In the disease of asthma, there exists three levels of suffering: mild, moderate and severe. A person suffering from mild asthma may experience symptoms no more than once or twice a week, with random nightly visits no more than twice each month. These attacks are not long-lasting and typically go away quickly when medication is administered. The symptoms do not occur between attacks. Moderate asthma sufferers will battle symptoms on almost a daily basis. These unfortunate folks will most likely be required to carry around an inhaler in order to treat an attack whenever it might occur. With severe asthma, the sufferer is allowed very little relief. Symptoms occur pretty much all day, every day. Usually they are restricted in the amount of physical activity they can do and often need to be hospitalized to control their symptoms.
The main symptom of asthma a whistling, hissing sound when breathing. This is what is commonly referred to as wheezing. It is a noise brought on by the sound of air passing through narrowed tubes and other air passages which are constricted or tightened due to an asthma attack. A wheeze will be present as the asthma sufferer inhales and exhales air from the lungs. However, it is typically a lot more noticeable and loud sounding while the person is in the process of exhaling. Other symptoms can include chest tightness or pain, coughing, breathlessness, difficulty speaking, prolonged shortness of breath, and extreme fatigue.
In order to provide for oneself the best chance of alleviating or preventing asthma attacks, the website emedicinehealth.com has put together a comprehensive list of many of the helpful suggestions one should follow in order to manage his or her asthma.
One should try and avoid items and environments which are known to be triggers for asthma attacks. An excellent example of this would be to make sure the house in which the allergy sufferer lives is kept clean and as free of pollen, dust and mold as possible.
In the severe type of asthma referred to as cough-variant asthma, severe coughing with asthmais the dominant symptom. Other causes will also bring about a cough, such as postnasal drip, sinusitis, chronic rhinitis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD or heartburn). Asthma is a frequent and often serious cause of cough for people today. Coughing due to the addition of sinusitis to asthma is common.
Cough-variant asthma is sometimes labelled as chronic cough due to the fact that it typically has persistently lasted longer than six to eight weeks. This type of asthma is vastly under-diagnosed and undertreated. Asthma triggers for cough-variant asthma are usually exercise and respiratory infections.
For any persistent cough, a doctor should be contacted. He or she may order specific tests for the detection of asthma, such as lung function tests,to show how well the cough sufferer’s lungs are working. The doctor might recommend that the patient see a lung specialist for further tests before an asthmadiagnosis is made.
Severe asthma sufferers might possibly be thought to have been given an unhappy, overly medicated and debilitating lot in life. However, if the he or she gets the correct diagnosis by a trained physician, followed by receiving the most effective medication, he or she can live just as normal a life as anyone else.