Asthma is a lung disease that is long term and the most common among children and women, although it affects people of all ages. It burns and narrows the airways, and the victim produces a wheezing sound, coughs, or his or her chest tightens when breathing. The airways are usually narrowed during the night or in the early morning. Just like any other chronic disease, asthma requires proper and professional care to be given to patients in order to avoid the development of severe symptoms that can lead to death. Asthmatic people need to understand the operation of their airways to avoid being exposed to circumstances that can trigger the occurrences of asthma attacks. Their airways are swollen and sensitive to such factors as cold and perfumes and react strongly to them. With constant exposure to these, the airways continue to swell and become even narrower, because they can allow less air into the lungs. In other cases, cells produce mucus that is sticky and thick narrowing the airways or completely blocking them and eventually causing death (Carter, 2009).
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Asthma has many types, but the most common are chronic and acute. The former is long term and most patients experience manageable attacks, when the airways are narrowed. On the other hand, acute asthma has severe symptoms that require immediate medical attention. Causes of asthma include genetic, environmental, medical, and exacerbation factors. The latter occurs when one with slight symptoms is exposed to a potentially harmful environment that triggers attacks and leads to the development of severe symptoms. Such environmental factors as constant exposure to a cold and polluted environment also trigger asthma attacks in a person, who is extremely healthy. The genetic factor is connected with genes in given families. It is dangerous, because it keeps passing on to other members of the family from birth. Medical factors are a result of the medical history of atopic disease of a person. Symptoms of asthma include cough, wheezing sounds, tightened chest, shortness of breath and sometimes producing sputum during coughs (Buttaro, 2012).
The pathophysiological mechanisms of chronic and acute asthma are more or less the same, because the airways are actively involved in both conditions. Due to the long-term inflammation of the airways, the surrounding smooth muscles contract. It subsequently leads to bouts of classic symptoms of wheezing. From time to time, the airways change, eosinophils increase, and the lamina reticularis thickens as well. Although the narrowing of the airways is reversible with the use of medicines or without them, their smooth muscles increase in size. When this happens, the size of mucous glands also increases. Other cells, such as macrophages, lymphocytes, and neutriphils are also involved in the process of changing the airways to create a manageable environment for proper functioning of the latter. In other cases, other immune system components, such as chemokines, leukotrienes, cytokines, and histamine also get increase the contacting of muscles (Fischbach, 2012).
For a person with a poor habit of taking drugs, symptoms may worsen even before starting medical treatment, because the organs of the breathing system have been already damaged and do not function properly. A disciplined behavior comes a long way in determining person’s medical history, for example, for the one whose organs are destroyed, medicines may not change his or her condition, whether chronic or acute, because the immune system remains incompetent in protecting the body against attacks. For such patients, it is necessary to stop using drugs and strictly follow physician’s directions to boost their immune system. First, to manage and maintain normal breathing, the patient needs a bronchodilator, such as salbutamol, that will improve it by 10%. Depending on how severe or improved the patient’s condition is, he or she needs a diagnosis that is based on the symptoms occurring and medical records in terms of his or her response to treatment. If there is the history of reoccurring symptoms that worsen medical conditions, the patient may undergo spirometry to confirm the exact need for medical treatment. On the other hand, he or she may show hyper-responsiveness that causes constant episodes of breathlessness and coughing. During such times, the patient can undergo treatment of inhalers to enable the airflow into the lungs. For one, who is addicted to drugs, rehabilitation may help overcome it, boosting their immune system (Ehrlich, 2010).
In conclusion, asthma is a common but dangerous disease, because it threatens the lives of many people by causing severe results and eventually leading to death. For this reason, it is important for patients to get medical checkups occasionally to ensure that there is no asthma symptoms. Treatment needs to be prescribed correctly in order to achieve recommendable results. It is necessary to have assessment tools for monitoring the progress during medication. In addition to this, families of patients and the latter should have the knowledge of the nature and asthma conditions. This way, they can be provided necessary care that will result into creating a normal environment for patients. With the right diagnosis, the latter can regain their normal self and live fulfilling lives despite their medical conditions.
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