Asthma Wheezing Treatment
Posted by Health articles on September 29th, 2009
Asthma is among the top ten most common lung related diseases according to world health organization. Studies show that there are many causes for asthma. They can be hereditary, environmental or even lifestyle causes. Although it is a symptom, asthma is only one of the diseases that may lead to an abnormal activity of the body called wheezing.
Wheezing Is Common Asthma Symptom for Adults
Wheezing, according to medical dictionaries is the whistling noise in the chest during breathing when the airways are narrowed or compressed. Wheezing, according to health experts is caused by nearly 586 diseases, but asthma and chronic heart diseases are the most common.
Wheezing is accompanied by shortness of breath, fast breathing or coughing up phlegm. It is common for heart disease patients as well. Heart failure is a condition in which the heart pumps inadequately because of complications such as prolonged hypertension or heart valve disease. As a result, blood backs up in the venous system.
In some cases, such a backup causes the lungs to become swollen and congested and leads to wheezing. This condition, called pulmonary edema, is an acute and potentially life-threatening symptom of congestive heart failure.
For asthma-caused wheezing, it is triggered by something that reached the sensitivity of the passage or air ways such as fumes, cigarette smoke, perfume, or even those little potpourris. The trigger may dry the bronchial tissue and constricts the smooth muscles in the lungs. Wheezing may also be caused by the inhalation of a foreign object, which blocks the larynx or bronchial tubes.
Mild wheezing may also accompany respiratory infections such as acute bronchitis and may be experienced by patients in heart failure and by some with emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD. But the characteristic whistling sound of wheezing is a primary symptom of the chronic respiratory disease asthma.
Asthma wheezing treatment
However, wheezing that develops suddenly and is accompanied by other symptoms, as well as chronic wheezing that worsens suddenly, may signal a life-threatening emergency.
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