Search
Related Links

 

 

Informative Articles

Aloe Vera
Aloe Vera Aloe, native to Africa, is also known as "lily of the desert", the "plant of immortality", and the "medicine plant". The name was derived from the Arabic alloeh meaning "bitter" because of the bitter liquid found in the leaves. In...

Lower Cholesterol Naturally with Policosanol
It is estimated that 52% of total population have borderline high cholesterol levels (200 to 239 mg/dL) and about 21% have dangerously high levels of 240 or above. High levels of cholesterol are associated with increased cardiovascular...

Obesity finds a new victim: GORD
An epidemic on the rise, Obesity can raise a person’s risk of heart disease and diabetes. Researchers’ today report that too many pounds can also result in gastro-oesophageal reflux disorder known as GORD. People who had GORD showed symptoms of...

The Maharishi Ayurveda Approach to Weight Loss with Nancy Lonsdorf M.D.
Maharishi Ayurveda Approach to Weight Loss: 5 Easy Steps to A Healthier Weight Although different people have weight problems for different reason, these 5 tips address fundamental lifestyle habits that affect virtually everyone. The...

What Is Diagnosis
"Diagnosis" is a fancy name given to the process of identifying diseases. It is a Greek name. Break it down; "dia" means "by" and "gnosis" means "knowledge". How do I diagnose my illness? You don't! Diagnosis is for doctors and physicians only....

 
What is Asthma Anyways?

Asthma (pronounced AZ-muh) is a chronic (long term) inflammatory disease that makes the bronchial airways particularly sensitive to irritants such as air pollution. It affects people of all ages causing breathing difficulties, shortness of breath and wheezing.

It is the leading chronic illness in children and is becoming increasingly common in the developed world and is now the most common chronic condition in the west.

Asthma sufferers are often described as "being allergic to modern life" as air pollution, processed foods and centrally heated, double-glazed houses (an ideal breeding ground for house dust mites) are thought to be major contributing factors.

Asthma can affect anyone, at any age, anywhere and about one in eight children and one in thirteen adults have asthma in the western world, and rates are on the increase.

Although there is no cure, it can be controlled or managed in most patients so that they have only minimal and infrequent symptoms and can live an active life.

Asthma attacks Asthma suffererers have extra sensitive or hyper-responsive airways that narrow due to a mixture of factors. The muscles around the air passages in the lungs can contract and at the same time the airway lining can become inflamed and swell. This results in narrowing the airways that can get further blocked by the secretion of excess mucus.

This is described as an asthma attack with symptoms including a feeling of tightness in the chest, a wheezing or whistling noise when breathing, coughing, breathlessness and difficulty breathing.

This feeling of fighting for every breath is one that some asthmatics describe as being a sensation similar to drowning.

Asthma attacks vary not only between patients but for the same patient from a slight tightness or breathlessness to a severe attack when the airways can close so much that not enough oxygen reaches the vital organs causing a life threatening medical emergency.

Managing the disease If you have asthma, then learning to self-manage it becomes an important part of your life. This may mean


restricting exposure to things that trigger your attacks 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 and reduce the time lost at school or work.

Anyone with asthma should seek long term medical help as a doctor will not only prescribe the necessary medication but also monitor its effectiveness.

This is important as asthma is a chronic or long term illness and the effectiveness of medication can decrease over time and symptoms can return.

Drugs that resemble natural hormones help fight asthma. Adrenaline (epinephrine in the USA) based drugs act as relievers to provide almost instant relief from symptoms and hydrocortisone (a steroid) is the base for longer term drugs that try and reduce the sensitivity of an asthmatics airways, thereby reducing the chances of an attack.

Asthma can change progressively during the lifetime of a patient affecting them in very different ways.

Some patients suffer acute episodes but then enjoy long periods with few symptoms.

Others may have childhood asthma and then grow out of it only for it to return in later life.

At a Glance ... What is Asthma All About?

* Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that makes airways (bronchial tubes) particularly sensitive to irritants such as pollution, and this is characterized by difficulty in breathing.

* If untreated, asthma can be a life-threatening disease.

* Asthma affects people of all ages and is the leading chronic illness of children.

* While asthma cannot be cured it can be controlled, reducing the frequency and severity of attacks.

* If you have asthma, managing it is an important part of your life as taking medicines and reducing contact with things that bother you can cut down time lost at work or school.

About the author:

Do you, a spouse or a child, have asthma? Learn more, including the treatments available at Asthma-Explained.com

 

National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health
Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine offers access to health information for consumer, patient, and physicians ...
www.nlm.nih.gov
 
Health and Medical Information produced by doctors - MedicineNet.com
Doctor-produced health and medical information written for you to make informed decisions about your health concerns.
www.medicinenet.com
 
Medicine in the Yahoo! Directory
Collection of sites for health professionals, with sections on specific disciplines, organizations, continuing education, conferences, publications, ...
dir.yahoo.com
 
MedlinePlus Health Information from the National Library of Medicine
Health information from the National Library of Medicine. Easy access to Medline and Health topics, medical dictionaries, directories and publications.
medlineplus.gov
 
Medicine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Medicine is a branch of health science and the sector of public life ... The practice of medicine combines both science as the evidence base and art in the ...
en.wikipedia.org
 
Journal Home - Nature Medicine
Nature Medicine has a vacancy for a Locum Assistant Editor for six months. The position involves working in all aspects of the editorial process, ...
www.nature.com
 
The New England Journal of Medicine: Research & Review Articles on ...
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a weekly general medical journal that publishes new medical research findings, review articles, and editorial ...
content.nejm.org
 
eMedicine Clinical Knowledge Base
eMedicine features up-to-date, searchable, peer-reviewed medical journals, online physician reference textbooks, and a full-text article database in 62 ...
www.emedicine.com
 
Open Directory - Health: Medicine
the entire directory, only in Health/Medicine. Top: Health: Medicine (11429). Description · Medical Specialties (4888); Surgery (2265) ...
dmoz.org
 
the www virtual library biosciences medicine
www.ohsu.edu/cliniweb/wwwvl/ - Similar pages
 
Medicine - home
Bimonthly journal covering the latest results in clinical investigation relevant to hospital and office practice.
www.md-journal.com
 
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine serves as adviser to the nation to improve health.
www.iom.edu
 
ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News
Medical Research News. Health news on everything from cancer to nutrition. Full-text, images, updated daily.
www.sciencedaily.com
 
Google Directory - Health > Medicine
Search only in Medicine Search the Web. Medicine. Health > Medicine, Go to Directory Home. Categories. Alternative Medicine (6308) Basic Sciences (66) ...
www.google.com
 
the world wide web virtual library biosciences medicine
www.mcb.harvard.edu/biopages/medicine.html - Similar pages
 
PLoS Medicine - A Peer-Reviewed Open-Access Journal
PLoS Medicine is a peer-reviewed, international, open-access journal published ... Every issue of PLoS Medicine contains a selection of readers' responses. ...
medicine.plosjournals.org
 
Medicine On-Line - Medicine Online -The International Medical Journal
Medicine Online - independent and peer reviewed journal published by Priory Medical Journals - priory.com.
www.priory.com
 
Entrez PubMed
PubMed is a service of the US National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
Stanford University School of Medicine
Home Page of the Stanford University School of Medicine.
med.stanford.edu
 
Medicine OnLine
Meds.com offers medical information and education on cancer (lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, leukemia) and HIV / AIDS for patients, ...
www.meds.com