Monday, March 22, 2010

Manage Your Asthma Attack Treatment.

It is important that you control your asthma, rather than allowing it to control you. Of course, it can be irksome to take madication and to think daily about activities and situations that could trigger an attack, but you must always be aware that uncontrolled asthma is dangerous.

It would be wonderful if everything to which you were allergic disappeared overnight, but even if you scrubbed your home from top to bottom and banned animals, you would still be surrounded by allergens. Once you have been diagnosed as having asthma, it is up to you to take responsibility for it.

The best way to do this is to be alert to your symptoms and to check your peak expiratory flow (PEF) with a meter. Your doctor may help work out a self management plan for controlling your asthma and perform asthma attack treatment.

If you are managing your asthma well, you should live a normal, healthy life. You should sleep well at night, exercise normally and need to use your medication only occasionally. If you combine that with complimentary therapies that suit you and your lifestyle, you will be in control of allergies and should be able to od asthma attack treatment easily.

What is the warning signs should you perform asthma attack treatment?

In addition to peak flow readings, there are other signs that your asthma is slipping out of control.

- You need your reliever more often or the relief does not last as long as it used to

- You wake at night short of breath, coughing ot wheezing

- You feel out of breath after your usual amount of exercise

Do not increase your medication at the slightest dip in your readings. Some studies have shown that owning a peak flow meter leads to some improvement in management for people with acute asthma, but for others it neither reduces the frequency of attacks nor improves anxiety.

Having asthma during pregnancy ...

...can be a life threatening event. Asthma happens in 8 percent of all pregnancies can be life threatening to the baby. About one third will feel improvement in their condition, one third will feel worse and another one third will experience no change at all. The fetus depends on the mother for oxygen for the circulation of oxygen in the body. If the mother often has frequent asthma symptoms, the fetus does not get enough oxygen and puts the fetus in grave danger.

Pregnant woman suffering from asthma is susceptible to complicated pregnancies. These include premature birth and low birth weight of the baby. Pregnant woman suffering from chronic asthma may suffer from vaginal hemorrhage. Taking control of asthma will help to reduce the risk for complicated pregnancies.

Diagnosing asthma in woman can be difficult. Shortness of breath, one of the common symptoms of asthma is common during pregnancy. The cause of asthma appears to come from the rise progesterone levels in pregnancy. Peak flow measurement still proves to be accurate when it comes to diagnose asthma. Asthma has a tendency to change severity levels during pregnancy so a monthly inspection of the pregnant woman is done.

One main concern that pregnant woman has when going treatment is that the medication will harm their baby. The good news is that short acting beta 2 agonist drugs like albuterol which goes under common brand names like Ventolin and Proventil has deemed to be safe. The beta2 agonist may be taken through an MDI (metered dose inhaler), taken orally or through a nebulizer if necessary. Pregnant woman that suffer from mild persistent or intermittent asthma may just require the use of short acting beta2 agonist to control their asthma. Long acting beta2 agonist can be given, however since studies on their effect on pregnant woman is still limited, they are prescribed when the woman’s condition is severe enough.

Inhaled corticosteroid may be given to woman suffering from moderate to severe asthma. The drugs that have deemed the safest so far is budesonide. Studies have shown that inhaled corticosteroid has not caused deformation or other harmful outcome to the babies. Studies also have included that corticosteroid actually reduce the dosage for short term beta2 agonist and improve lung function.

Pregnant woman should also get flu shot during their 2nd and 3rd trimester’s session. The vaccine is safe for woman during pregnancy. It is important that woman get influenza vaccine as flu can aggravate asthma attack. If a pregnant woman receives an allergy shot and show no allergic reaction to it, then she should continue to get the allergy shots. However, allergy shots should not be taken during pregnancy.

During labor, any medication prescribed should be continued. During delivery however, if the pregnant woman suddenly has an attack, the obstetrician may opt for a cesarean instead. After delivery, mothers should still continue to breast feed their baby. Many asthma medications do not reach a significant level in the milk. When the mother breast feed her baby, only minute and insignificant amount of medication will ever reach the baby’s mouth.

Being pregnant can already be a traumatizing moment for most women. Having asthma will only make the experience more traumatizing. However many pregnant woman often fear their asthma medication will harm their fetus and began to reduce their dosage or stop it altogether. This is highly not recommended as not taking any medication will only result in more complication for both the mother and the child. Would be mothers should always consult their physician if they have any question about their medication before making any decision to change their medication regime.

Pregnant women with asthma ...

...can be a life threatening event for both the mother and the unborn child. It is vital that you armed yourself with such knowledge to protect your loved ones who are in this traumatic experience in their life.

Suffering from asthma can be a source of additional stress for any pregnant woman. Besides the burden of pregnancy itself, she also has to watch her own medical condition. Here a few tips to help take care of any pregnant woman suffering from asthma.

