The main thing about asthma: how to treat it and when to call an ambulance

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Asthma is incurable, occurs at any age, can start from mold in the home and is life-changing.

What is asthma?

Asthma is a disease in which breathing becomes difficult due to inflammation in the bronchi. The bronchi are the tubes that carry air into the lungs. When the bronchi and smaller bronchioles become swollen and narrowed, the airways do not work and the person begins to choke.

Every 10 seconds in the world, someone has an asthma attack. Each such attack can be fatal.

The World Health Organization estimates that 235 million people (or more) have asthma. And among children, this is generally the most common chronic disease. So widespread that even the problem of overdiagnosis has appeared: even those children who do not need treatment are recorded in asthmatics, and this certainly does not contribute to the health of the child.

Where does asthma come from?

Asthma is a heterogeneous disease. This means that there are many reasons for it, but it is impossible to single out a main one. Simply put, no one knows exactly where the disease comes from.

The list of asthma-causing demons starts with heredity. This is followed by allergies (it can be genetically associated with asthma, smoking, harmful working or living conditions (with polluted air), some sports or infections (for example, the flu).

Some even blame modern cleanliness standards, but such claims have not yet been proven.

What are the symptoms of asthma?

Asthma is usually recognized by attacks that have followed a person for some time. The symptoms of asthma are as follows:

1. It is difficult for a person to exhale, so a whistling sound appears when breathing.
2. Breathing quickens.
3. It becomes difficult to speak.
4. There is a pressing sensation in the chest, as if it were being compressed.
5. A cough appears. Sometimes, when coughing, clear phlegm leaves.
6. Sometimes a person assumes a characteristic posture, leaning on his hands, when he tries to clear his throat. Even chest pain appears.

Pressure and pain in the chest, wheezing when coughing and breathing, and like glass sputum and help distinguish asthma from other diseases.

But the fact is that there is also obstructive bronchitis - a disease that is similar to asthma, but at the same time completely different and is often found in children. In addition, not all symptoms can occur at the same time, asthma is easily confused with other diseases of the respiratory system.

Therefore, in case of symptoms resembling asthma, it is imperative to consult a doctor and not diagnose yourself. The doctor will conduct a series of tests and use a spirometer, a special device that measures breathing capacity.

Is it true that this is psychosomatics and everything from nerves?

Not really. Asthma can be provoked by stress, anxiety, depression, strong emotions. In this sense, asthma can hardly be called a psychosomatic illness. But triggers in asthma aren't just mental. And in order to provoke seizures less often, you need to meet with these triggers less often:

1. Allergens. Including animals and even cockroaches.
2. Infections and frequent ARVI.
3. Stress.
4. Smoking, including passive smoking (when they smoke nearby, and you only breathe smoke).
5. Air pollution (at work or in the city).
6. Mold, moisture.
7. Certain medications, such as pain relievers.
8. Sports activities.
9. Some odors, even harmless.

I think I'm having an asthma attack. What to do?

Try to get into a comfortable position while standing (leaning on your arms) or sitting. Try to inhale and exhale evenly. The main thing is not to panic.

If this happens for the first time and you do not have any medication, and the attack does not go away after a couple of minutes, call an ambulance.

If you have had seizures and have a medication, take it the way your doctor has instructed you. If the medication does not improve, call an ambulance.

How to cure asthma?

It will not be possible to eliminate the very cause of asthma, because no one knows what it is. All that is available is to prevent attacks on time or stop them immediately. Every asthmatic should have an inhalator, nebulizer, spacer or inhaler with them.

All these devices contain medications that the doctor selects: short-acting inhaled β2-agonists or other bronchodilators and anti-inflammatory drugs.

Together with them, hormonal drugs are used - glucocorticosteroids, which quickly act on the mucous membranes of the bronchi. If you take a deep breath of the medicine, the lumen of the bronchi will become larger, which means that breathing will be restored.

What kind of medicine to buy for a particular asthmatic is decided only by the doctor, so we deliberately do not name the names and active ingredients.

The problem is that each type of inhaler, spacer or inhaler must be used correctly, only in this case the medicine reaches the bronchi and helps. Therefore, it is necessary to listen carefully to the doctor and train in the use of fast-acting drugs.

If asthma attacks occur twice a week or more, patients are prescribed other forms of corticosteroids, as well as drugs from other groups.

Are hormones harmful for asthma?

Asthma cannot be cured. It happens that in asthmatic children, seizures occur less and less over time. As they say, children "outgrow" the disease. It happens that changes in life reduce the risk of an attack and asthma practically never reminds of itself again. But we must not forget about her.

As for hormones, this is therapy for life indications. Simply put, they save the sick from death.

Of course, any medicine has a side effect, therefore, the doctor is always involved in the selection of the drug, taking into account many factors. The most common side effects when using hormones to treat asthma are mucosal irritations and thrush in the mouth (so you need to rinse your mouth after using the medication).

The use of inhaled hormones can reduce the growth rate of children, but only slightly: by 0.5 cm per year compared to their peers. It's a side effect, but asthma is much worse.

Why shouldn't you be afraid of asthma medications?

We asked an expert pulmonologist to answer this question.

Vasily Shtabnitsky pulmonologist at the Chaika clinic and associate professor at the Russian National Research Medical University named after N. I. Pirogov

Anti-asthma medications are some of the safest medicines available. The ratio of benefits and harms for them is one of the best among all drugs that mankind has created.

There is a fairly high probability of dying from status asthmaticus, but it is completely impossible to imagine death from inhaling anti-inflammatory hormones.

However, according to the doctor, there is still some danger. If you use only salbutamol or any other long or short acting bronchodilator for the treatment of asthma, then after a while it will cease to work. And then a severe asthma attack will occur, which will be difficult to stop, since the sensitivity to the drug will be completely different. That is, the risks of therapy are not associated with drugs, but rather with their misuse.

What are the traditional methods for treating asthma?

None. While we are afraid to use hormones and inhalers, so they come up with different means like "put banks". Vasily Shtabnitsky gives three tips on how not to do it:

1. Do not use mineral water for inhalation. They contain a lot of salts, which are useful if consumed but can cause bronchospasm.
2. Do not use miramistin and chlorhexidine. These funds are for something completely different. What reactions to inhalation may be is unknown.
3. Don't use essential oils. If the oil gets into the lungs with deep inhalation, and not with aromatherapy, it can even cause pneumonia.

In general, the attacks do not go away, the person feels constant fatigue, is depressed, has to miss work or school due to frequent visits to the doctor (or healer), colds end in pneumonia, which means that asthma is not treated well. It is necessary to change the doctor and methods.

Not taking asthma seriously only increases mortality.

You say sports cause asthma. Am I not allowed to play sports at all?

Sports are not always the trigger for an attack. Most often, asthma is provoked by exercising in cold and humid air, or in poorly ventilated rooms, or where a lot of chlorine is used - in the same pool, for example.

Just find a sport and location that doesn't interfere with your exercise. If you use inhalers correctly (for example, before training), then the risk of getting a seizure is reduced.

What else do asthma patients need to know?

That asthma needs to be controlled in order to successfully treat it.

It will be helpful to measure peak expiratory flow, one of the indicators of respiratory function. To measure, you need to purchase a home peak flow meter. A decrease in peak expiratory flow rate may indicate an impending exacerbation or loss of control of asthma.

Vasily Shtabnitsky

It is worth keeping a diary. It must be recorded in it when and how the attack occurred: in the morning or in the evening, after some event or meeting with a trigger. According to this diary, the doctor and the patient are guided in the course of the disease, they understand whether the disease is progressing or, conversely, it is time to switch to an easier treatment.