What Is Bronchial Asthma?
Bronchial asthma commonly referred to as asthma is a medical terminology used by physicians to differentiate the common respiratory problem from cardiac asthma which is a condition experienced by heart failure patients that simulates the indications of asthma.
It is a reversible, obstructive airway disease in which the trachea and bronchi respond in a hyperactive to specific stimuli. It is an intermittent type of obstructive disease of the lung in which there is a narrowing of the bronchial lumen identified by wheezing and breathing difficulty.
What Causes Bronchial Asthma?
Bronchial asthma occurs when the bronchi that carry oxygen from the trachea to the lungs, become inflamed and compress by restricting the airflow. The inflammation creates the bronchi to produce mucus which moreover limits the airflow. While the exact cause is unknown, the most specialist believes that a combination of environmental and genetic factors contribute to bronchial asthma.
What triggers an attack in one asthma sufferer’s can be very distinctive from what triggers an attack in another. Common triggers involve airborne allergens like animal dander, pollen and dust mites, cold air, exercise, air pollution, stress, allergic reaction to foodstuffs such as peanuts, shellfish. Certain medications like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Those with a family history of asthma are more prone to develop asthma themselves as are those with a history of childhood respiratory infections. Low birth weight, obesity, living in urban areas, and susceptibility to agricultural or industrial toxins also develop the risk of developing asthma.
Sign and Symptoms
The clinical features in bronchial asthma patients are similar to two doors shown by the other diseases with the airflow obstructions like chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Asthma symptoms can differ from very mild to very severe show on more of the subsequent symptoms may occur once the air has narrowed in-person to person.
Coughing
A persistent cough is one of the most frequent asthma symptoms in which the cough may be dry or wet. It may contain mucus and worsen at night, early in the morning, or following exercise.
Wheezing
Wheezing is a whistling noise heard while breathing as if something is detected in one of the breathing passages. It is the effect of air being forced through the narrow tightened air passage.
Chest Tightness
This may appear like something is squeezing or lying on the chest. As muscles surrounding the airway tighten, the patient may feel a feeling of tightness in the chest.
Shortness Of Breath
Shortness of breath is a feeling that is almost finished before another is needed. It has been termed air hunger by different societies.
Mucus Production
Many people with asthma produce extreme, thick mucus that blocks the airway which can lead to coughing.
Other Clinical Signs Are:
- Restlessness
- Fever
- Headache
- Nasal flaring
- Acute respiratory failure
- Vomiting
- Use of accessory muscle to breathe
- Central cyanosis
- Abdominal pain
- Chest pain
- Hypoxemia
- Difficulty talking
- Status asthmaticus
- Fatigue
- Widened pulse pressure
Treating Bronchial Asthma
The ultimate endpoint of asthma management is the achievement of the greatest possible quality of living which include :
- No control of physical, emotional, or intellectual development in the child as well as adolescence.
- No symptoms and no asthma attacks
- Normal, or the best possible, physical and social activities in daily life.
- The best potential pulmonary function.
Once diagnosed, your health care provider will advise you to take the asthma medication which involves asthma inhalers and pills. They also suggest you improve your lifestyle and manage and prevent asthma attacks. For example, long-acting anti-inflammatory asthma inhalers are frequently needed to treat the inflammation associated with asthma. The inhalers give low doses of steroids to the lungs with the least side effects if used properly. The fast-acting bronchodilator inhaler works instantly on opening airways during an asthma attack.
If you have bronchial asthma, make assured that your health care provider presents you with how to use the inhalers properly. Be sure to keep your rescue inhaler with you in the situation of an asthma attack or asthma emergency. While there is no asthma antidote yet, there is an outstanding asthma medication that can help with preventing asthma symptoms. Asthma help groups are also available to help you enough cope with your asthma.
Non- pharmacological treatments include the removal of allergens, physical training, cessation of smoking, psychological treatment, weight loss, respiratory therapy.
