Difficult breathing attacks, whistles, shortness of breath and dry cough may be symptoms of bronchial asthma. It adversely affects the health and quality of life. Today it is known that the presence of obesity adversely affects the course of asthma, and environmental pollution and pollinosis can be its provocateurs. How to be?
The role of obesity in the genesis of pathology
According to recent studies, the connection of obesity, which arose in childhood, with the development of bronchial asthma has been revealed. The study claims that up to 10% of children’s asthma could have been avoided if childhood obesity had been eliminated. Today, there are not so many preventable risk factors for asthma, but obesity can be quite controlled. Presently bronchial asthma registered in millions of people, about 10% of cases of the disease could be eliminated if you actively fight childhood obesity.
Today, a large number of children, adolescents and young people are obese. The authors of the study claim that it may worsen their quality of life and increase the risk of developing chronic diseases. The researchers explained that asthma in adults and obesity are closely related. But often the development of pathology begins in childhood or adolescence, in parallel with the weight gain.
Relationship of bronchial asthma and overweight
In children with obesity, asthma is 30% more likely to be diagnosed, overweight adolescents have a 17% greater risk of developing asthma in adulthood.
But how excess weight can lead to bronchial asthma? No one knows for sure yet. There are several theories. One of them is that in children suffering obesity, there may be changes in the growth of the bronchi and lungs, which can lead to a narrowing of the respiratory tract, which contributes to the disruption of the air flow through the bronchi. It is possible that obesity can lead to changes that make the bronchi excessively reactive.
Other conditions associated with obesity, such as acid reflux or sleep apnea, that can contribute to the development of bronchial asthma, can also affect. The link between these two pathologies is not clear, but systemic inflammation caused by obesity can play a negative role. Also, scientists have suggested that the basis of obesity and asthma may be based on certain abnormal genes.
Climate change and pollinosis, asthma provocation
Scientists say that global warming and gradual climate change play a role in the genesis of allergic diseases such as pollinosis and atopic bronchial asthma. If a person lives in the northern regions, he never had pollinosis, gradual climate change brings a number of unpleasant surprises.
Higher temperatures in the northern regions will allow ambrosia, a plant that causes pollinosis, to grow in areas where it has never been. Approximately in 35 years, those regions where it did not grow before will become a habitual place of flowering.
But people suffering from pollinosis due to ragweed in the south of the country should get some relief as the temperature becomes too hot for ambrosia to grow normally. Weeds are the main cause of pollinosis and atopic asthma. Climate change makes adjustments to the prevalence of these seasonal pathologies. Pollen causes symptoms in people who are allergic to ambrosia, including sneezing, tearing, itching in the throat, runny nose and headaches.
Climate and health issues
According to the forecasts of scientists, in the period from 2050 to 2070 there will be a decrease in the cases of pollinosis and asthma, and the health of many people with allergies will generally improve. It is believed that elevated temperature and precipitation can lead to the creation of unfavorable conditions for the growth of dangerous plants. But the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere also leads to the fact that plants produce more pollen, so the season of pollinosis and its complications is extended.
The state of health will also change significantly due to changes in the structure of infectious diseases, including those that trigger asthma attacks.
There are changes in the properties of viruses and bacteria, which are traditionally considered to be tropical. There is evidence that the agents causing these diseases can survive in a more severe climate. It can also adversely affect the health of allergies.
Air pollution and respiration, provocation attacks
According to a new study, people suffering from bronchial asthma and living in places with polluted air need emergency medical care more often than those who live in ecologically clean regions. Bronchial asthma is a chronic disease of the respiratory tract, which makes breathing difficult, there are coughing episodes, and shortness of breath develops. The pollution of the atmosphere on the health of children and adolescents is particularly significant.
According to research data, patients with asthma often live in apartment buildings or on the upper floors. These patients are also more often in need of emergency care, complain of respiratory disorders associated with physical activity. Researchers reported that air pollution levels in cities with a large number of asthmatics are much higher than in relatively prosperous regions of asthma.
Chronic Disease Provocation
It was determined that the presence of bronchial asthma adversely affects the state of the respiratory system, and in about 40% of the presence of pathology leads to the development of COPD. Especially significantly affects the health of people with obesity and smokers, asthmatics with experience of more than 10 years. Moreover, the researchers found that COPD was more often formed in women, and the prognosis in this case was extremely unfavorable due to the higher mortality from complications in the respiratory tract. The combination of asthma with signs of COPD significantly disrupts external respiration, forms resistance to habitual therapy, causes more severe and prolonged asthma attacks. To treat this pathology is extremely difficult.