Symptoms of asthma: in adults
World Asthma Day is observed every year on the first Tuesday of May. It aims to spread awareness about the disease and care of asthma around the world. The theme of World Asthma Day this year is “Asthma Care for All”.
The first World Asthma Day was celebrated by more than 35 countries at the first World Asthma Meeting in Barcelona, Spain in 1998. According to the Global Burden of Asthma report, around 300 million people are suffering from Asthma.
In India, this number is more than 30 million. Asthma starts in childhood in more than two-thirds of people. In this way, asthma is a disease that starts in childhood or youth.
Treatment of Asthma Inhaler therapy is the best because it uses less amount of medicine, the effect is direct and quick and the side effects of the medicine are very less.
Asthma is a genetic disease.
The airways of the patient are very sensitive and under the influence of some factors, they get swollen due to which the patient has difficulty in breathing.
Such factors include dust (at home or outside) or paper dust, kitchen smoke, humidity, dampness, weather change, cold and flu, smoking, fast food, mental anxiety, exercise, pets, and plants and flowers.
Pollen grains, viruses, bacterial infections, etc. are important. When asthma agents come in contact with the patient, various chemical substances (such as histamine) present in the body are secreted, due to which the airways become constricted.
The inner wall of the respiratory tract becomes red and swollen and mucus starts forming in it. All of these lead to asthma symptoms and repeated exposure to the factors causes permanent changes in the airways.
Treatment of Asthma: There are three types of medicines for the treatment of asthma. To open the airways, reduce your body’s response to allergens, and reduce airway inflammation.
For this, there are inhalers through which the medicine reaches directly to the lungs through breath and it has minimum effect on other parts of the body. There are two main types of inhalers for the treatment of asthma.
Reliever inhalers
These act quickly to “relax” the muscles in the airways and act quickly, causing constricted airways to open immediately. These are to be inhaled when you become short of breath.
Controller inhalers
By reducing inflammation and swelling, they prevent them from becoming more sensitive and reduce the risk of severe attacks. These should be taken continuously even when there are no symptoms.
Other new treatments for asthma such as the use of biologics and bronchial thermoplasty
(In which the enlarged muscles in the windpipe are reduced by a machine that produces heat.)
Steps we can take to prevent asthma attacks
Is: Take care of yourself in the rising and falling temperatures in this season. Always keep your asthma medicine with you and always take your controller inhaler on time.
Avoid cigarette/cigar and bidi smoke – and avoid major allergens. To strengthen your lungs, do breathing exercises namely Pranayama.
Asthma patients should not do this:
At this time wheat harvesting (with thresher) is going on in the villages. Don’t go towards the fields in such a way and save yourself from straw and dirt.
Do not make children wear long hairy clothes and do not allow hairy toys to play with. Do not use feathers or silk pillowcases. Do not use pillows, mattresses, or quilts filled with Semal’s cotton.
- Do not keep flowering plants or fresh flowers inside the house.
- Do not smoke bidi or cigarettes.
- Do not allow anyone else to smoke cigarettes or bidi in the patient’s house.
Do not take any medicine for a long time without consulting the doctor.
Other effective measures to avoid asthma disease: If the shortness of breath increases due to a change of weather, then one should be aware four to six weeks before the change of weather and proper medical consultation should be taken.
Inhalers and medicines should be taken as per the advice of the specialist. Factors that aggravate shortness of breath or lead to respiratory attacks should be avoided.
The inhaler must be taken before exercise or hard work. If there is breathlessness at night, then an inhaler and other medicines should be taken before sleeping at night with proper medical advice.
The house should be airy, not damp, and open sunlight should come. Protect the patient from strong and cold wind, and do not sit near the window of the vehicle with children during the journey.
Do not make children wear long hairy clothes and do not allow hairy toys to play with. The patient should stay out of the house at the time of cleaning, painting, and painting the house.
Do not keep real or fake plants in the patient’s room. Do not keep dogs, cats, or birds, and keep the house free from cockroaches, etc.
Keep asthma under control, otherwise, the risk of corona also increases. Asthma patients should take steam and meet the people coming to the house only by wearing a mask.
Asthma patients should get vaccinated against pneumococcal, influenza, covid, etc. on doctor’s advice.
