Contents:
- Medical Video: Causes of Recurring Dry Cough - Dr. Sreenivasa Murthy T M
- Get to know the various symptoms of asthma
- Who is at high risk of developing asthma?
- What are the causes of asthma?
- 1. Allergy
- 2. Sports
- 3 Increased stomach acid
- 4. Smoking
- 5. Coughing
- 6. Certain medicines
- 7. Certain jobs
- 8. Nighttime
- 9. Other causes of asthma
- How to treat asthma?
- How do you control asthma symptoms?
Medical Video: Causes of Recurring Dry Cough - Dr. Sreenivasa Murthy T M
Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease caused by inflammation in the airways (bronchi). Inflammation causes the bronchi to become swollen, narrow, and continue to produce excess mucus. Asthma cannot be cured, but symptoms can be controlled. One way is to avoid things that cause your asthma to recur easily.
Get to know the various symptoms of asthma
Inflammation caused by asthma causes the muscles around the airway to swell and then narrows the airway tunnel. As a result, you often feel short of breath or runny, and have difficulty breathing. You may feel the chest often aching like there is something that ties the rope tightly around the chest. The wheezing sound of "ngik-ngik" and coughing are also the most recognizable symptoms of asthma.
In severe cases, asthma symptoms can include:
- Difficulties in talking, eating and sleeping due to shortness of breath.
- The lips and the tips of the toes and hands look blue.
- Heart palpitations.
- Looks weak and lethargic.
- Dizziness that never goes away
- The typical symptoms of asthma are getting worse and often.
- Inhaler unable to relieve symptoms.
If you have one or several asthma symptoms as mentioned above, immediately seek medical help to get further treatment.
Who is at high risk of developing asthma?
According to the WHO, asthma is the most common disease experienced by children. Even so, this disease can basically be experienced by people of all ages, but most often starts in childhood because:
- Parents have a history of asthma
- Have respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, bronchitis, and so on
- Have certain atopic allergies, such as food allergies or eczema
- Low birth weight
- Premature birth
Among children, boys are more likely to develop asthma than girls. However, among adults, women are more often affected by this disease than men. It is not clear how sex and sex hormones play a role in causing asthma.
What are the causes of asthma?
Until now it is not clear what causes asthma. However, an asthma attack can occur when you are exposed to an asthma trigger. These asthma triggers can vary by person.
Therefore, for you or the closest person who has asthma, it is important to understand the various things that can trigger asthma symptoms. The following are the most common causes of relapsing asthma:
1. Allergy
Allergy is one of the most common causes of asthma. Because, allergies and asthma are related to one another.
In people who have allergies, the body's immune system actually produces antibodies called histamine to fight substances that actually do no harm. For example, food or animal hair. Histamine will then circulate to all organs of the body, such as the skin, eyes, nose, airway, lungs, and digestive tract through the bloodstream. As a result, the body will produce a variety of excessive reactions. One of them is shortness of breath typical of asthma.
In general there are two allergies that can be a cause of asthma, namely inhaled allergies and food allergies.
1. Inhaled allergies
Allergies can be a cause of asthma when someone breathes air containing certain substances. About 80 percent of people with asthma have allergies caused by animal hair, dust mites, cockroaches, until pollen from trees, grass, and flowers.
In one study, children who lived in many cockroaches were four times more likely to experience recurrent asthma than children whose homes were clear of cockroach exposure.
2. Food allergies
In rare cases, food allergies can also be a cause of asthma. Asthma symptoms can occur when an allergic reaction develops more severely into anaphylactic shock after eating certain foods.
The following are some of the foods that most often cause allergic symptoms including:
- Cow's milk
- Egg
- Nuts
- Fish
- Shellfish
- Peanuts (such as cashews or walnuts)
- Wheat
- Soy
- Fresh fruit
Symptoms of food allergies can range from mild to severe, and may come suddenly or for several hours. Because a person's immune system may react to very small amounts of allergens, food allergies are very dangerous and potentially life threatening especially if they affect breathing. Therefore, people with asthma have an increased risk of producing fatal allergic reactions to food.
