Asthma Quick Facts

Asthma occurs often in response to a "trigger" such as exposure to an allergen, cold air, exercise, or emotional stress.

This narrowing causes symptoms such as wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing, which are the hallmarks of asthma. Between episodes, most asthma patients feel fine.

Asthma is one of our nation's most common chronic health conditions and is on the rise. It can start in childhood, resolve, recur or develop in adulthood. Many people have both asthma and allergies. Unlike an allergy, asthma is an inflammatory disease of the lung. Since your nose connects to your lung, the inflammatory process can occur along the entire airway. Once the airway begins to swell, breathing becomes difficult. Asthmatics are often short of breath and have a feeling of tightness in the chest. All asthmatics should be under a doctor's care to manage their disease, to keep it under control and to keep them healthy.

The asthma disorder

is a chronic inflammatory condition in which the airways develop increased responsiveness to various stimuli, characterized by bronchial hyper-responsiveness, inflammation, increased mucus production, and intermittent airway obstruction. The symptoms of asthma, which can range from mild to life threatening, can usually be controlled with a combination of drugs and lifestyle changes. EPH200 Diet Pill | Favorite TV Programs

Asthma is a complex disease that is influenced by multiple genetic, developmental, and environmental factors, which interact to produce the overall condition.

Asthma Treatment

The most effective treatment for asthma is identifying triggers, such as pets or aspirin, and limiting or eliminating exposure to them. Desensitization is commonly attempted, but has not been shown to be effective. As is common with respiratory disease, smoking adversely affects asthmatics in several ways, including an increased severity of symptoms, a more rapid decline of lung function, and decreased response to preventive medications. National Weather Service

Asthma patients who smoke typically require additional medications to help control their disease. Furthermore, exposure of both nonsmokers and smokers to secondhand smoke is detrimental, resulting in more severe asthma, more emergency room visits, and more asthma-related hospital admissions. Smoking cessation and avoidance of those who smoke is strongly encouraged in asthmatics. Asthma Air Purifiers | DHEA and Dysthymia Depression

Asthma Prognosis

The prognosis for asthma patients is good, especially for children with mild disease. For asthmatics diagnosed during childhood, 54% will no longer carry the diagnosis after a decade. The extent of permanent lung damage in asthmatics is unclear. FLU SYMPTONS

Airway remodeling is observed, but it is unknown whether these represent harmful or beneficial changes. Although conclusions from studies are mixed, most studies show that early treatment with glucocorticoids prevents or ameliorates decline in lung function as measured by several parameters. Medical Info Site

For those who continue to suffer from mild symptoms, corticosteroids can help most to live their lives with few disabilities. The mortality rate for asthma is low, with around 6000 deaths per year in a population of some 10 million patients in the United States. Better control of the condition may help prevent some of these deaths.

Asthma and athletics

Asthma appears to be more prevalent in athletes than in the general population. One survey of participants in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games showed that 15% had been diagnosed with asthma, and that 10% were on asthma medication. These statistics have been questioned on at least two bases. Persons with mild asthma may be more likely to be diagnosed with the condition than others because even subtle symptoms may interfere with their performance and lead to pursuit of a diagnosis. It has also been suggested that some professional athletes who do not suffer from asthma claim to do so in order to obtain special permits to use certain performance-enhancing drugs.

There appears to be a relatively high incidence of asthma in sports such as cycling, mountain biking, and long-distance running, and a relatively lower incidence in weightlifting and diving. It is unclear how much of these disparities are from the effects of training in the sport, and from self-selection of sports that may appear to minimize the triggering of asthma.

In addition, there exists a variant of asthma called exercise-induced asthma that shares many features with allergic asthma. It may occur either independently, or concurrent with the latter. Exercise studies may be helpful in diagnosing and assessing this condition.

Asthma Death Rates Higher for Minorities (FDA)

Black Americans have only a slightly higher prevalence rate of asthma than whites (8.5 percent versus 7.1 percent), but blacks are three times more likely to die or be hospitalized because of the disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while asthma mortality rates have gone down overall since 1995, racial disparities remain.

Floyd Malveaux, M.D., dean of Howard University's College of Medicine in Washington, D.C., says the reasons are complex. "We know that this is one of many diseases in which minorities and underserved populations are disproportionately affected," he says. "A lot of the disparities are related to poverty."

Malveaux says lack of access to care plays a large role. "It's not just about having health insurance," he says, "but also about whether there is access to transportation and knowing how to use the health care system. There may be no access to asthma specialists, perhaps because of limitations in managed care. So then what you have is a reactive situation and a lot of emergency room visits versus a proactive situation that focuses on prevention."

He also points out that when you're living in poverty you can't control the environment like you may want to. "I think of an area in Detroit where big diesel trucks come across from Canada," he says. "You can see the line of trucks emitting diesel fuel in a poor neighborhood, and the people who live there can't control that."

Other factors may be the challenge of paying for asthma medications and exposure to smoking and cockroaches. Research supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has found that children in inner-city areas who were both allergic to cockroaches and heavily exposed to them had higher rates of hospitalization for asthma, missed school more often, and suffered more sleep loss.

Hispanics also have higher death rates from asthma compared with whites, with Puerto Ricans experiencing the highest burden.

More information on Asthma Inhalers, Asthma Bronchial Treatment and Asthma Sign and Symptoms

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