What are the symptoms and treatment of asthma? This question is often asked as those who have already encountered this disease, and those who only suspect it at home. The fact is that at an early stage it is easy to confuse it with many others. Those who have long suffered from this ailment are constantly looking for new, more effective methods of treating bronchial asthma. We will discuss some of them in the article.
Asthma symptoms
The disease bronchial asthma manifests itself in many signs:
- Any person suffering from asthma can confidently say that the most terrible manifestation of it is asphyxiating attack, upon the occurrence of which a person cannot inhale fully, begins to suffocate and gasp for breath. At such moments, the respiratory system does not fulfill its main function – it does not supply blood with the necessary oxygen. However, asthma attacks, this is not an isolated sign of the disease.
- Regular shortness of breath and coughing. Most often, such symptoms appear in an asthma sufferer after exposure to an allergen. In some cases of the disease, seasonal worsening is observed, exacerbating under certain conditions (for example, in spring, when certain plant species bloom).
- Dry cough, accompanied by whistling and wheezing in the chest. Most often, coughing attacks attack at night or in the morning.
- An asthma patient is often accompanied by a feeling of lack of air and squeezing in the lungs.
How to treat asthma?
Disease of bronchial asthma cannot be completely cured. Thanks to modern medicine, in some cases, doctors manage to achieve a stable remission. The treatment of bronchial asthma is long and should be comprehensive.
Medicines used in the treatment of asthma are divided into basic and symptomatic. Using basic drugs, you can control the disease, and symptomatic ones are used in acute cases. This is a bronchodilator that can instantly affect the muscles of the bronchi and relieve bronchospasm with asthma attacks. If you do not use basic therapy preparations on a regular basis, then the need for the use of symptomatic drugs will increase. And this can lead to the fact that the disease becomes uncontrollable.
- Use of nebulizers.
The main goal in the treatment of asthma is to supply the bronchi with a drug. For this, nebulizers are used – metered-dose inhalers that create a fine aerosol. Small particles of a bronchodilator drug can very quickly penetrate deep into the bronchi, suffering from obstruction.
- Exclusion of risk factors.
One of the most important elements of maintenance therapy is, as far as possible, the complete elimination of factors causing exacerbation of the disease. Most often these are allergens. Animal hair is considered one of the strongest allergens, therefore, with hypersensitivity to wool, contact with them should be avoided. It can also be household chemicals, flower pollen, household or construction dust. Smoking is one of the very strong risk factors for exacerbation of bronchial asthma. Including and passive. That is why it should be completely excluded.
An effective method of gymnastic exercises called the Buteyko method has been developed for patients with bronchial asthma. It includes special breathing exercises in conjunction with dosed physical activity.
A very effective way to treat bronchial asthma is a systematic and long stay in a special microclimate. Halotherapy and speleotherapy are methods of treating bronchial asthma by finding salt caves in an artificially created climate. Salt air has a very beneficial effect on the respiratory tract and prevents inflammation and asthma attacks.