The Benefits Of Walking
Walking is an ideal low-intensity exercise that can be used by beginners as a starting activity or by seasoned exercisers as a warm-up prior to high-intensity exercise. A recent study revealed improvement in the control of asthma symptoms and fitness levels in asthma patients who walked three times weekly for a 12-week period.2
Walking is a very beneficial for building tolerance to different exercises as well as for the bodys respiratory system and muscle groups. Once youve been walking for some time, you may consider your next step. One beneficial asthma and cardio exercise option is to add the use of ski poles when walking.
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Asthma Information For Childcare Kinder Or School
To assist childcare and preschool workers and school teachers in the care of your child with asthma:
- Tell them that your child has asthma .
- Provide them with a copy of your childs asthma action plan, including emergency contact details. Make sure you provide an updated plan every year, or if your childs medication changes. The school or childcare centre will require this for enrolment.
- Show staff members how to use the medication devices, such as spacers and puffers.
- Make sure your child has an up-to-date supply of medication and a spacer at the centre or school.
- Notify staff if your childs asthma changes.
- Tell the staff about any concerns you may have.
Why Do Asthma Attacks Happen
An attack is usually triggered by something such as a viral infection, allergen, or irritant.2 Children are especially vulnerable to asthma attacks in damp environments and when they are exposed to secondhand smoke.3
Asthma attacks are more likely for people whose asthma is not well controlled.1 People with mild and well-controlled asthma can also have an attack, especially when they have a cold.
Speak with your health care provider about what to do if you have symptoms of an asthma attack. Your provider can give you a written asthma action plan that describes how to treat your asthma based on your symptoms.1
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How Does Stress Trigger Asthma
We know that stress can mean youre more at risk of asthma symptoms. In fact, people with asthma dealing with ongoing or severe stress are more at risk of asthma attacks or going to hospital because of their asthma.
Stress can mean:
- youre more likely to react to your usual asthma triggers, including colds and respiratory infections, have worse symptoms, or your asthma may feel harder to manage
- you get angry more easily and anger is an emotional asthma trigger
- you may drink or smoke more, which can put you at more risk of asthma symptoms
- its harder to stick to your medicine routine.
You cant always control what stressful events come your way, says Dr Andy Whittamore, our in-house GP. Its important to manage any stress as well as you can. Alongside a good asthma management routine, reducing stress could lower your risk of asthma symptoms.
Find out more about stress at MIND.
Stress and panic attacks
Too much stress, over time, can sometimes lead to panic attacks. In a panic attack, stress hormones are released to prepare us to either run away from danger or fight it .
We react with physical symptoms such as a faster heart rate, tense muscles and breathing that is shallow and fast .
This change to your breathing pattern can put you at a higher risk of all your usual asthma symptoms, such as tight chest and coughing.
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What Are Early Signs Of An Asthma Attack
Early signs of an asthma attack include:1,5
- Feeling out of breath, gasping for air, fast breathing
- Chest tightness
- Peak expiratory flow less than 80% of predicted or personal best
You may notice other signs of an attack. Try to remember what symptoms you felt before your last asthma attack, so that you can be alert for another one.
Are There More Advanced Treatments For Severe Uncontrolled Asthma Symptoms
Advanced asthma treatments include medicines called biologics, which are made from natural substances. These drugs help by reducing your bodys reaction to asthma triggers and controlling inflammation.
If your asthma is not controlled with steroids or other methods, bronchial thermoplasty may be an option. Doctors use an electrode to heat the inside of your airways. This procedure helps relax the airways to help you breathe easier.
When in doubt, its always best to ask for help. When left untreated, uncontrolled asthma can cause long-term damage to your lungs that can make it even more difficult to breathe.
If your asthma symptoms are not improving, schedule an appointment with a pulmonary specialist at the Temple Lung Center.
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Triggers For Asthma In Children
Asthma triggers are substances, conditions or activities that lead to asthma symptoms. These include :
- wheezing whistling noise when breathing
Your child may have all of these symptoms or just a few. Symptoms are often worse at night, in the early morning, during exercise or due to other triggers.
What Does Cardiac Asthma Look Like
People with cardiac asthma usually experience symptoms such as coughing, difficulty breathing, and shortness of breath due to lung congestion. This is a buildup of fluid in your lungs that impairs your ability to oxygenate your blood.
Can a chest x-ray show asthma?
It can be very difficult to diagnose asthma. A chest x-ray usually wont show if a person has asthma, but can tell if something else could be causing asthma-like symptoms. Asthma is often diagnosed based on a persons history and physical exam.
What does an asthmatic cough look like?
