Asthma Facts
Posted by Health articles on December 16th, 2009
Asthma is a chronic disease, just like diabetes and high blood pressure. It cannot be cured, so even when it is not showing any symptoms and you feel just fine but it is still there and can react at any point. It is not something that will go away, once you develop asthma you are likely to have it all your life.
Here are some facts about asthma:
- 3 million people suffer from asthma all over the world.
- African Americans and Latinos are more prone to developing asthma.
- Around 5000 people die of asthma in the USA every year.
Asthma is one of the primary chronic childhood diseases and a major cause in childhood disability limiting the capacity to learn, play or sleep.
Asthma requires daily attention like monitoring your breathing and taking medicine even when you do not have symptoms. It becomes a routine part of you life.
You can keep your asthma under control by taking your medicines as prescribed, avoiding asthma triggers and monitoring.
Without treatment, asthma attack become more frequent and severe sometimes leading to death.
You can help prevent asthma attacks by identifying and avoiding your triggers.
Cigarette smoking increases your chances of developing asthma as an adult and second-hand smoking can cause childhood asthma.
Asthma is the third cause for hospitalization among children below the age of 15.
People who suffer from asthma are more likely to have attacks when the ozone levels are high, increasing their sensitivity to pet dander, dust mites, pollen and mold.
Recent studies have shown that the inflammation in the airways persists even among people with asthma who are free of symptoms and have normal lung function measurements.
Usually, people who are having an asthma attack look like their gasping for air, but in fact it is easier to breathe in than to breathe out. Air gets trapped in the lungs making them overinflated. Asthmatics try to push the increasing amount of air out of their long and through the irritated airways.
With proper treatment and monitoring asthma symptoms can be held under control and people who suffer from this disease can live perfectly normal lives.
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