Asthma

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Asthma

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Overview
Asthma is a chronic disease that affects your
airways. Your
airways are tubes that carry air in and out of your
lungs. If you have asthma,
the inside walls of your airways become sore and
swollen. That makes them very

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Overview
sensitive, and they may react strongly to things
that you are allergic to
or find irritating. When your airways react, they
get narrower and your lungs
get less air. This can cause wheezing, coughing,
chest tightness and trouble


Overview
breathing, especially early in the morning or at
night.When your asthma symptoms become worse
than usual, it's called
an asthma attack. In a severe asthma attack, the
airways can close so much that
your vital organs do not get enough oxygen. People
can die from severe asthma


Overview
attacks.
Asthma is treated with two kinds of medicines:
quick-relief
medicines to stop asthma symptoms and long-
term control medicines to prevent
symptoms.


Symptoms
Common signs and symptoms of asthma
include:
-- Coughing. Coughing from asthma often is
worse at night or early in the morning, making it
hard to sleep.


Symptoms
-- Wheezing. Wheezing is a whistling or
squeaky sound that occurs when you breathe.
-- Chest tightness. This may feel like
something is squeezing or sitting on your chest.


Symptoms
Shortness of breath. Some people who have
asthma say they can't catch their breath or they
feel out of breath. You may
feel like you can't get air out of your lungs.
Not all people who have asthma have these


Symptoms
symptoms. Likewise, having these symptoms
doesn't always mean that you have
asthma. The best way doctors have to diagnose
asthma is to use a lung
function test, ask about medical history (including
type and frequency of
symptoms), and do a physical exam.


Symptoms
The type of asthma symptoms you have, how
often they occur, and how severe they are may
vary over time. Sometimes your
symptoms may just annoy you. Other times, they
may be troublesome enough to
limit your daily routine.


Symptoms
Severe symptoms can be fatal. Thus,
treating symptoms when you first notice them is
important, so they don’t become
severe. With proper treatment, most people who
have asthma can expect to have
few, if any, symptoms either during the day or at
night.


Causes
Many things can trigger or
worsen asthma symptoms. Your doctor will help
you find out which things (called
triggers) may cause your asthma to flare up if you
come in contact with them.


Causes
Triggers can include:
Allergens from dust, animal fur, cockroaches,
mold, and pollens from trees, grasses, and flowers
Irritants such as cigarette smoke, air


Causes
pollution, chemicals or dust in the workplace,
compounds in home décor
products, and sprays (such as hairspray)
Medicines such as aspirin or other nonsteroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs and nonselective beta-
blockers


Causes
Sulfites in foods and drinks
Viral upper respiratory infections, such as colds
Physical activity, including exercise
Other health conditions can


Causes
make asthma harder to manage. Examples of these
conditions include a runny
nose, sinus infections, reflux disease, psychological
stress, and sleep
apnea. These conditions should be treated as part
of an overall asthma care
plan.


Causes
Asthma is different for each
person. Some of the triggers listed above may not
affect you. Other triggers
that do affect you might not be on the list. Talk
with your doctor about the
things that seem to make your asthma worse.


Causes
**Diagnosis and Tests**
Your
primary care doctor will diagnose asthma based on
your medical and family
histories, a physical exam, and test results.
Your


Causes
doctor also will figure out the severity of your
asthma—that is, whether it's
intermittent, mild, moderate, or severe. The
treatment your doctor prescribes
will depend on the level of severity.
Your


Causes
doctor may recommend that you see an asthma
specialist if:
You need special
tests to help diagnose asthma
You've had a
life-threatening asthma attack


Causes
You need more than
one kind of medicine or higher doses of medicine
to control your asthma,
or if you have overall problems getting your
asthma well controlled
You're thinking about


Causes
getting allergy treatments
Your
doctor may ask about your family history of
asthma and allergies. He or she
also may ask whether you have asthma symptoms
and when and how often they
occur.


Causes
Let
your doctor know whether your symptoms seem
to happen only during certain times
of the year or in certain places, or if they get worse
at night.
Your


Causes
doctor also may want to know what factors seem
to trigger your symptoms or
worsen them.
Your
doctor may ask you about related health
conditions that can interfere with


Causes
asthma management. These conditions include a
runny nose, sinus infections,
reflux disease, psychological stress, and sleep
apnea.


Diagnosis and Tests
Your primary care doctor will diagnose
asthma based on your medical and family
histories, a physical exam, and test
results.
Your doctor also will figure out the


Diagnosis and Tests
severity of your asthma—that is, whether it's
intermittent, mild, moderate, or
severe. The treatment your doctor prescribes will
depend on the level of
severity.
Your doctor may recommend that you see an


Diagnosis and Tests
asthma specialist if:
-- You need special tests to help diagnose
asthma
-- You've had a life-threatening asthma attack
-- You need more than one kind of medicine or


Diagnosis and Tests
higher doses of medicine to control your asthma,
or if you have overall
problems getting your asthma well controlled
-- You're thinking about getting allergy
treatments


Diagnosis and Tests
Your doctor may ask about your family
history of asthma and allergies. He or she also may
ask whether you have asthma
symptoms and when and how often they occur.
Let your doctor know whether your symptoms


Diagnosis and Tests
seem to happen only during certain times of the
year or in certain places, or
if they get worse at night.
Your doctor also may want to know what
factors seem to trigger your symptoms or worsen
them.


