Asthma

Asthma

The lungs:

The main job of the lung’s is to make oxygen available to the body and to remove other gases from your body. This all is done 12 to 20 times per minute.
When you inhale air goes through your nose or mouth, the air travels down the back of the throat into the windpipe.

At the end of the windpipe there are two air passages wich are called the bronchial tubes. They divide into smaller passages called bronchi, and then into even smaller passages called the bronchioles.
The bronchioles end in air sacs. From there the oxygen enters the blood.

Trough the blood the oxygen is carried to the heart. There it’s pumped through the entire body to provide oxygen to the organs.
After the oxygen is used there is carbon dioxiode left. The blood carries the carbon dioxide back to the lungs.
There it’s removed from the body by exhaling.

What is asthma?

Asthma is a disease of the bronchial tubes. It’s caused by the tightening of the airways.
The symptoms are shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing and tightening in the chest.

During normal breathing, the muscles that surround the airways are relaxed.
That means that the air can move freely.
But with people who have asthma the muscles are tightened so the air can’t move freely. There is also a lot of mucus in the lungs, this causes the coughing.
The tightening is caused by allergies or enviromental triggers. And that can lead to an asthma attack.

How does somebody get asthma?

Most people who have asthma, have relatives who also have it. If there is a parent or grandparent who has asthma there is a chance that you can get it.
Sometimes it’s caused by external factors such as airpolution, sigaret smoke or heavy emotions.
It can also be caused by allergies or enviromental triggers.

Allergies or enviromental triggers:

An asthma attack can begin immediately when you come into contact with a trigger but it can also begin a few days or even weeks later.
There are many kinds of triggers.

The most common triggers are allergies, exercise, smoke and the wheater.
When you have allergies the best thing to do is to avoid them, for example when you know someone has a dog at home, and you are allergic to dogs. You don’t go inside their house.

Medications

Because asthma is a cronical disease it can’t be cured, but it can be treated.
Avoiding triggers isn’t always enough. Then you need medications.

There are two main types of medications.
The first one is used every day. They reduce the swelling and mucus in the airways. So that there is a smaller chance of having an asthma attack.

The second one is used when you have an asthma attack. They open the airways immediatley so that there can go more air in the lungs. They are only use to control asthma sympthomes.

During the treatment the symptomes can stop and the asthma can go away.
But that doesn’t mean that you’re cured because there is always a chance that the astma can come back.