How change in lifestyle helps control asthma
Asthma affects all age groups. People with asthma cough, wheeze, and have trouble breathing when they are exposed to things that trigger these reactions in them. Experts say they can learn to live better with the disease by avoiding these triggers as well as changing the way they breathe, reports Sade Oguntola
Experts say all it takes is damp, musty weather to trigger a seasonal asthma. Much as a good laugh is considered to be the best medicine, they suggested that laughter may trigger serious asthmatic attack. The use of synthetic bedding, they claimed, prevents aggravation of asthma unlike bed products made from feather.
Asthma is the most common chronic illness in childhood. Medical experts have always stressed the importance of working with individuals with asthma to identify the source of their symptoms and develop treatment plans that help to prevent them.
No one really knows the causes of asthma or why some people have asthma and others do not have the disease. Also, the causes of asthma symptoms can vary for different people. Still, one thing is consistent with asthma: when airways come into contact with an asthma trigger, the airways become inflamed, narrow, and fill with mucus.
When you have an asthma attack, spasms of the muscles around the airways, inflammation and swelling of the mucosal membrane lining the airways, and excessive amounts of mucus contribute to the airway narrowing. This makes airway resistance increase and the work of breathing more difficult, causing shortness of breath, cough, and wheezing.
You may be coughing with asthma because of the irritation inside the airway and the body’s attempt to clean out the accumulations of thick mucus.
So, why do you have asthma and your friend doesn’t? No one really knows for sure. Allergists have long known that weather conditions such as extremely dry, wet or windy weather can affect asthma symptoms. Other things can make people with asthma cough, wheeze, and have trouble breathing include colds and exercises.
People with asthma often complain that weather fluctuations are a major trigger, and scientists substantiated this in the journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology when they reported that more cases of children with asthmatic attack were recorded in emergency units in hospitals.
The scientists declared, that changes in humidity and temperature have been found to result in a rise in Emergency Department (ED) visits for asthma exacerbations in children. This study after taking into account the levels of airborne pollutants and common aeroallergens, was the first to demonstrate the link between changes in weather and asthma exacerbations.
The retrospective 2-year study which was performed at a large urban hospital involved 25,401 children visiting the emergency department for an asthma exacerbation. The researchers collected data on climactic factors, pollutants and aeroallergens on a daily basis and found that a 10 per cent daily increase in humidity on a day or two before admission was associated with approximately one additional emergency department visit for asthma.
House mites cannot be seen but are everywhere. Most asthmatics are exposed to these allergens all the time in their homes without realising that this exposure may be making their asthma worse. Dusts from them could be found anywhere that is warm, damp and collects dust, such as pillows, duvets, mattresses, carpets and upholstered furniture.
The finding of an international team that looked at non-allergenic from fungi in 178 samples obtained from 35 floors, 35 mattresses, 35 duvets, 73 pillows, was that wrong choice of bedding could aggravate asthma. They submitted for instance that feather bedding is better than synthetics if you have asthma.
A stress-free life is important for healthy living. Given the link between emotional stress, depressive symptoms and airway function in childhood asthma, scientists warn people with asthma against stress and depression, which they pointed out could worsen their asthma.
Scientists from the University at Buffalo in the United States of America, declared in the July 2009 issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology that their findings reinforce previous results from their laboratory that associated relational stress within the family with child depression and increased asthma attacks.
Dr. Soji Ige, a chest physician at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, acknowledged that people with asthma can improve their conditions by changing the way they breathe. According to him, there are now breathing techniques that can help them reduce the severity of their asthma symptoms.
“There are special breathing techniques whereby doctors ask them to breathe in and out to expand their chest. They can even be asked to put their lips together and breathe forcefully against a closed upper airway. That will expand their lungs,” he declared.
He affirmed that such breathing techniques would assist to improve their quality of life, since it is a form of rehabilitation. According to him, rehabilitative therapy is coming up strong in the management of chronic lung diseases such as asthma and chronic bronchitis because it can also reduce the frequency and severity of the attack.
Currently, pulmonary rehabilitation is now a clear cut modality of treatment in chest medicine to improve quality of life and well-being of persons with chronic lung diseases such as asthma. Its goals are to ensure they breathe more slowly, control stress, and prevent low levels of carbon dioxide that can lead to more difficulty in breathing and increase the severity of future asthma attacks. Faster breathing to fight an overwhelming feeling of oxygen deprivation can harm individuals with asthma by restricting blood flow to the brain.
However, people with asthma should not put up with lifestyle restrictions because they become breathless when doing housework, shopping, or participating in their favourite activities. Feeling tired because of disturbed sleep or having to cancel social engagements are indications that though many believe they have their asthma under control, the asthma is actually controlling them and their lifestyles.
Dos and don’ts of asthma
•Continue to take prescribed preventive medication.
•Avoid exposure to frequent temperature change (going out in the sun from an A/C environment or drinking chilled water immediately after returning from the heat).
•Avoid exposure to dust, cover your face and nose with a mask, if possible.
•To avoid house dust mites, encase your mattress, duvet and pillows with mite-proof bedding.
•Remove carpets in favour of smooth flooring (polished wood or cushion floor/vinyl).
•Place children’s soft toys in the freezer overnight to kill mites and then wash them thoroughly to remove the allergen.
• Identify foods that may exacerbate asthma. Foods such as milk, eggs and wheat are sometimes associated with this type of allergic reaction.
•Avoid jobs commonly associated with occupational asthma, such as spray painting, bakery, plastics assembly and electronic assembly.
•Avoid taking aspirin and related medicines called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, that could make asthma worse.
•Avoid cigarette smoke. It contains many chemicals that irritate the airways.
•Exposure to air pollution makes asthma symptoms worse for many sufferers.
