk to your doctor about switching to another treatment.

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Would You Know If Your Child Has Asthma

Asthma affects as many as 10 to 12 percent of children in the United States and is the leading cause of chronic illness in children.

For unknown reasons, the incidence of asthma in children is steadily increasing.

While asthma symptoms can begin at any age, most children experience symptoms by age 5.

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What Causes Asthma In Infants And Toddlers

We still do not know what causes some people to get asthma. If a child has a family history of asthma or allergies, a specific allergy or had a mother who smoked during pregnancy, they have a higher chance of getting asthma early in life.

A respiratory virus, an illness that occurs in the lungs, is one of the most common causes of asthma symptoms in children 5 years old and younger. Although both adults and children experience respiratory infections, children have more of them. Some preschool children get viral infections often. At least half of children with asthma show some sign of it before the age of 5. Viruses are the most common cause of acute asthma episodes in infants 6 months old or younger.

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What Triggers An Asthma Attack

The most common trigger for an acute attack of asthma is a viral infection such as a cold. Asthma can also be triggered by an allergic reaction to a common substance in the air, such as dust, house dust mites, pollen, animal dander and cigarette smoke.

Other triggers for asthma include exercise, cold air, certain drugs and changes in the air environment . Asthma attacks can sometimes be prevented by removing the trigger.

Triggers differ between individuals. Some triggers can be avoided, but you will need to plan how to reduce the effect of others.

What Does Asthma Feel Like

Asthma is marked by inflammation of the bronchial tubes, with extra sticky secretions inside the tubes. People with asthma have symptoms when the airways tighten, inflame, or fill with mucus.

There are three major signs of asthma:

• Airway blockage. When you breathe as usual, the bands of muscle around your airways are relaxed, and air moves freely. But when you have asthma, the muscles tighten. Itâs harder for air to pass through.
• Inflammation. Asthma causes red, swollen bronchial tubes in your lungs. This inflammation can damage your lungs. Treating this is key to managing asthma in the long run.
• Airway irritability. People with asthma have sensitive airways that tend to overreact and narrow when they come into contact with even slight triggers.

These problems may cause symptoms such as:

• Coughing, especially at night or in the morning
• Wheezing, a whistling sound when you breathe
• Shortness of breath
• Trouble sleeping because of breathing problems

Not every person with asthma has the same symptoms in the same way. You may not have all of these symptoms, or you may have different symptoms at different times. Your symptoms may also vary from one asthma attack to the next, being mild during one and severe during another.

Some people with asthma may go for long periods without having any symptoms. Others might have problems every day. In addition, some people may have asthma only during exercise or with viral infections like colds.

When to see your doctor

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What Body System Does Asthma Affect

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Sensory neurons in the vagal ganglia moderate respiratory responses such as coughing, and earlier studies have shown that the nervous system modulates asthma symptoms. This allergy causes asthma-like symptoms: airway hyperreactivity and constriction of the airways.

Also, can asthma cause other health problems? In rare cases, asthma can lead to a number of serious respiratory complications, including: pneumonia a collapse of part or all of the lung. respiratory failure, where the levels of oxygen in the blood become dangerously low, or the levels of carbon dioxide become dangerously high.

Keeping this in view, how Does asthma affect the respiratory system and circulatory system?

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways. The disease manifests as recurrent attacks of wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath. During an asthma attack, the muscles surrounding the airways contract, limiting the amount of air supply to the lungs.

Does asthma affect the brain?

Asthma primarily affects the lungs, but can impact brain function through direct and indirect mechanisms. Some studies have suggested that asthma negatively impacts cognition, while others have failed to identify asthma-related cognitive compromise.

What Is An Asthma Trigger

A trigger is anything that irritates your airways. Asthma is caused by two types of triggers.

• Allergic trigger: cause allergic reactions. Allergic triggers include things like dust mites, pollens, moulds, pet dander,
• Non-allergic trigger: are usually irritants. Non-allergic triggers include things like smoke, cold air, certain air pollutants, intense emotions

Learn more about different types of asthma triggers and how to manage them.

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Actions To Take If Your Child Has An Asthma Attack