Asthma

Asthma is a disease that affects your lungs. It is one of the most common long-term diseases of children, but adults can have it as well.   If you have asthma, you have it all the time, but you will have asthma attacks only when something bothers your lungs.  Once diagnosed with asthma, you have it all your life, but attacks happens only when something bothers your lungs.

 All the things that can cause asthma are not known, but genetic, environmental, and occupational factors have been linked to developing asthma.

Exposure to elements in the environment, like mold or dampness, some allergens such as dust mites, and secondhand tobacco smoke have been linked to developing asthma. Air pollution and viral lung infection may also lead to asthma.

Occupational asthma occurs when someone who had never had asthma is exposed to something at work. This can happen if you develop an allergy to something at work such as mold or if you are exposed to irritants such as wood dust or chemicals at work over and over at lower levels or all at once at higher levels.

 Asthma symptoms include:

• Wheezing
• Breathlessness
• Chest tightness

• Complete history and physical 
• Family history
• Spirometry, to determine how well your lungs are working by testing how much air you can breathe out after taking a very deep breath before and after you use asthma medicine.

 An asthma attack can happen when you are exposed to asthma triggers. Triggers vary from person to person. Know your triggers and learn how to avoid them. Watch out for an attack when you cannot avoid your triggers. Some of the most common triggers are tobacco smoke, dust mites, outdoor air pollution, cockroach allergen, pets, mold, smoke from burning wood or grass, and infections like flu. 

Treatment will vary from patient to patient.  Widely used treatment therapies include:

• Bronchodilators 
• Corticosteroids 
• Allergy treatments and avoidance
• Biologics
• And others