“You can control your Asthma” is the theme of World Asthma Day that falls on the first Tuesday of May month.   Signs and Symptoms of Asthma:       1. Breathlessness, Wheezing.2. Sweating all over the body.   3. Cough in paroxysms.      4. Breath taking becomes very difficult by the patient.      5. Patient finds difficult to get sleep in the nights.    6. Chest tightness or pain is present. Causes of Asthma: 1. It comes due to allergy.   2. It occurs as a hereditary disease      3. It occurs due to dust and also congested places      4. Food also causes allergy and Asthma occurs due to that allergy food.    5. Asthma is more in winter season and also occurs between the winter and summer season (at the time seasonal change). Incidence: 1. Asthma is present through out the world.    2. There is no age bar 3. There are 300 million people are suffering from Asthma in the world. It may reach to 400 million by 2025. 4. There are 40 million people suffering from Asthma in India. 5. One death is due to Asthma out of 250 deaths. It is not a life threatening disease. It can be controlled by taking certain precautions.       Precautions to be taken to avoid Asthma: 1. Keep the surroundings neat and clean.2. Keep your bed and clothes in cleaned condition and keep them separately.     3. Avoid ice creams, cool drinks and cool water which kept in refrigerator.4. Take precautions while going to winter places during summer season.      Mechanism: First of all, there is swelling in the layers of air tubes of respiratory system due to allergy in Asthma. The mucous membrane of the respiratory tract secretes more amount of fluid (water) and it causes obstruction to the free flow of air (oxygen). The air present in the lungs finds difficult to come out during expiration. Management: 1. Attitude of the patient. Many think that Asthma is a serious one time disease, which if treated well will not recur. But this is no so. It requires long-term strategies. This is to make the patient understand the nature of Asthma. In this situation, a self-management plan is considered best. 2. The patient is instructed to use the steroid inhalers regularly as per the advices given by the physician. 3. The need of the hour is to educate the patient about Asthma, the consequences of non-control and also help the patient create a self-management plan that teachers control with out frequent visits to the physician. It is also good to distribute a questionnaire called the Asthma Control Test (ACT) to patient suffering from Asthma.   … [Read more...]