2. Sports
Not everyone who likes sports will then experience asthma. But especially for certain people who have had asthma before, their symptoms can worsen due to exercise. Even so, it is possible that people who have never had asthma (including athletes) actually experience it only when they exercise. Why?
When exercising or strenuous activities, such as climbing stairs, for example, you might unconsciously pull and exhale through your mouth. How to breathe like this can be a cause of asthma appear.
The mouth does not have fine hair and sinus cavities such as the nose which helps moisturize the incoming air. Dry air from outside that enters the lungs through the mouth will trigger a narrowing of the airways so you have difficulty breathing.
You may experience symptoms of asthma such as shortness of breath, coughing, and wheezing that sounds "scary" in the first 5-20 minutes of exercise. Symptoms of asthma because the exercise can usually subside in a matter of minutes or even hours later.
Use inhaler asthma before starting exercise can be one way to prevent an asthma attack when exercising. In addition, it is also important to warm up first before starting exercise. Do not also force exercise too heavy beyond the body's ability.
3 Increased stomach acid
Recent studies show that more than 80 percent of people with asthma also have a history of severe GERD. In fact, people with asthma are almost twice as susceptible to GERD as those who are not asthmatic.
GERD is a chronic digestive disorder characterized by an increase in stomach acid more than 2-3 times each week. The cause is a muscular valve (sphincter) at the top end of the stomach that cannot close properly to keep stomach acid at the base of the stomach. As a result, stomach acid rises into the esophagus. If stomach acid rises into the esophagus or airway, it will cause irritation and inflammation of the bronchi which can trigger an asthma attack.
Quoted from the Mayo Clinic page, stomach acid can make asthma symptoms worsen and asthma can worsen symptoms of gastric acid reflux. GERD disease usually appears during sleep at night when the sufferer is in a sleepy position. It may also be why asthma symptoms often relapse in even days in certain people.
Some signs that show stomach acid reflux as a cause of asthma include:
- New asthma symptoms appear in adulthood
- Do not have a family history of asthma
- Symptoms of asthma that get worse after a big meal or exercise
- Asthma symptoms that occur when drinking alcoholic beverages
- Asthma symptoms that occur at night or when lying down
- Asthma medications are less effective than usual
- Has no history of allergies or bronchitis
If you have one of the signs mentioned above, the doctor will usually do a special test to confirm the diagnosis. That way, the doctor can determine the right treatment for you.
4. Smoking
People who smoke are more likely to get asthma than those who don't smoke. If you have asthma and smoking, it can make asthma symptoms worse.
Women who smoke during pregnancy can also increase the risk of wheezing in their fetus. Not only that. Babies whose mothers smoke during pregnancy also have worse lung function than those whose mothers do not smoke.
Quitting smoking is one of the best ways to reduce asthma symptoms while protecting your lungs.
5. Coughing
In addition to allergies, coughing can also be one of the causes of asthma. The trigger for coughing asthma is usually inflammation or infection in the respiratory tract, for example due to flu, chronic rhinitis and sinusitis (inflammation of the sinuses), and bronchitis. Respiratory infections are the most common cause of asthma in children under 10 years of age. Respiratory infections that trigger asthma can be caused by viruses or bacteria.
Cough asthma is very undiagnosed and difficult to treat. If you experience a prolonged cough, immediately check your health condition to a lung specialist. The treatment usually done is a lung function test to see the performance of your lungs.
6. Certain medicines
Most people never think that certain prescription drugs can worsen asthma symptoms. Yes, NSAIDs such as aspirin and ibuprofen until beta-blocker heart disease drugs can worsen your asthma symptoms. In fact, not infrequently, the side effects of these drugs can also be fatal in people with asthma.
If you are one of those people who are sensitive to these drugs, avoid ibuprofen, naproxen, and diclofenac because they can trigger an asthma attack. Especially for those of you who already have a history of asthma.
