June 2008


For people with bronchial asthma, having an “asthma management plan” is the best strategy to prevent symptoms. An bronchial asthma management plan is something developed by you and your doctor to help you control your bronchial asthma, instead of your bronchial asthma controlling you. An working plan should allow you to:

  • Be active without having bronchial asthma symptoms.
  • Participate fully in exercise and sports.
  • Rest all night, without bronchial asthma symptoms.
  • Attend school or work regularly.
  • Have the clearest lungs possible.
  • Have few or no side-effects from bronchial asthma medicines.
  • Have no emergency visits or stays in the hospital

Four parts of your Asthma Management Plan:

  1. Identify and minimize contact with your asthma triggers
  2. Take your medications as prescribed
  3. Know what to do when your asthma is worsening
  4. Monitor your asthma and recognize early signs that it may be worsening

  • Supply a copy of your child’s bronchial asthma action plan and explain what it means
  • Listing and explain your child’s asthma triggers and why it’s essential to avoid them. (Some common triggers in the classroom include woolly animals, dust, mould and strong smells.)
  • Show teachers your child’s asthma medicines and how to use them properly - make sure the medicines are well marked.
  • Make sure the teachers know which medicine is the rescue medication that helps in an asthma emergency (usually the blue inhaler).
  • Ask about the school’s rules about asthma medicines - tension the importance of allowing your child to carry his medications with him at all times
  • Ask about policies for field trips - with a bit of excess planning most trips should be safe
  • Offer to arrange an information session with a Certified bronchial asthma Educator
  • Make sure your child’s teachers know what to do in an emergency and whom to contact

  • More than 2.2 million Canadians have been diagnosed with asthma at some time in their lives.
  • An estimated 10% of children and 5% of adults currently have asthma, making it one of the most prevalent chronic conditions in Canada.
  • Diagnosis of asthma should require the following steps:

    • evaluating symptoms of cough, wheeze, chest tightness and shortness of breath;
    • assessing severity of symptoms; do they
    • happen daytime and/or nighttime?
    • happen with physical activity?
    • happen frequently?
    • lead to missed play/school/work?
    • evaluating family history of asthma, allergies;
    • evaluating possible allergies to inhalants and/or food; other signs of allergy of the skin, nose and intestine;
    • referral for allergy testing (includes infants);
    • referral for breathing tests.

    Cold air and asthma need not be enemies. Take prescribed medicines before going outside to play or workout. Avoid breathing in cold, dry air suddenly, by covering your mouth and nose with a scarf or a facemask. Have the reliever inhaler close by in case symptoms arise. Try to stay inside in extreme conditions.

    Your physician and bronchial asthma educator can do a lot to help you control your asthma symptoms. But there’s also a lot you can do on your individual.

    By following your doctor and bronchial asthma educator’s advice, and by avoiding your personal triggers, you can take control of your bronchial asthma and its symptoms. Much of bronchial asthma management is a subject of simple lifestyle change.

    An allergy is an abnormal reaction by your body to things that you body is sensitized to. The thing that gives you allergies is called an allergen.

    Allergy symptoms:
    • Itchy, watery eyes
    • Itchy, runny nose
    • Itchy skin
    • eczema - rough red skin
    • Hives - swollen mounds on your skin
    • Dark circles under and around the eyes
    • A headache that keeps coming back
    • Shortness of breath
    • Wheeze
    • Cough
    • Diarrhea
    • Stomach cramps

    Pregnant women are breathing for two. When asthma is controlled, women with asthma have no more complications during maternity and giving birthing than women who don’t have bronchial asthma. However, uncontrolled asthma during maternity can lead to critical maternal and fetal complications. If you have asthma and you’re pregnant, or preparation to become pregnant, see your doctor.

    Your asthma well-controlled if you are:

    • Active without experiencing any bronchial asthma symptoms
    • Sleeping over the night, and not waking due to asthma symptoms
    • Attaining your personal best peak flow number. This is an important indicator as it is an target assessment measure.

    In common, one third of pregnant women with bronchial asthma notice that their bronchial asthma symptoms better during pregnancy; one third of women have bronchial asthma symptoms that stay the same, and one third of women have asthma symptoms that get worse.

    If a mother has uncontrolled bronchial asthma, there is a higher risk for:

    • Premature birth
    • Low birth weight
    • Maternal blood pressure changes

    Some ways to prevent asthma :

    • avoid your bronchial asthma triggers and inducers. Avoiding triggers should be the first form of asthma therapy during maternity. bronchial asthma activates and inducers
    • keep taking your asthma medicines, as precribed by your doctor
    • Flu shot is very important, you can take this in first 3 month of pregnancy.
    • Pregnant women should excersice.
    • Don’t smoke
    • avoid second hand smoking.

    medications and pregnancy:

     

     

    Bronchial Asthma medicines are good during pregnancy. The chances of uncontrolled Asthma are far greater than the chances to the mother or fetus from the medications used to determine Asthma. If you are pregnant of plan to become pregnant, tell your physician. Your physician may change your medicines, depending on what you are taking.