Diagnosis and Tests
Your doctor may ask you about related
health conditions that can interfere with asthma
management. These conditions
include a runny nose, sinus infections, reflux
disease, psychological stress,
and sleep apnea.


Diagnosis and Tests
**Physical Exam**
Your doctor will listen to your breathing
and look for signs of asthma or allergies. These
signs include wheezing, a
runny nose or swollen nasal passages, and allergic
skin conditions (such as


Diagnosis and Tests
**Physical Exam**
eczema).
Keep in mind that you can still have asthma
even if you don't have these signs when your
doctor examines you.


Diagnosis and Tests
**Lung Function Test**
Your doctor will use a test
called spirometry (spi-ROM-eh-tre) to check how
your lungs are
working. This test measures how much air you can
breathe in and out. It also


Diagnosis and Tests
measures how fast you can blow air out.
Your doctor may give you medicine and then
retest you to see whether the results have
improved.
If your test results are lower than normal


Diagnosis and Tests
and improve with the medicine, and if your
medical history shows a pattern of
asthma symptoms, your doctor will likely diagnose
you with asthma.


Diagnosis and Tests
**Other Tests**
Your doctor may recommend other tests if he
or she needs more information to make a
diagnosis. Other tests may include:
Allergy testing to find out which allergens
affect you, if any.


Diagnosis and Tests
**Other Tests**
A test to measure how sensitive your
airways are. This is called a bronchoprovocation
(brong-KO-prav-eh-KA-shun)
test. Using spirometry, this test repeatedly
measures your lung function during
physical activity or after you receive increasing
doses of cold air or a


Diagnosis and Tests
**Other Tests**
special chemical to breathe in.
A test to show whether you have another
condition with symptoms similar to asthma, such
as reflux disease, vocal cord
dysfunction, or sleep apnea.
A chest x ray or


Diagnosis and Tests
**Other Tests**
an EKG (electrocardiogram). These tests will help
find out whether a
foreign object in your airways or another disease
might be causing your
symptoms.


Treatment and Care
Asthma is a long-term disease that has no
cure. The goal of asthma treatment is to control
the disease. Good asthma
control will:
-- Prevent chronic and troublesome symptoms,


Treatment and Care
such as coughing and
shortness of breath
-- Reduce your need for quick-relief medicines
(see below)
-- Help you maintain good lung function


Treatment and Care
-- Let you maintain your normal activity level
and sleep through the night
-- Prevent asthma attacks that could result in
an emergency room visit or hospital stay


Treatment and Care
To control asthma, partner with your doctor
to manage your asthma or your child's asthma.
Children aged 10 or older—and
younger children who are able—should take an
active role in their asthma care.
Taking an active role to control your


Treatment and Care
asthma involves:
-- Working with your doctor to treat other
conditions that can interfere with asthma
management.
-- Avoiding things that worsen your asthma


Treatment and Care
(asthma triggers). However, one trigger you should
not avoid is physical
activity. Physical activity is an important part of a
healthy lifestyle. Talk
with your doctor about medications that can help
you stay active.
-- Working with your doctor and other health


Treatment and Care
care providers to create and follow an
asthma action plan.
An asthma action plan gives
guidance on taking your medicines properly,
avoiding asthma triggers (except
physical activity), tracking your level of asthma
control, responding to


Treatment and Care
worsening symptoms, and seeking emergency care
when needed.
Asthma is treated with two types of medicines:
long-term control and quick-relief medicines. Long-
term control medicines help
reduce airway inflammation and prevent asthma
symptoms. Quick-relief, or


Treatment and Care
"rescue," medicines relieve asthma symptoms that
may flare up.
Your initial treatment will depend on the
severity of your asthma. Follow up asthma
treatment will depend on how well
your asthma action plan is controlling your
symptoms and preventing asthma


Treatment and Care
attacks.
Your level of asthma control can vary over
time and with changes in your home, school, or
work environments. These changes
can alter how often you're exposed to the factors
that can worsen your asthma


Treatment and Care
Your doctor may need to increase your
medicine if your asthma doesn't stay under
control. On the other hand, if your
asthma is well controlled for several months, your
doctor may decrease your
medicine. These adjustments to your medicine will
help you maintain the best


Treatment and Care
control possible with the least amount of medicine
necessary.
Asthma treatment for certain groups of
people—such as children, pregnant women, or
those for whom exercise brings on
asthma symptoms—will be adjusted to meet their
special needs.


Prevention
You can’t prevent asthma. However, you can
take steps to control the disease and prevent its
symptoms. For example:
-- Learn about your asthma and ways to control
it.


Prevention
-- Follow your written asthma action plan.
(For a sample plan, go to the National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute's
"Asthma
Action Plan.")
-- Use medicines as your doctor prescribes.


Prevention
-- Identify and try to avoid things that make
your asthma worse (asthma triggers). However,
one trigger you should not avoid
is physical activity. Physical activity is an important
part of a healthy
lifestyle. Talk with your doctor about medicines
that can help you stay active.


Prevention
-- Keep track of your asthma symptoms and
level of control.
-- Get regular checkups for your asthma.


Asthma

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