Asthma

Asthma afflicts thousands upon thousands of people the world over. Symptoms of an asthma attack can range from mild shortness of breath to severe shortness of breath requiring immediate medical attention. To make matters worse, many people will have varying degrees of asthma attacks, meaning one attack may be mild and the next much more serious.

Many people who suffer from asthma as well as those who are immediate family members or friends of the sufferer often ask, “What is asthma?” The truth is there is no one single answer to that question for there are many asthma types that can affect people.

Childhood asthma is one of the more common types, and it is also one of the more disturbing. No one wants to see a child struggling for breath. Equally disconcerting is that many of childhood asthma sufferers must carry with them asthma inhalers or other types of asthma medication around the clock.

Exercise induced asthma is another problem that often faces youngsters with this asthma. No matter how you look at it, asthma in children is a heart breaker.

In a few children there may be a cough variant asthma type which is often signaled by fits of coughing. For some children and some adults, feline asthma can bring on symptoms. This occurs when the person is in close proximity to cats or cat hair. A somewhat particular problem with feline asthma is that many people mistake the asthma attack as being a straight forward allergy to cats and do not immediately assign the symptoms to an asthma attack. This usually resolves itself after a few bouts when people put the links together. Cat equals asthma attack.

One of the more recent studies in the area of asthma management has to do with the correlation between asthma and diet. There is some good research going on in this area but the results are still out on how important this is to the majority of asthma sufferers. It may defiantly be a factor in some people, but may not be as widespread as suspected in earlier studies.

Those with severe asthma symptoms often suffer from bronchial asthma which is can be very serious in some cases. These people must carry their asthma inhaler with them at all times just in case they have an attack. It is also a good policy to make sure that family members also know how to use the inhaler on the person in case he or she is unable to administer the medication.