What Causes Asthma and How Can You, Manage It - Free Essay Example

Everyone has to breath to live. For most people breathing is effortless, but for people with asthma its a lot harder to breathe. They face challenges everyday that people with normal breathing may not understand. Approximately 25 million americans suffer from asthma, asthma is manageable however. I hope that this essay will not only help you understand what athma is but also explain different types, and how to manage it. Before I you can tell you different types of asthma and how to manage your asthma I am going to tell you what asthma is. The dictionary says that asthma is, a respiratory condition marked by spasms in the bronchi of the lungs, causing difficulty in breathing. It usually results from an allergic reaction or other forms of hypersensitivity (www.dictionary.com). Some symptoms of asthma are coughing, respiratory issues, and some theres. Coughing can occur at night, during exercise, can be chronic, chronic meaning persisting for a long time or constantly recurring. Respiratory issues included, difficulty breathing, wheezing, breathing through the mouth, fast breathing, frequent respiratory infections, rapid breathing, or shortness of breath at night. Other symptoms of asthma are, pressure on the chest, flare anxiety, which is just an anxiety attack all of the sudden, waking up early, fast heart rate, or throat irritation. Now that you know what asthma is and the symptoms of asthma I will tell you some different types of asthma. Some types are self explainable such as, non-allergic asthma, allergic bronchopulmonary mycosis, asthma with fixed airflow obstruction, asthma with obesity, exercise induced asthma, and nighttime asthma. There are more types of asthma that are a little more complex and harder to understand just by the name such as, allergic asthma, asthma.net explains it as, Allergic asthma is the most common type of asthma.1 Allergic asthma usually starts in childhood. Nearly 25% of children with allergic asthma also have symptoms as adults.2 People with allergic asthma often have other allergic diseases such as eczema, hay fever (allergic rhinitis), or food and drug allergies.Allergic asthma ranges from mild to severe.1 Allergic asthma is usually the most severe for adults who have had it since childhood and people who are diagnosed with it as adults. These people are likely to have more freq uent and severe asthma attacks.(www.asthma.net). Their is also a type called Aspirin-induced asthma, as asthma.net explains this type as, Aspirin-induced asthma was one of the first types of asthma to be identified.1 For people with this type of asthma, taking aspirin or other NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) triggers an asthma attack.2 NSAIDs include naproxen (ex: Aleve) and ibuprofen (ex: Advil, Motrin), as well as aspirin.3 A longer list of NSAIDs is below. Between 2% and 25% of adults with asthma are sensitive to aspirin.4 Aspirin-induced asthma is more common in adults than children.5 This type of asthma is usually severe.6 Aspirin-induced asthma is also called aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease or AERD. Now that you have a better understanding of what asthma is, symptoms of asthma, and some different types of asthma, I will tell you how to manage your asthma. The first thing is, is to have a checkup every year or every six months depending on the severity of your asthma. I personally have a checkup every year. The next thing you can do to manage your asthma is to create an astha management plane with your healthcare provider such as what inhaler to use, because there are many options of inhalers, and how many times per day to use your inhaler. Assess your symptoms and monitor your control. Reduce things that trigger your asthma, talk to your doctor and make a list of everything that triggers your asthma and try your best to stay away from those things. Lastly, learn asthma self management skills, learn more about your type of asthma,and talk to your doctor and as questions. In reading this essay I hope that you learned more about what asthma is, symptoms of asthma, some different types of asthma, and how to better manage your asthma. Asthma is a very common disease with 1 in every 12 americans having it. Though its not curable it can be managed and can slowly go away.