Assign a caretaker

It is highly recommended that she be assigned a caretaker. This can be in a form of a hired caretaker or any close relatives. The best if the caretaker is a family member that lives under the same roof as the pregnant woman. As responsibility of a caretaker, your job is to watch over and know the necessary steps in the event of an emergency.

Take her asthma medication regularly

Ensure that the pregnant woman takes her medication regularly. Provided that the medication has already been deemed safe for her and her fetus by her physician, she has no reason to stop her course of medication. Taking medication is important as it reduce any risk for complicated pregnancies. Many pregnant women reduce or stop taking their medication for fear that the medication will harm their fetus. You must also give her any physical support if she starts to suffer from any side effects of her asthma medication.

Have a good home environment

Ensure that you clean your house often and is dust free. Indoor pollution can be 10 times more polluted than outdoors if the house is not clean often. It is not the materials itself that will caused asthmatics are allergic to but the bacteria that can grow on them that can cause allergic attacks if left unclean.

Change her bed sheets regularly, preferably at least once a week. When vacuuming the entire house, make sure to use a vacuum cleaner with a double layered microfiltration bag. Other types of vacuum cleaner will only spread the dust around, making the house even dustier.

During summer or higher temperature days, consider turning on the air conditioner to keep humidity level low which help reduce levels of dust mites. Remember to regularly clean the air conditioner too. Not cleaning the air conditioner will cause water to trap in the filters and can be a potential source of algae growth, another type of asthma allergens.

What to do in the event of as asthma attack

In the event of an attack, first and foremost is that you do not panic. Panicking will only lead to irrational decision and may jeopardize the life of the woman.

Secondly is to find any rescue medication most likely in the form of an inhaler. If you cannot find her rescue medication, letting her drink some warm coffee or tea that will help to open her airways.

Third step is to remove her from any allergen source that you think might be causing her attack. Prolonged exposure to the allergen source will only make the attack worse. If her asthma does not stabilize after five minutes, be sure to call for medical help straight away. Whilst waiting for the help to arrive, make sure you use her inhaler every 10 minutes till she reach the medical centre or hospital.

Allergic asthma .Non-allergic asthma.

1.Generally there is often a distinct trend to allergic asthma. It seldom begins after the age of 40, but in most cases develops in the child years. Using a typical instance the particular child might start out before he's 12 months old by getting eczema. Frequently throughout his first couple of years he'll wheeze as soon as he catches a cold. He could possibly appear to outgrow these conditions, but proceeds to acquire maybe some type of hay fever or an allergy symptom towards the family dog or cat. Whenever grass pollen is about during the summer season he might find not only that he gets hay fever but in addition he begins to wheeze and cough and feel restricted in his chest. This is allergic asthma.

Allergic asthma will likely be fairly mild and responds readily to remedial medication or plenty of sleep or a short time away from exactly what it is that's bringing about the condition. A child will grow out of his or her asthma in about 50 % of cases, a further 25% discover that his or her asthma gets better as they get older, and they just get periodic episodes, commonly after they exercise or get a nasty cold. Therefore no more than one child in four with allergic asthma goes on to wheeze into adulthood and needs to continue receiving routine medication.
2.Different to allergic asthma, that is most common amongst children, the nonallergic type for the most part commences when you reach 40 and beyond. A typical experience could well be that of a sensitized child who has hay fever as well as moderate asthma who appears to get over his allergic asthma at adolescence. But having got to the age of about 40 this individual catches a bad cold, starts off coughing, and one night, he all of a sudden chokes up, and feels breathless. He will start to wheeze and the asthma is back once more.

Non-allergic asthma isn't going to only have an effect on those who had asthma whilst children. It is able to occur quite abruptly in middle age, for instance soon after you've been dashing after a bus during the winter weather or perhaps venturing out on a damp foggy evening, or maybe once you've received a particular emotional distress. It regularly impacts those who endured a good deal of bronchitis whilst they were youngsters.

As soon as the attack takes place your chest seems narrowed like with a vice. The wheeze gets to be pretty loud and a few individuals feel like they're going into cardiac arrest. They might overcome this initial bout of wheezing quite rapidly, either through sitting down and resting until it stops or by taking medications. However the attacks will normally happen again. Presently there does appear to be a certain amount of evidence to indicate there's a hereditary factor with this condition, but it really is not anything like as certain as in the issue of allergic asthma.

Asthma symptoms or attacks.

People who have asthma tend to live a suffocating and restrictive life especially if the attacks occur frequently. There are different causes of asthma symptoms or attacks. Some asthma symptoms are induced by exercise, dust, stress, cigarette smoke, pollen, pollution, and there are many other triggers. These are all external factors which aggravate the condition of the asthma patient. It doesn't really matter if you"re young or old because asthma can definitely debilitate you when you"re having frequent and severe attacks.

If you suffer from asthma you will know how difficult it is in remaining calm during an attack when you are struggling to breath and your airways are restricting the oxygen flow and carrying an inhaler at all times adds an extra burden.

You will need to be aware of what triggers your attacks to make it easier to avoid them, but this still limits your ability to enjoy a full and active life.

