Today, many people, even those far from medicine, are familiar to a greater or lesser extent with a disease such as bronchial asthma . Why did such “fame” arise? The answer is pretty simple. The fact is that this pathology very often affects people of young, teenage, and often childhood.
Etiology and pathogenesis
The scientific world cannot unambiguously answer the question about the cause of this rather serious disease. A lot of theories of development of such a state are advanced. One of the “fundamental” factors is heredity. This means that if a child’s parents (other blood relatives) suffer from various allergic diseases, there is a risk of one day encountering bronchial asthma .
Of course, the conditions of life and work play a significant role in the appearance of this disease. In the second case, work is meant to be “harmful” to the respiratory system: plants with high dustiness of the air, contact with asbestos, coal, dust from foundries, etc.
Sometimes things can be even worse and more banal. To start the pathological process in the bronchi, it is enough to inhale a little book or house dust, particles of hair of cats or dogs, pollen of flowering plants.
What are the signs of bronchial asthma?
Quite often, the disease begins with non-specific symptoms: discomfort in the chest, tickling in the nose, sore throat and many others. Then, a symptom characteristic of asthma is attached to them – an attack of shortness of breath. All these symptoms are the hallmark of asthma.
In addition to shortness of breath, asthma is manifested by coughing. Moreover, the cough is unproductive, with a thick, viscous sputum. Due to such breathing problems, a person cannot work normally, communicate, sleep, eat. An attack can go away by itself, but more often it can only be removed with special medications.
Attacks problems of patients with bronchial asthma do not end there. The disease is constantly progressing, especially in the absence of adequate treatment. Slowly and imperceptibly creep up such complications as respiratory failure, problems with the heart, other internal organs.
There is only one conclusion: asthma is a very dangerous disease requiring serious treatment. Even with some improvement, one should not forget about it.
On the other hand, far from all patients, pathology progresses rapidly. It is noted that in some cases, both in children and in adults, the disease can go away on its own. Sometimes a person can be sick for decades, but at the same time, without exacerbations, do not feel much deterioration in the quality of life.
What to do with it?
The appearance of the above symptoms is a direct indication for visiting a doctor. Various methods are used to diagnose asthma. The main one is spirography.
The essence of the study is a series of breathing techniques – performing certain types of breathing as directed by a doctor. The patient needs to breathe into the tube of a special apparatus. The procedure lasts only 15-20 minutes.
A less pleasant procedure is allergotest. There are many diagnostic methods of this kind. Their essence lies in the fact that allergenic substances are applied to the patient’s skin, several small incisions (scratches) are made, observing the body’s reaction to this irritant. If it turns out that the patient has increased sensitivity to a specific allergen, the question about the cause of the disease is better understood, so how asthma -zabolevanie often allergic nature.
After a detailed diagnosis, the doctor prescribes a comprehensive treatment to the patient. And at the same time two. The first is drug therapy for continuous use. This is insurance against severe attacks and worsening conditions. The second is “emergency care”, that is, drugs that should only be used during asthma attacks.