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Each year, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) declares May to be "National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month." It's a peak season for asthma and allergy sufferers, and a perfect time to educate your patients, family, friends, co-workers and others about these diseases.
Asthma
Asthma is a disease of the lungs in which the airways become blocked or narrowed causing breathing difficulty. This chronic disease affects 20 million Americans. Asthma is commonly divided into two types: allergic (extrinsic) asthma and non-allergic (intrinsic) asthma. There is still much research that needs to be done to fully understand how to prevent, treat and cure asthma. But, with proper management, people can live healthy and active lives.
What Causes Asthma
Since asthma has a genetic origin and is a disease you are born with, passed down from generation to generation, the question isn’t really “what causes asthma,” but rather “what causes asthma symptoms to appear?” People with asthma have inflamed airways which are super-sensitive to things which do not bother other people. These things are called "triggers."
Although asthma triggers vary from person to person based on if you have allergic asthma or non-allergic asthma, some of the most common include:
Substances that cause allergies (allergens) such as dust mites, pollens, molds, pet dander, and even cockroach droppings. In many people with asthma, the same substances that cause allergy symptoms can also trigger an asthma episode. These allergens may be things that you inhale, such as pollen or dust, or things that you eat, such as shellfish.
Irritants in the air, including smoke from cigarettes, wood fires, or charcoal grills. Also, strong fumes or odors like household sprays, paint, gasoline, perfumes, and scented soaps. Although people are not actually allergic to these particles, they can aggravate inflamed, sensitive airways. It may seem obvious that people with asthma should not smoke, but they should also avoid the smoke from others' cigarettes. This "secondhand" smoke, or "passive smoking," can trigger asthma symptoms in people with the disease. Studies have shown a clear link between secondhand smoke and asthma, especially in young people. Passive smoking worsens asthma in children and teens and may cause up to 26,000 new cases of asthma each year.
Respiratory infections such as colds, flu, sore throats, and sinus infections. These are the number one asthma trigger in children.
Exercise and other activities that make you breathe harder. Exercise—especially in cold air—is a frequent asthma trigger. A form of asthma called exercise-induced asthma is triggered by physical activity. Symptoms of this kind of asthma may not appear until after several minutes of sustained exercise. (When symptoms appear sooner than this, it usually means that the person needs to adjust his or her treatment.) The kind of physical activities that can bring on asthma symptoms include not only exercise, but also laughing, crying, holding one's breath, and hyperventilating (rapid, shallow breathing).
Weather such as dry wind, cold air, or sudden changes in weather can sometimes bring on an asthma episode.
Expressing strong emotions like anger, fear or excitement. When you experience strong emotions, your breathing changes -- even if you don’t have asthma.
Some medications like aspirin can also be related to episodes in adults who are sensitive to aspirin. |
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People with asthma react in various ways to these factors. Some react to only a few, others to many. Some people get asthma symptoms only when they are exposed to more than one factor or trigger at the same time. Others have more severe episodes in response to multiple factors or triggers. In addition, asthma episodes do not always occur right after a person is exposed to a trigger. Depending on the type of trigger and how sensitive a person is to it, asthma episodes may be delayed.
Each case of asthma is unique. If you have asthma, it is important to keep track of the factors or triggers that you know provoke asthma episodes. Because the symptoms do not always occur right after exposure, this may take a bit of detective work.
Allergies
Allergies are diseases of the immune system that cause an overreaction to substances called "allergens." Allergies are grouped by the kind of trigger, time of year or where symptoms appear on the body: indoor and outdoor allergies (also called "hay fever," "seasonal," "perennial" or "nasal" allergies), food allergies, latex allergies, insect allergies, skin allergies and eye allergies. People who have allergies can live healthy and active lives.
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The substances that cause allergic disease in people are known as allergens. “Antigens,” or protein particles like pollen, food or dander enter our bodies through a variety of ways. If the antigen causes an allergic reaction, that particle is considered an “allergen” – and antigen that triggers an allergic reaction. These allergens can get into our body in several ways:
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Inhaled into the nose and the lungs. Examples are airborne pollens of certain trees, grasses and weeds; house dust that include dust mite particles, mold spores, cat and dog dander and latex dust.
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Ingested by mouth. Frequent culprits include shrimp, peanuts and other nuts.
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Injected. Such as medications delivered by needle like penicillin or other injectable drugs, and venom from insect stings and bites.
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Absorbed through the skin. Plants such as poison ivy, sumac and oak and latex are examples.
What Makes Some Pollen Cause Allergies, and Not Others?
Plant pollens that are carried by the wind cause most allergies of the nose, eyes and lungs. These plants (including certain weeds, trees and grasses) are natural pollutants produced at various times of the year when their small, inconspicuous flowers discharge literally billions of pollen particles.
Because the particles can be carried significant distances, it is important for you not only to understand local environmental conditions, but also conditions over the broader area of the state or region in which you live. Unlike the wind-pollinated plants, conspicuous wild flowers or flowers used in most residential gardens are pollinated by bees, wasps, and other insects and therefore are not widely capable of producing allergic disease.
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