Modern hypnotherapy techniques have a proved to be of comfort to asthma sufferers by helping them to remain calm when an attack is triggered. using hypnosis asthma can become a condition that can be controlled.

By recognising when an attack is forthcoming, following an asthma trigger, the hypnotic suggestions will have implanted the thought of remaining calm and visualizing your air passage as being wide and relaxed. This combined with being able to remain calmer during the attack will make the whole experience less traumatic and eventually attacks can be reduced or even completely removed by using this method.

Hypnosis is used quite extensively to help remain calm generally and in the case of asthma this is very important and makes life much easier.

The great thing about hypnosis is the ease with which it helps bring about a change in behaviour and response patterns.Simply concentrating on the hypnosis script will take you into a relaxed state which allows the suggestions to be absorbed by your subconscious, either through a hypnotherapist or, using autohypnosis, where the recorded script takes you into a similar relaxed and receptive state. This proven relaxing influence makes hypnosis very successful in conditions such as asthma which are similar in nature to panic attacks.

Using hypnosis to cure asthma has become increasingly popular in recent times as more people accept hypnotherapy as an accepted treatment for stress-related conditions. Many studies have shown that the treatment of conditions such as asthma can be effectively controlled using hypnotherapy and self hypnosis asthma treatment and this can easily apply to you if you are a sufferer. If you are willing to try an alternative method which can remove the condition, you may find yourself throwing away the inhaler and gaining the long lost freedom you thought you would never have the joy to experience.

Home Remedies for Asthma.

Asthma symptoms can include coughing, wheezing, tight chest, difficulties in breathing, restless and exhausted etc. An asthma attack can cause sweating, extreme gasping for breath and rapid heartburn. It is important to breathe properly so that the diaphragm rises and falls and fill and empty the lungs well.

Asthma and its trigger factors are still not fully understood. Magnesium deficiencies are found in all asthmatics. Home remedies are the most effective remedy to stop asthma attack.
Apple Cidar Vinegar: It is a very popular home remedies for asthma that has shown to be extremely beneficial in the majority of people. This home remedy works very fast and relief can be seen within a day. Take one tablespoon of apple cidar vinegar diluted with water before you go to bed. It must have a very strong taste and smell. Apple cidar vinegar has also been effective in treating acne, acid reflux, and allergies and other conditions.

Diet and Nutrition: Diet plays and important role in treating asthma. Take naturally and organically-grown foods and avoid additives, which can trigger allergic reactions. Reduce or avoid the consumption of dairy products. Take plenty of fruit and green vegetables: garlic and onion are said to discourage mucus production.

Bitter Gourd Roots: This has been used in folk medicine since ancient times to treat asthma. The bitter gourd root paste is a great home remedy for asthma. Take a teaspoon of bitter gourd root paste mixed with honey. Take this paste every night for about a month for better results. Avoid active or passive smoking. Cigarette smoke is one of the most common irritants that cause asthma attacks.

Garlic: Another home remedies for asthma is garlic which everyone should have in home. Take five to ten cloves of garlic and boil with about a 1/4 cup of milk and consume this once daily. This is an excellent home remedies for the early stages of asthma symptoms. Take two garlic cloves in ginger tea and drink twice daily. This will also give relief.

Asthma Home Remedies and Useful Tips.

1. Asthma patients should avoid cold weather and relieve themselves from constipation. Constipation leads to distended abdomen and exert pressure on the lungs, aggravating the condition.

2. The patient should try to drink plenty of lukewarm water. This will dilate the constriction of the respiratory channels, enabling more airflow.

3. Avoid cold drinks, sour fruits and refrigerated foods. Sour fruit juice and cold drinks cause inflammation and constrictions of the bronchial tubes.

4. Avoid stress and strain. These may disturb the digestive system and aggravate asthmatic attacks. The patient may take help of pranayam to overcome stress and strain. It should be practiced for at least half an hour daily for better results.

5. The patient should avoid eating banana. This fruit produces phlegm and obstructs the already constricted bronchial tubes of the respiratory tract.

6. Immerse the patient's feet in warm water during attacks. This will relieve the symptoms and discomfort.

7. Asthma is generally due to allergy. So, the patient should stay away from dust, smoke and pollution.

8. Know the asthma triggers that bring attacks to the patient. Avoid such triggers to keep minimize airway inflammation and reduce the symptoms.

9. Smoke is one of the leading asthma triggers. It should be strictly prohibited as it may take the patient closer to death.

10. The patient should not stay awake at nights. This may increase strain and anxiety, both aggravators of asthma attacks.

11. Restrict the intake of non-vegetarian food. This may cause constipation due to low fiber content. Constipation increases the load on the chest. Eat green vegetables and fruits rich in fiber.

12. Soak dry fruits in water overnight. In the morning, keep these dry grapes in cold milk for half an hour and then chew them. This will give energy and boost immune system. But it is contraindicated if the patient has diabetes mellitus.