Living With Asthma How To Tell If Your Asthma Is Worsening

Living With Asthma: How To Tell If Your Asthma Is Worsening

What is Asthma

Asthma is a disease that affects your lungs, by narrowing the airways to your lungs. It causes wheeziness, breathlessness, chest tightness and either morning or nighttime coughing. Asthma is a 24/7 disease although you may have no effect from it for ages and suddenly something will trigger it off. If it is looked after and controlled your asthma will let you live a normal life. Try to avoid things that trigger an attack like dust mites, pollen, smoke. Knowing the warning signs you can avoid an attack and you can carry on with every day life. Going to work, school etc.

Hereditary

If you have a parent that suffers with asthma you are three-six times more likely to develop asthma yourself, more than a person who has no parent with asthma.

What is an asthma attack

It is caused by the tubes letting air down to your lungs, getting smaller, muscles get tighter and make it difficult to get air down, causing breathlessness, coughing, chest tightness, panic, a blue tinge to the lips.

Asthma Triggers

Smoke should be banned from the home of an asthmatic as it can bring on an attack. Dust mites, you can by protective mattress covers and pillow covers that will block the dust mites from you.

Pollution from car and industry emission in built up areas, air pollution when air quality is low asthma attacks go up.

Cockroaches can also be a big trigger and you should clean any areas where food and drink has been prepared to make sure they don’t pay a visit.

Pets can trigger asthma and it is better if you do not have any pets if you are a sufferer, but if you do have pets take as many precautions as you can, keep the pet outside if possible and never let pets in the bedroom.

Any mould in the home can be a potential trigger and if inhaled can cause an attack.

Too much exercise, weather changes, cold, humidity, and storms.

Changes in emotions can also trigger asthma off.

Learn what triggers your asthma off and do all you can to avoid the situations.

How is Asthma treated

You remove as many of the triggers from your home as possible, take any medication that your GP has prescribed as and in the way you’ve been told. Different sufferers have different medication but generally you have a preventive inhaler that works long term, and an emergency inhaler that opens the airways in an attack this is called the quick relief. Long-term inhalers help to prevent attacks and make them milder in the long term.

However if you are having an attack you need the emergency inhaler that will open your airways and let you breath more easily. Although some medication can have a few little side effects they go quickly if they don’t go and are prolonged go see your GP or asthma nurse and they will change your medication. Just remember your asthma can be controlled and you can live a full normal life if you take a little extra care and your medication regularly.

Aasthma Worsening

Asthma symptoms, like symptoms with any prolonged illness, can vary from time to time, season to season. Monitoring your symptoms is important; you've got to be vigilant, because even the mildest onset of one thing, untreated, can mean big trouble down the road. It’s important to listen to your body and respond to the cries for help it gives out. See your doctor. Tell them what’s wrong. Or there’s a big chance ‘a little something’ can turn into a big deal, real quick.

I can never say it too much: communication with your doctor is paramount. You both should go through and create a written plan of action. This will give you hints, suggestions, and red flags so you’re more aware of what to look out for and are prepared when symptoms creep up. Sample plans are available online or you can speak with your doctor and they may have ideas about what's worked for their patients in the past. For this discussion today, let’s say there are three 'zones' in the life of an asthmatic.

Only your doctor can tell you where you fit in this schism, what these zones involve, and about the three different plans of action for what you need to do, and how fast, in different situations.

THE GREEN ZONE:

This is the ideal place to be. No symptoms, you are able to stretch yourself to the limits of your abilities, participate in normal, everyday activities, and even exert yourself to perform at your peak physical limits for decent periods of time. School or work isn’t, at this point, posing a problem and your sleep is uninterrupted through the night. Your reliever inhaler is used no more than four times a week for symptoms (save prior to physical exertion) and all else with your breathing is well. In the green zone is equivalent to your asthma being totally under control. If you're on controller medication, continue to take those until you're doctor says you can stop.

THE YELLOW ZONE:

Do your asthma symptoms worsen during regular activities? Is sleep disturbed because of your asthma? Are you missing work or school due to asthma symptoms? Are you suffering from cold or chest infection? Do you need to take your reliever medication more than four times a day? You are in the yellow zone. You need to speak to your doctor right away, as you're losing control and you're very near slipping into.

THE RED ZONE:

Excessive coughing, wheezing, tightness in the chest or labored breathing. You find yourself gasping for air, sweating, you have unattribuited anxiety, decreased activity level, your reliever medication isn't working, you've even got blue lips or fingernails. You need to get help immediately.

Most asthma attacks are not sudden and are readily treatable in the yellow zone or by maintenance using your inhaler and other steroids. But you should always keep phone numbers and the name of your physician and close family members nearby, in the event the air you are gasping for can't relay this important information.

Contribute byJack Conner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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