FAQ

What are the 3 types of asthma?

There are 3 types of asthma:

  • allergic. The disease is caused by a specific allergen or group of allergens, which may include food, dust, animal hair, pollen.
  • non-allergic. It is caused by factors of non-allergic origin. This form can occur on the background of chronic respiratory tract infections, hormonal changes, taking certain medications, such as aspirin.
  • mixed. This form of bronchial asthma combines the signs of the two previous forms.
What causes airway hyperresponsiveness in asthma?

A combination of internal and external factors leads to the development of bronchial asthma.

Among the internal causes of the disease, the following are distinguished:

  • endocrine disorders;
  • respiratory system abnormalities;
  • weak immunity.

External reasons include:

  • allergies of various origins;
  • working in environmentally unfriendly enterprises;
  • smoking;
  • stress.

The most common factors that cause bronchial asthma in adults are allergies and smoking.

Household allergens

In the everyday environment, there are many different allergens – dust, pollen of plants, animal hair, mold, evaporation of chemicals from the surface of new furniture. All of these allergens provoke chronic respiratory diseases, among which bronchial asthma of allergic origin is the most common.

Working conditions

One of the most dangerous types of asthma is occupational asthma. This type of disease develops in adults under the influence of various materials used in the workplace. According to statistics, 15% of all asthma cases are caused by working conditions.

Genetic causes

Approximately one third of adults with bronchial asthma are sick from childhood. By getting rid of the disease in adolescence, such people are at risk of re-occuring asthma in adulthood. In this case, the risk of developing the disease is increased by genetic factors, as well as the influence of the environment. In the presence of a hereditary predisposition and an ecologically unfavorable environment, the disease has every chance of manifesting itself. Scientists are now conducting research trying to determine which genes are responsible for the likelihood of developing asthma, and how medicine can affect this process.

Regardless of the cause of the disease, the mechanism of asthma development in adults is that negative factors affect the respiratory tract, and the body cannot resist this effect due to increased sensitivity, hereditary predisposition and other reasons. Under the influence of negative factors, the bronchial lumen narrows. This condition is called bronchial obstruction. The volume of mucus in the bronchi grows, breathing worsens, wheezing, coughing and other symptoms appear.

What does asthma feel like?

Asthma is characterized by shortness of breath, suffocation, and dyspnea. If you find such symptoms, address a healthcare provider. After some examination, you will be stated the diagnosis.

How do you get asthma?

Bronchial asthma is one of the most common chronic respiratory diseases. According to WHO statistics, every 10 years, the number of patients increases by 1.5 times.

There are many reasons for this: we live surrounded by synthetic materials, buy products with dyes, preservatives and other harmful additives, breathe polluted air. As a result, there is a powerful surge of allergic diseases, including bronchial asthma.

But other factors can also become the disease trigger: the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, an infection contributing to chronic inflammation of the bronchi, smoking.

The risk factor for women (by the way, they suffer from asthma more often than men) is hormonal changes caused by pregnancy, abortion, menopause, some endocrine and gynecological diseases.

How do you sleep with asthma?

In some patients with bronchial asthma, the onset of symptoms of the disease during a night’s sleep may be the leading, less often – its only manifestation. Such a situation should not be considered as a special, pathogenetic, independent variant of the disease. Since nocturnal bronchial obstruction can occur in patients with any form of bronchial asthma, it should be considered as one of the features of the disease course. Although this condition is traditionally called nocturnal asthma. The concept of “sleep-associated bronchospasm” would more correctly reflect the essence of this phenomenon.

Disturbance of bronchial patency during sleep is observed in most patients with bronchial asthma. Moreover, if in some patients bronchial obstruction during sleep is a continuation of violations of bronchial patency occurring in wakefulness, then in other patients bronchial obstruction during sleep exists in isolation or predominates.

What happens during an asthma attack?

The airways are inflamed, irritated and narrowed. It is difficult for air to pass through them. This is caused by an asthmatic inflammation. It forms edema in the mucous membrane and an increase in mucus secretion. Inflammation of the mucous membrane and the narrowing of the bronchi are characetrized as a protective reaction against various external stimuli. In asthma, the airways are more sensitive than usual and react easily to various triggers.

What is non allergic asthma?

