Asthma is a lung condition that involves chronic inflammation of your breathing tubes (bronchi and bronchioles). It's considered a 'reversible' disease. You can have an attack and then hours later your lungs are completely free of symptoms. Many people can be symptom-free for long periods between attacks.

For most asthmatics, there's a 'trigger' that may cause an attack. This is called allergic asthma. These triggers could be dust, pollen, smoke, molds, certain foods, stress, temperature or humidity of the surrounding air.

When the attack occurs, the airways in the lungs become inflamed. The muscles surrounding the airways may constrict. This will make the diameter of your bronchioles smaller. Mucus production may increase, which will also make the airways smaller, and may plug your airways.

All these events make it harder to breathe. Removing the offending allergen is key to reducing future allergic asthma attacks.

Working as a Respiratory Therapist, I treat many asthma patients with bronchodilators. These medications relax the smooth muscles surrounding your airways. Your airways "open up", allowing more air to pass through.

Examples of some bronchodilators:

• Ventolin (salbutamol)
• Atrovent (Ipratropium Bromide)
• Combivent (mixture of the above two drugs)

Unfortunately, bronchodilators may affect a part of your nervous system that controls your heart rate and blood pressure.

Some side effects of bronchodilators are:

• increase in heart rate
• increase in blood pressure
• vasoconstriction (your arteries may constrict)

Most bronchodilators will treat the immediate problem of tightened airways. But they don't treat the cause.

There are some longer-acting medications that help control inflammation in your lungs. They reduce the chemicals in your body that cause inflammation. These drugs are called corticosteriods.

Although these symptoms can't be cured, they are treatable and reversible.

Exercise - Induced Asthma

Exercise - induced asthma is a type of asthma triggered by exercise. When you're not exercising, you're breathing normally through your nose. Breathing through your nose helps to warm and humidify the air. The air is going smoothly down your airways, like a gentle stream.

Run around the block a few times and you're breathing fast and usually through your mouth. This makes the air colder and drier. This will cause the air to go down your airways like a canyon river...very choppy and wavy, with lots of turbulence.

This increases airway resistance and may trigger an asthma attack. The airways become inflamed and mucus production occurs. This plugs up the airways, making it hard to breathe.

There are drugs you can take to reduce your risk for exercise- induced asthma, called Leukotriene Inhibitors.

What are Leukotrienes?

Leukotrienes are substances produced by mast cells during an allergic reaction. Mast cells also produce histamine, another substance responsible for allergic symptoms.

Leukotrienes can cause the tubes in your lungs to swell with fluid (airway edema). They also increase the amount of mucus in your lungs and cause inflammation. All these factors will increase your work of breathing.

There are drugs available that help decrease leukotriene production and block the leukotrienes from affecting your lungs.

One of these drugs is called Singulair (Montelukast sodium). It's usually taken daily to treat mild persistent symptoms and exercise-induced asthma. It helps reduce the severity and number of asthma attacks. It can't be used to treat an acute attack.

Fish Oils - A Natural Cure for Asthma?

Researchers know fish oils contain omega 3 fatty acids.

These special fats help reduce inflammation in your body. Since asthma involves inflammation of the airways, is it possible to use fish oils to reduce asthma symptoms?

As a Respiratory Therapist, I was intrigued by this possibility. So I cracked open some medical journals and found a few studies on fish oils and asthma that you may find interesting.

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