An asthmatic cough is also often accompanied by wheezing. This is a high-pitched whistle caused by a narrowing of the airways.
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What Can I Expect If I Have Cardiac Asthma
Heart failure, which causes cardiac asthma, keeps getting worse with time. Symptoms can get worse without warning. You can manage heart failure with lifestyle changes and medicines for a while.
However, you may come to a point when you feel short of breath when youre not exerting yourself at all. This is called advanced heart failure.
Before you get to this point, its good to let your family and healthcare provider know what kind of care you want. For example, if youre having a lot of trouble breathing, would you want a breathing tube in your throat?
How long does cardiac asthma last?
Cardiac asthma lasts as long as you have the condition thats causing it. Usually, that condition is heart failure, which doesnt have a cure. Be sure to explore your treatment options to get the best care available.
What Types Of Asthma Are There
Healthcare providers identify asthma as intermittent or persistent . Persistent asthma can be mild, moderate or severe. Healthcare providers base asthma severity on how often you have attacks. They also consider how well you can do things during an attack.
Asthma can be:
- Allergic: Some peoples allergies can cause an asthma attack. Molds, pollens and other allergens can cause an attack.
- Non-allergic: Outside factors can cause asthma to flare up. Exercise, stress, illness and weather may cause a flare.
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What Should I Do If I Have A Severe Asthma Attack
A severe asthma attack needs immediate medical care. The first step is your rescue inhaler. A rescue inhaler uses fast-acting medicines to open up your airways. Its different than your normal maintenance inhaler, which you use every day. You should only use the rescue inhaler in an emergency.
If your rescue inhaler doesnt help or you dont have it with you, go to the emergency department if you have:
- Anxiety or panic.
- Bluish fingernails, bluish lips or gray or whitish lips or gums .
- Chest pain or pressure.
Diagnosis Of Asthma In Children
Diagnosing asthma in children younger than 5 years can be difficult because children cough or wheeze for many different reasons. Take your child to the doctor if:
- the wheezing happens more than once with or without an illness
- constant coughing or bouts of coughing become worse at night
- you are concerned about any breathing problems in your child.
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What Is Normal Breathing
When most of us breathe, the muscles that are wrapped around the air tubes are very loose and relaxed, and the lining inside the airways is very thin. This lets the airways open up very wide so that it is easy to get air in and out of the small air sacs that make up our lungs. These small sacs are called alveoli . When air moves in and out of our lungs, we call it breathing.
The picture below shows what your lungs look like when everything is working normally. The muscles wrapped around the airways are very thin and loose, and the airway is wide open. This makes it easy to move air in and out of the air sacs.
The animation below shows normal breathing. As we breathe in, air that contains lots of oxygen is pulled into the lungs. This oxygen slowly moves from the lungs into the blood. Then air that contains carbon dioxide is pushed back out through the lungs as we breathe out. When things are working normally, the amount of air we breathe in is about the same as the amount of air we breathe out.
What lungs look like during normal breathing
When you are breathing normally, it takes about the same amount of time to breathe in as it does to breathe out .
During an asthma attack, it is harder and takes much longer to breathe out than to breathe in . Since it is so hard to breathe out during an asthma attack, more and more air gets trapped inside the lungs making it feel like you cant breathe in or out!
Additional Help For Your Asthma Symptoms
Asthma can make it difficult to engage in the physical activity you used to enjoy or begin an exercise routine that will improve your overall health. Regular consultation with your doctor, as well as treatment by specialists, can help you regain and maintain a high quality of life.
The specialists at Crystal Run Healthcare have helped many asthma sufferers to manage their condition. We work with you to develop a customized treatment plan that involves our range of comprehensive asthma and allergy treatments to reduce your symptoms so you can get back to doing what you love. For a Crystal Run Healthcare primary care provider near you, call 1-845-703-6999.
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Why Does My Asthma Act Up At Night
Asthma can get worse at night. If you have symptoms at night, it’s called nighttime asthma. This is often a sign of uncontrolled asthma. It probably has to do with natural body rhythms and changes in your body’s hormones. With the right asthma management and treatment, you should be able to sleep through the night.
Know Why Infections Trigger Asthma Symptoms
Sometimes a virus or bacterial infection is an asthma trigger. For instance, you might have a cold virus that triggers your asthma symptoms. Or your asthma can be triggered by a bacterial sinus infection. Sinusitis with asthma is common.
Itâs important to know the signs and symptoms of respiratory tract infections and to call your health care provider immediately for diagnosis and treatment. For instance, you might have symptoms of increased shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, or wheezing with a bronchial infection. In people who donât have asthma, the bronchial infection may not trigger the same debilitating symptoms. Know your body and understand warning signs that an infection might be starting. Then take the proper medications as prescribed to eliminate the infection and regain control of your asthma and health.