    Asthma after the baby is born:

    • After the baby is born, it may be essential to change your asthma medicines and doses. Because some adult females experience changes in their asthma during pregnancy, the asthma may again change following delivery.
    • The postnatal period can involve anxietyanxiousness surrounding the newborn, fatigue, and possibly significantimportant postpartumpostnatal depression. For this reasoncause, you and your doctorphysician should monitorsupervise your asthmabronchial asthma very closely to make sure it stays well-controlled.

    • Inhaled bronchodilators and inhaled anti-inflammatories do not appear to cause side effects.
    • Theophylline gets into breast milk and can make the baby irritable.
    • Antihistimines should be avoided because they can cause sleeplessness and irritability in children.They can also reduce or prevent production of breast milk.
    • avoid smoking

    Workout can be a trigger for people when their asthma in not under good control. individuals with asthma should not avoid exercising. As long as your asthma is under control, workouts is recommended to keep your lungs and body in good form.

    • Strengthen your breathing muscles
    • Boost your immune system
    • Keep a good body weight
    • Exercise with asthma:

    • Keep your blue rescue inhaler on you at all times.
    • Before workouts, warm up easy by walking, stretching, and doing other activities. Later you’ve finished exercising, cool down slowly for at least 10 minutes. Don’t stop workouts all of a sudden. If you’ve been running, taper the run to a walking rate. If you’ve been swimming, finish your swim with a slow paddle. Give your body time to adjust.
    • Don’t exercise if your asthma is not under control.
    • Protect yourself while you are exercing from air quality, smog, pollen etc.    

       

      What to do in an asthma attack

    • STOP anything your are doing
    • Take your blue rescue inhaler
    • Sit up
    • If the medicine is not working, call 911
    • Symptoms of asthma from exercise:

    • Wheezing
    • Feeling short of breath
    • Chest feels tight
    • Coughing
    • Chest congestion
    • Chest discomfort or pain
    • Sensitive to cold air (you always cough after coming in from playing outside)
    • Feel out of shape or winded
    • Get tired easily
    • Low energy
    • Can’t keep up with friends when running and playing
    • Can’t run five minutes without stopping
    • Dizziness
    • Stomach-ache
    • Frequent colds
    • Frequent throat clearing sounds
    •  

       

      Always keep your rescue inhaler with you. Never leave a person with asthma symptoms alone

    A diagnosis of asthma normally is based along the patient’s symptoms, medical history, a physical examination, and laboratory tests that value pulmonary (lung) function. Doctors typically search for signs that the patient’s airflow is obstructed and that the obstruction is at least partially reversible. Factors that trigger symptoms may be obvious, such as exercise, cold air, and exposure to an allergen; however, the precipitating factors may not be clearly described.

    The airway obstruction is taken reversible if the wheezing disappears in response to treatment, or when the suspected activating factor is removed or solved.

    Spirometry

    The most reliable way to determine reversible respiratory tract obstruction is with spirometry, a test that measures the amount of air entering and leaving the lungs. This smooth test can be executed in the physician’s office.Ideally, the patient should breathe out for at least 6 seconds. The spirometer measures the amount of air exhaled and the length of time it took to exhale it. The amount of air breathed out in the first second, expressed as “FEV1,” is measured and compared to the total amount breathed out. If the amount breathed out in 1 second is disproportionately low to the total breathed out, the patient has an blockage. To test for reversibility, the patient then inhales a bronchodilator (i.e., a drug that expands the airways in the lungs) and the spirometry is repeated. If the values of the test performed after administration of the bronchodilator are significantly better than the prebronchodilator values, the blockage is considered reversible. Because bronchial asthma symptoms vary, it is not unusual for a patient with chronic asthma to have average spirometry. In such cases, peak expiratory flow (PEF) rate monitoring may be used to show reversible airway obstruction. A peak flow meter is a portable device that can be taken by the patient. It consists of a small tube with a gauge that measures the maximum force with which one can blow air through the tube.

    A patient with a suspected asthma-related airway obstruction does not demonstrate obstruction in spirometry or peak flow monitoring. In this siautation, the diagnosis of airway blockage may be provided by bronchial provocation.The another common bronchoprovocation exam is the exercise challenge test, which is used primarily with patients whose asthma is activated by workout. The patient performs spirometry and then workouts, usually on a treadmill or exercise cycle. The workout exam should resemble as closely as possible the conditions under which the symptoms are usually triggered. After the patient workouts, spirometry is persistent. This may be done several times, immediately after exercise and periodically, until there is a fall in the FEV1 bigger than 20% or until 30 minutes have elapsed.
    Other Tests

    • Chest x-rays
    • Allergy testing
    • X-rays of the sinuses

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Next Page »