Asthma Symptoms, Drugs & Treatment

Asthma is an inflammatory disease of lungs. It is a chronic inflammatory disease that is commonly found in people all over the world. Asthma affects not only the adults, but it can be found in the young children also. Asthma impacts usually start in the childhood. Asthma has no cure.

You cannot completely get over this disease, but you can surely control the symptoms. If you have asthma, even if you do not feel the symptoms, you need to be careful every time as an asthma attack can flare up anytime.

Asthma patients have swollen inner walls of the airways. As a result, they are very sensitive to the allergens or the things that are irritation causing.

Signs and Symptoms of Asthma:

The symptoms includes the following:

• Shortness of breath
• Chest tightness
• Breathless/wheezing
• Coughing
• Excessive sputum production from the lung that is often very hard to bring it up

Symptoms and their intensity vary day and night. The patients often complain of the symptoms becoming very intense as the temperature gets down in the evening or early morning. The condition often worsens after an exercise that is very strenuous.

If you have the above symptoms, it can be asthma, but it is not sure until you go for a thorough check up. Many another disease may also produce the same symptoms. An asthma attack can be dangerous if it is sudden, in many cases, it can become fatal also.

Asthma Medications List 

• Seroflo Rotacaps
  Duonase Nasal Spray
  Budecort Rotacaps – 400 mcg
  Flomist Nasal Spray
  Foracort Rotacaps – 100 mcg + 6 mcg
  Asthalin Rotacaps – 200 mcg
  Seroflo Inhaler – 25 mcg + 250 mcg
  Serobid – 120 mdi Inhaler
  Budecort Respules – 1mg per 2ml

What are the risk factors for asthma?

There are many risk factors for asthma; that may range from genetic reasons to environmental disturbances. Here are the triggers that can initiate an asthma attack:

1. Allergens: the common allergens include:

• Animal dander that may be in the form of the skin, hair, or feathers of animals
• Dust mites
• Cockroaches remains/wastes
• Pollen grains from plants, trees and grasses
• Molds and other fungal spores

2. Irritants: the familiar irritation causing factors are:

• Change in temperature
• Too much of exercise
• Cold weather
• Strong odour
• Pollen grains
• Pet fur
• Smoke from cigarettes
• Too much of stress and emotional outburst

3. Other factors:

Some other factors that may cause the asthma outburst are, pollutants, gastric reflux problems, infection, food additives, and some side effects of medicines like aspirin and beta blockers.

Types of asthma:

Asthma can be of different types, and you need to be aware of those various kinds of asthma so that you can get medical assistance as soon as you experience a breathing problem.

1. Allergic asthma: if your allergies are making you a cough, wheeze, and sneeze
2. Cough variant asthma: if you have a frequent cough, get checked up
3. Work-related asthma is a type of asthma also known as occupational asthma
4. Nocturnal asthma: if you experience frequent outburst of asthma at night

What is the method of Diagnosis of asthma?

The diagnosis of asthma need not to include any precise tests. The doctor may just analyse the prolonged symptoms of asthma and the different medical conditions associated with asthma. Then the doctor may conclude that the indications are associated with the occurrence of the disease.

In some cases the doctor may advise taking a few test and observations to confirm the presence of illness like:

• Medical history test: the doctor may be asking a few queries about the family history of the patient related to allergies and asthma. Th patients with close relatives having asthma, especially from the maternal side have more chances to get it. The doctor may also check the medicines that the person may have used for breathing problems. He may also ask about the period of the happening of the disease. He may inquire about the frequency of occurrence of coughs and colds.
• Tests: the doctor may check for allergies, breathing problems, sinus disease and GERD. He may recommend going for tests like X-ray, ECG for the purpose of diagnosis.

 Treatment of asthma:

It is very necessary to manage asthma, as there is no permanent cure for it.  But asthma symptoms could vary, and you have to take care of the symptoms by taking the proper safety measures, lifestyle changes and the recommended medications. Ask your doctor to give you a complete list of asthma medication, its dosage and price, etc.

The treatment list of asthma has two main classes:

1. Quick relief to treat acute conditions

• Beta –adrenoceptor agonists, e.g.,.Salbutamol
• Anticholinergic medication e.g.,. Ipratropium bromide
• Adrenergic agonists e.g.,. Epinephrine

2. Long-term control medicines

• Corticosteroids e.g Beclomethasone
• Beta –adrenoceptor agonist e.g Salmeterol
• Leukotriene antagonists e.g Montelukast
• Mast cell stabilizers e.g cromolyn sodium

The review of the asthma medications also suggests the delivery via different delivery methods. The particular two types of inhalers are used for the treatment and delivery:

• Mastered Dose Inhalers (MDI)
• Dry Powder Inhaler (DPI)

Another kind of inhaler known as breath actuated asthma inhaler is also available in the market. It is a type of MDI, but the person needs to breathe in with enormous force to trigger the medication.