For more detail, see WebMDâs article Infections and Asthma.
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Activity Is Good For Your Asthma
If your asthma is stopping you doing the activities you love, youre not alone. Physical activity can be more challenging when you have asthma.
You might be worried that getting breathless means an asthma attack is on the way, or feel down and frustrated that asthma is stopping you getting fit.
It might help to know that getting your heart rate up can actually improve your asthma symptoms. Heres how:
- Raising your heart rate regularly boosts your lung power, increasing stamina and reducing breathlessness
- It supports your immune system and helps fight colds and viruses a major trigger for over 80% of people with asthma
- Activity helps you stay a healthy weight, in turn cutting your risk of an asthma attack
- It releases feel-good chemicals in your brain studies show that if youre stressed, or depressed, youre at higher risk of asthma symptoms
If you have severe asthma, please use this exercise advice.
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How Does Heart Failure Cause Asthma Symptoms
Heart failure can cause fluid to build up in your lungs and in and around your airways. The latter causes signs and symptoms such as shortness of breath, coughing and wheezing that can mimic asthma. True asthma is a chronic disease caused by inflammation of the airways, which can narrow them,
What is the cardiovascular response in acute asthma?
Disturbance of ventilatory function during severe acute asthma is associated with significant cardiovascular responses. Sinus tachycardia is almost always observed,-4although the correlation with disease severity is poor.14Paradoxical pulse increases with asthma severity,35-reflecting a fall in pulse pressure and possibly volume of asthma. systolic ejection during inspiration.
Whats The Treatment For Cardiac Asthma
The treatment for cardiac asthma is essentially to treat the cause of the underlying heart problem, whether it be heart failure or a leaky heart valve, and the excess fluid in the lungs. Medicines may be needed to reduce blood pressure, including diuretics which help reduce fluid retention. If the heart failure can be treated effectively, this may in turn relieve the respiratory symptoms known as cardiac asthma.
People who awaken suddenly in the night with symptoms of cardiac asthma may improve the situation by sitting upright for half an hour. There is no evidence that using bronchodilators will help, and they may even worsen the situation.
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Does Asthma Increase Heart Rate
shortness of breath with or without wheezing cough rapid, shallow breathing an increase in blood pressure and heart rate and.
Can Asthma Cause Heart Pressure?
If you have asthma, your immune system can cause your airways to become inflamed and swollen when youre near certain irritants. This can lead to chest tightness, pressure, or pain. Studies show that chest pain, along with other nonrespiratory symptoms, frequently occurs before or during an asthma attack.
Can asthma be confused with heart problems?
Asthma is not heart failure. Heart failure is not asthma. The treatment for the two conditions is different. Yet they both share common symptoms of shortness of breath, coughing and wheezing.
Personal Asthma Action Plan
As part of your initial assessment, you should be encouraged to draw up a personal asthma action plan with your GP or asthma nurse.
If you’ve been admitted to hospital because of an asthma attack, you should be offered an action plan before you go home.
The action plan should include information about your asthma medicines, and will help you recognise when your symptoms are getting worse and what steps to take. You should also be given information about what to do if you have an asthma attack.
Your personal asthma action plan should be reviewed with your GP or asthma nurse at least once a year, or more frequently if your symptoms are severe.
As part of your asthma plan, you may be given a peak flow meter. This will give you another way of monitoring your asthma, rather than relying only on symptoms, so you can recognise deterioration earlier and take appropriate steps.
Read further information:
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Effects Of Asthma On The Cardiovascular System
Acute, severe asthma alters profoundly the cardiovascular status and function . In expiration, because of the effects of dynamic hyperinflation, the systemic venous return decreases significantly, and again rapidly increases in the next respiratory phase. Rapid right ventricular filling in inspiration, by shifting the interventricular septum toward the left ventricle, may lead to left ventricular diastolic dysfunction and incomplete filling. The large negative intrathoracic pressure generated during inspiration increases left ventricular after-load by impairing systolic emptying. Pulmonary artery pressure may also be increased due to lung hyperinflation, thereby resulting in increased right ventricular afterload. These events in acute, severe asthma may accentuate the normal inspiratory reduction in left ventricular stroke volume and systolic pressure, leading to the appearance of pulsus paradoxus . A variation greater than 12 mmHg in systolic blood pressure between inspiration and expiration represents a sign of severity in asthmatic crisis. In advanced stages, when ventilatory muscle fatigue ensues, pulsus paradoxus will decrease or disappear as force generation declines. Such status harbingers impeding respiratory arrest.
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