Asthma Frequent Questions
What is Asthma?
What Happens in an Asthma
Attack?
Who Gets Asthma?
How Are Children Affected
By Asthma?
What Triggers Asthma Attacks?
About Asthma Triggers
If I Have Asthma, What Can I Do?
Asthma is a lung disease that can be life threatening.
Asthma is a chronic, or long-term disease, which can affect you for
the rest of your life.
Asthma causes breathing problems. The airways in the lungs get
blocked, causing the lungs to get less air than normal. Symptoms of an
"asthma attack" can be difficulty with breathing, a tight feeling in the
chest, coughing and wheezing. Asthma can develop quickly and it can
range from being a mild discomfort to a life-threatening attack if
breathing stops completely. Asthma problems are often separated by
symptom-free periods.
When asthma causes breathing problems, the breathing problems are
called asthma attacks or episodes of asthma.
During an asthma attack, three major changes that can take place in
the lungs include:
- Cells in the air tubes make more mucus than normal. This mucus is
very thick and sticky, and tends to clog up the tubes.
- Cells in the airways get inflamed, causing the air tubes to swell.
- The muscles around the air tubes tighten.
These changes cause the air tubes to narrow which makes it hard to
breathe.
In the United States, about 15 million people of all age, race, and
nationality have asthma.
Asthma can occur at any age but is more common in children than
adults.
Nearly 1 in 13 school-age children has asthma, and that rate is
rising more rapidly in preschool-aged children than in any other group.
Asthma is the leading cause of school absenteeism due to a chronic
illness.
The impact of asthma falls disproportionately on African-American and
certain Hispanic populations and appears to be particularly severe in
urban inner cities.
Many cases of asthma likely go undiagnosed.
Asthma is the most common long-term childhood disease, affecting 4.8
million children. Nearly 1 in 13 school-aged children has asthma, and
the percentage of children with asthma is rising more rapidly in
preschool-aged children than in any other age group.
Asthma accounts for one-third of all pediatric emergency room visits
and is the fourth most common cause for physician office visits. Asthma
is one of the leading causes of school absenteeism, accounting for over
10 million missed school days per year. Asthma also accounts for many
nights of interrupted sleep, limitation of activity, and disruptions of
family and care-giver routines. Asthma symptoms that are not severe
enough to require a visit to an emergency room or to a physician can
still be severe enough to prevent a child with asthma from living a
fully active life.
Children breathe more air, eat more food, and drink more liquid in
proportion to their body weight than do adults. Their developing bodies
may be more susceptible to environmental exposures than those of adults.
In a typical day, children may be exposed to a wide array of
environmental agents at home, in day care centers, schools and while
playing outdoors.
Read the EPA publication, "IAQ Tools for Schools:
Managing Asthma in the School Environment." and visit EPA's
IAQ
Tools for Schools web site.
Asthma attacks can be caused by something that bothers the lungs.
These are called asthma triggers. There are many kinds of asthma
triggers. Two major categories of asthma triggers are allergens and
irritants.
If you, or a loved one has asthma, it's important to learn which
triggers are a problem. Ask your doctor to help. Your doctor may suggest
keeping an asthma diary or recommend skin testing for allergies.
Once asthma triggers are known, actions can be taken to prevent
asthma attacks. Cutting down exposure to your triggers may help in
avoiding asthma attacks. When attacks occur, they will probably be less
severe.
There are many asthma triggers. Two large categories of triggers are
allergens and irritants.
Allergens are substances that cause no problem for a majority of
people but which trigger an allergic reaction in some people. During an
allergy attack, the body releases chemicals called mediators. These
mediators often trigger asthma episodes.
Irritants such as cold air, cigarette smoke, industrial chemicals,
perfume, and paint and gasoline fumes can trigger asthma. These
irritants probably trigger asthma symptoms by stimulating irritant
receptors in the respiratory tract. These receptors, in turn, cause the
muscles surrounding the airway to constrict, resulting in an asthma
attack.
Viral infections are the leading cause of acute asthma attacks.
Surprisingly, bacterial infections, with the exception of sinusitis,
generally do not bring about asthma attacks.
Since Americans spend up to 90% of their time indoors, exposure to
indoor allergens and irritants may play a significant role in triggering
asthma episodes.
The following is a list of some of the indoor environmental asthma
triggers:
- Secondhand (cigarette) smoke
- Cockroaches
- Dust Mites
-
Molds
-
Pets and other animals with fur or feathers
Information on some additional triggers available on this website
includes:
If you have asthma, you probably want to know how to reduce your
chances of having an asthma episode and what to do once you have an
asthma episode. Your doctor will be able to assist you. Consult your
physician to set up an asthma management plan. Your doctor can help you
learn to monitor your asthma, take appropriate medication for your
asthma, and identify and avoid your asthma triggers. Following your
asthma management plan will help keep your asthma under control.
For more info on allergy please visit:
Allergy
For more info on allergies please visit:
Allergies
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