What is Asthma?

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 an allergic form of the disease called allergic asthma. Possible triggers could be dust, pollen, smoke, molds, certain foods, stress, temperature or humidity of the surrounding air.

When the attack occurs, the airways in your 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 up your airways.

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

Treatments for Allergic Asthma

Ventolin (Salbutomal) Puffer

Working as a Respiratory Therapist, I treat many asthmatic 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)

While most bronchodilators can treat your symptoms, they cannot treat the cause of an asthma attack.

You can get longer-acting medications that help control inflammation in your lungs. Most of these drugs contain corticosteroids that help reduce the amount of inflammatory chemicals in your body.

Exercise-Induced Asthmatic Symptoms

Exercise-induced asthma occurs when you get asthma symptoms due to exercise or physical exertion.

When you're not exercising, you're most likely relaxed and breathing through your nose.

Breathing through your nose helps to warm and humidify the air and your breathes are going smoothly throuh your airways, like a gentle stream.

Asthma can be caused by exercise

If you run around the block a few times and you start to breath fast and heavy you probably begin breathing through your mouth. This very act makes your breaths colder and drier.

Your heavy breathing will cause the air to go down your airways like a canyon river...very choppy and wavy, with lots of turbulence.

These hard gasping breathes can increase your airway resistance and may trigger an asthma attack. Your airways can become inflamed and mucus production occurs which can plug up the lungs and make it harder to breathe.

There are drugs you can take to reduce the risk for exercise-induced asthmatics, 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 symptoms. It helps reduce the severity and number of asthmatic attacks.

Monitoring your symptoms and following your doctor's advice on proper medication use can help reduce your asthma and help you live an active and healthy life.

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