Asthma Insights
The Truth About Asthma
Asthma is a growing health concern around the world. Asthma Insights offers a variety of resources, books and articles designed to help you understand the symptoms, triggers and effects of asthma and discover the most effective asthma treatments currently available.
Asthma Overview
Asthma is a widespread persistent inflammatory condition of the lung airways whose cause is not totally understood. It's a disorder of the respiratory system in which the passage of air to the lungs sporadically narrows, causing coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath which often worsens at night. This tightening is typically short-term and reversible, but in severe attacks, asthma can result in death.
Asthma causes inflammation of the airflow into and out of the lungs. The muscles of the bronchial tree become taut and causes the lining of the air passages to enlarge, which reduces airflow and produces the characteristic asthmatic wheezing sound.
An asthma attack, can also occur as an allergic reaction to an allergen or other substance (acute asthma), or as a part of a complex disease cycle which includes reactions to stress or exercise (chronic asthma).
Asthma cannot be cured, but for most patients it can be controlled so that they have only minimal and infrequent symptoms and they can live an active life.
If you have asthma, managing it is an important part of your life. Controlling your asthma means staying away from things that bother your airways and taking medicines as directed by your doctor. By controlling your asthma every day, you can prevent serious symptoms and take part in all normal activities. If your asthma is not well controlled, you are likely to have symptoms that can make you miss school or work and keep you from doing things you enjoy.
Asthma is becoming increasingly common in the developed world and is now the most common chronic condition in the west. Aspects of our modern environment such as air pollution, processed foods, and centrally heated, double-glazed houses (an ideal breeding grounds for house dust mites) are thought to be major contributing factors.
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