Asthma

Asthma is a chronic disease that affects your airways. It is quite common.

The air ways are the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. If you have asthma the inside of your lungs are inflamed (swollen). This makes the airways sensitive which then react strongly to things that you are allergic to or find irritating.

When airways react they become narrow, resisting airflow through the lungs. This causes symptoms such as wheezing, coughing and chest tightness especially at night and in the morning.

Asthma cannot be cured but the symptoms can be controlled so that you have few and infrequent symptoms. Diagnosis is from a patient’s history and examination.

Treatment involves avoiding triggers that cause airways to tighten. Common triggers include cats, colds, smoke and pollution. Children whose parents smoke are more likely to develop asthma. Smoking during pregnancy also significantly increases the risk of a child developing asthma

Treatment varies depending on the severity of symptoms and therefore asthmatics should be reviewed regularly.

Three questions can determine whether your asthma is under control and if there needs to be any adjustments in the dose of your inhalers or the type of inhalers you are using:

Over the past month,
A) Has your sleep been affected by asthma symptoms ( including cough)?

B) During the day do you have asthma symptoms (coughing, wheezing, breathlessness)?

C) Does your asthma affect your usual activity e.g. school work?

If you have answered yes to any of the above 3, you should make an appointment to see your doctor or nurse to discuss ways to improve your asthma.

In mild cases this may mean only using a reliever (rescue) inhaler because it works fast to open the airways so that the person can breath. In other cases, preventers (controller) inhalers are needed everyday as well. These help to avoid flare ups. Both of these are available in a variety of inhaler devices.

Further information can be found on:

www.asthma.org.uk
www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk

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