Always consult with your doctor regarding the use of these drugs before you consume them.
7. Certain jobs
Your job can be a cause of asthma like to relapse without realizing it. This is caused by triggers that are commonly present in the work environment. For example chemicals, wood powder, construction dust, and factory waste fumes.
People who are most susceptible to occupational asthma are construction workers, animal breeders, nurses, carpenters, farmers, and other workers who experience daily exposure to air pollution and chemicals and cigarettes that can cause asthma symptoms.
Occupational asthma symptoms usually only occur when you are working.
8. Nighttime
Research shows that most cases of death from asthma occur at night. This condition occurs because of an increase in allergen exposure, air temperature, sleeping position lying down, or even the production of certain hormones that follow the body's biological clock. In addition, symptoms of sinusitis and asthma generally appear at night, especially if the lung mucus clogs the airways and triggers the symptoms of a typical asthma cough.
Always providing asthma medication at the bedside is the main key to overcoming nighttime asthma and getting quality sleep.
9. Other causes of asthma
Apart from those mentioned above, other causes of asthma can also be due to trivial matters and may not be thought of before, such as:
- Strong smells, such as perfume, cleaning agents, and so on.
- Cold air, changes in temperature, and humidity can cause asthma.
- Anxiety, crying, screaming, stress, anger, or laughing too hard can also trigger an asthma attack.
Some of the following diseases can also cause some symptoms that resemble asthma, but basically they are not asthma.
- Wheezing is one of the many symptoms of asthma that can be recognized. Even so it does not mean that people who experience wheezing must have asthma. Because, wheezing can also be a symptom of other diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pneumonia (lung infection).
- Heart asthma is a form of heart failure whose symptoms are similar to some common asthma symptoms.
- Vocal cord dysfunction.
How to treat asthma?
Asthma is an incurable disease. However, various ways from using drugs to lifestyle changes can help control asthma symptoms and prevent relapse.
Usually asthma medicines are given through inhaler. This tool is used by inhalation. The use of inhaled medication is considered more effective because it can send drugs directly to your respiratory tract. Ask your doctor in detail how to use inhaler because every inhaler work in different ways. Also make sure if you understand what the doctor is saying because it is part of one of the best ways to treat asthma.
In general, asthma can be treated with two types of drugs, namely:
1. Long-term drug control
Most people who have asthma should take long-term control medication every day to help prevent symptoms. Long-term medications are the most effective at reducing airway inflammation, and help prevent symptom recurrence. These drugs include inhaled corticosteroids, Cromolyn, Omalizumab (anti-IgE). If you have severe asthma, you may need to use corticosteroid or liquid pills for the short term to keep your asthma under control.
2. Instant reliever
All people who have asthma need certain medications to help relieve symptoms of asthma that may recur. Short-acting inhalation of beta2-agonists (albuterol, pirbuterol, levalbuterol or bitolterol) is the first choice for quick relief. Other drugs are ipratropium (anticholinergic), prednisone, prednisolone (oral steroids). You should use a quick reliever when you have symptoms of asthma.
If you use this drug more than 2 days a week, talk to your doctor about controlling your asthma. You may need to make changes to your asthma action plan
How do you control asthma symptoms?
There are many triggers or causes of asthma. The reaction to asthma triggers is different for each person and can vary from time to time. Certain causes of asthma may not be harmful to some people. But for some others, this can worsen existing asthma symptoms. Identifying and avoiding various causes of specific asthma, if possible, is the key to controlling asthma symptoms. Here are some other things you can do to control asthma symptoms:
- Discuss with your doctor to make and undergo a treatment plan that is right for you.
- Look for as much information as possible about how to use asthma medications such as inhalers, nebulizers, and other medicines that your doctor may prescribe.
- Keep a record of your asthma symptoms as a way to track how well your asthma is controlled.
- You might also have to take a flu vaccine every year. Please consult a doctor for more information.
