subject: Allergies and Asthma Symptoms: Prevention to Create Healthy Breathing, Healthy Living [print this page] Allergies and Asthma Symptoms: Prevention to Create Healthy Breathing, Healthy Living
Allergy and asthma related occurrences, including: disrupted breathing and hives due to molds, dust, or pet hair have been impacting the public for many years. Major problems with with both allergy and asthma are often a result of outside irritants. Such problems include: tightened breathing or a rash type reaction in allergy sufferers known as a hive. If not properly treated, asthma and allergy symptoms can cause major problems and in some instances death due to anaphylactic reactions or life threatening asthma attacks. To determine how to bypass the consequences of these physical responses, visiting an allergy and asthma specialist will determine what kind of treatments are right for you through specialized care. One way to understand how treatment will be administered is by knowing what both problems are, how to treat symptoms through medicine or the use of an inhaler, what their triggers are, and lastly, how to avoid the triggers.
What is Asthma and What are Allergies?
Asthma is a problematic disease for many Americans due to its debilitating way of cutting off airflow to the lungs. According to the Quality Practice Navigator for Asthma, (It's) a disease that can result in the breathing tubes (the airways, or bronchi that lead to the lungs) becoming swollen, narrowed, and congested. When this happens, your breathing becomes more and more difficult. Additionally, people of any age group who have allergies in their medical history are the most likely to have asthma. However, there is also no specific reason why asthma is in someone's background other than having allergic moments. Asthma causes the breathing passages to be constrained and narrowed excessively, causing inability to move easily in normal daily activities. In the treatment of asthma, inhalers such as Advair and Albuterol, can lessen tightness and congestion in the airways for healthier breathing. The harmful effects of asthma can cause those affected to have to go to the hospital or call 911 if the contracted breathing is not treated by an inhaler.
Allergies break down the body's defenses against outside forces and can cause significant trouble for patients when living or visiting environments with allergic irritants. The makers of Zyrtec state in their pamphlet that, an allergy is a condition in which the body's immune system overreacts to normally harmless substances like dust, pollen, and pet danderWhen faced with an allergen, your body responds by releasing a chemical called a "histamine" causing these common symptoms: sneezing, runny nose, itchy watery eyes, and itchy throat or nose. During the day, both indoor allergens (perennial allergic rhinitis) and outdoor allergens (seasonal allergic rhinitis or hay fever) elicit allergic reactions due to their airborne presence inhaled by allergy victims. There are many ways to treat and suppress allergies by using smart habits to lessen their impact on your airways. Oral antihistamines (for example, Allegra or Benadryl), nasal decongestants (Sudafed or Claritin-D), eye drops (Optivar or Zaditor), and nasal sprays (Flonase or Nasonex) keep allergy symptoms from causing difficulty in everyday living. Without treatment, anaphylactic shock due to these irritants can cause swelling with hives, loss of breath, and death.
What Are Their Elicit Causes? And How Can They Be Avoided?
In consideration of daily habits, whether a child or an adult, the best way to avoid asthma or allergies is by staying away from its specific trigger forms. All of the same triggers cause harm in allergy patients, but with asthma, the lack of breath is the only area for treatment. Allergic reactions can be major or minor depending on the exposure level. Some major asthma and allergy triggers are as follows:
Pollen: This allergic agent is carried through the air by means of weeds, trees, and grasses in nature. When patients are exposed to any of these, chest tightness occurs leading up to asthma moments. Allergies are most often attributed to pollen because of these triggers' ability to affect nose and throat functions. Pollen is much more difficult to avoid in daily life as we are often outdoors during the course of a day, whether working, driving, or walking in any environment.
Mold: These damp, musty odors can cause asthma in conjunction with other irritants from areas such as: basements, bathrooms, attics, or decaying leaves. Cleaning these areas can often stir up several irritants that cause asthma attacks or allergies. A good way to avoid mold is to wear a mask and gloves during any cleaning session. These items can be purchased at most pharmacies.
Animal dander: Animals, especially cats and dogs, but also mice, gerbils, rabbits, as well as birds, carry hair, skin or feathers into the air as they shed or molt which can lead to tight airways in humans or lead to hives. If you don't have animals, dander is often easier to avoid than if you do or someone in your household does.
Dust mites: The most persistent and difficult allergens are dust mites, which reside in several types of furniture, bedding, toys, and curtains. Regular cleaning with a mask and gloves will help keep away burrowing dust mites to help avoid asthmatic or allergic discomfort.
Cigarette smoke and air pollution: Cigarette Smoke from cigarettes, cigars or pipes can be easily avoided with current smoking laws in place for public areas. The best way to avoid smoke is by not hanging around people who regularly smoke as this can aggravate asthma or allergies.
Air pollution is difficult to avoid in the outdoors and may or may not directly affect a sufferer indefinitely. Depending on the amount of exposure, dirty air such as smog can create coughing, tightness in the throat, and allergies. To avoid air pollution, it's best to have as limited time in it as possible. Additional pollutants indoors are perfumes, cosmetics and air fresheners that can cause indoor rhinitis. Avoidance of certain types of inhalants indoors will decrease allergic or asthmatic exposure.
Exercise and anxiety: Strenuous exercise, such as running or lifting weights, can cause breathing difficulties with asthma most often. In order to calm asthma symptoms, use an inhaler with a few puffs to regulate your breathing.
Anxiety causes asthma attacks because of panicked thoughts and stress. Stressful situations and constant pressure can cause a person's breathing to be more rapid and difficult. An inhaler calms breath in anxious situations.
Overall, asthma and allergies, with the right treatment options, can be controlled to help people feel comfortable in the confines of their condition. Without these treatments, the general public would be adversely affected and both diseases would be deadly to those involved. For more information on allergy and asthma related resources, contact the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology as well as others organizations dedicated to rhinitis awareness. All in all, asthma and allergies are important to control in order to create a healthy lifestyle for all concerned.