Non-allergic triggers of bronchial asthma include: emotional stress, a sharp change in temperature, infection (primarily viral), high humidity, drugs (aspirin), physical activity, strong odors , products. Introduce the concept of hyperreactivity of the bronchial tree, explaining that in every patient with bronchial asthma, the bronchial tree has the following feature – in response to the effects of various non-allergic trigger, it narrows, as a result of which an attack of suffocation occurs.

The psychoemotional state of an asthma patient is extremely important. It is known that stress can cause a prolonged attack of suffocation, and in some patients only emotions support the disease. It is no coincidence that before the emergence of the theory of the inflammatory nature of bronchial asthma, it was called “brain disease.” Try to avoid stressful situations, play sports. But there are a number of patients who need to be individually and confidentially recommended to see a psychotherapist or medical psychologist. If a psychologist works in an asthma school in parallel with a doctor, this greatly facilitates the positive outcome.

How do you know if you have bronchitis or asthma?

In order to diagnose bronchial asthma, you first need to carefully examine your family, up to grandparents for the presence of this disease.Then contact a specialist who will check the patient for rashes on the skin, which indicate the patient’s sensitivity to various allergens and examine to the lungs for wheezing. After that, special tests and sampling of blood and sputum tests can be done.

The diagnostic program may include:

  • spirometry – a test for lung function;
  • peak flowmetry – studies to determine the air flow rate;
  • chest x-ray;
  • allergy tests – to determine the disease cause;
  • test to determine the concentration of air oxide – this allows you to diagnose inflammation of the upper respiratory tract.
What should I feed my cat with asthma?

Asthma in cats is a chronic inflammatory disease. It affects the bronchi and bronchioles and causes them to narrow (obstruct). The disease is triggered by allergens that enter the lumen of the respiratory tract and settle on the mucous membrane. As a result, it causes a local inflammatory reaction of an allergic nature and an increased secretion of mucous secretions. All these changes lead to narrowing and difficulty in the work of small bronchi, which in turn provokes respiratory failure, coughing and increased fatigue.

How much does it cost to treat a cat with asthma?

It is quite difficult to define an allergen, so it is only possible to stop asthma attacks in a cat and reduce their frequency. On an ongoing basis, it is necessary to take glucocorticosteroids (GCS) in the form of long-acting injections, or in the form of tablets for continuous administration, or in the form of inhalation. Bronchodilators are prescribed to relieve coughing fits.

The most effective method of treating asthma in a cat is considered to be GCS injections, since it is enough to administer the drug once a month. This has an effect on the entire body, including a decrease in inflammatory processes in the lungs. But you need to be careful: with prolonged use of GCS, diabetes, renal failure and liver problems may develop.

Some owners prefer to use the inhaler in the form of a spacer with a mask. When inhaling, the required amount of the drug enters the respiratory tract, stopping an asthma attack in a kitten. Fortunately, special inhalers for animals have now been developed. So, it is expensive to treat asthma in cats.

What is the difference between asthma and reactive airway disease?

There is a slight difference in asthma and reactivity airway disease. Only a doctor may establish the diagnosis.

What helps asthma without an inhaler?

There are several principles that determine the asthma treatment:

  • timely prevention of the disease;
  • symptomatic remedies to quickly eliminate the disease manifestations;
  • drugs for bronchial asthma to normalize breathing;
  • medications that urgently relieve an asthmatic attack;
  • selection of drugs that, with minimal use, give a stable effect and practically have no side effects.

Only a doctor can determine a regimen of several drugs. Complex therapy involves the use of drugs from different groups, therefore it is important that a specialist selects specific drugs for bronchial asthma, because many groups are often incompatible with each other.

What benefit are corticosteroids in the treatment of asthma?

Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), taken daily, are the main drugs given to people with asthma who have ongoing breathing problems. However, in people with a milder form of the disease, it is difficult to predict when their condition will worsen, and therefore many people do not use their сorticcosteroid inhaler regularly.

We found that intermittent ICS use resulted in a decrease in the number of people requiring oral steroids to manage asthma symptoms. It has also been associated with improved performance on lung function tests in adults. Although the greatest benefit was seen in adults who used a combination inhaler device when they developed symptoms, this was based on only one published study. There was no increased safety concern with this ICS regimen, although there was insufficient data to find differences in hospitalizations, asthma symptoms, or adverse events.