Introduction
The word asthma is an ancient Greek word that means ‘panting’. Basically, asthma can be termed as an inability to breathe properly. Flovent Inhaler is preferred by a majority of the people so that they can effectively control and prevent asthma symptoms. Generally, anyone more than 4 years of age can be affected by this chronic disease. Asthma is an acute condition in which airways of the respiratory system undergo changes when keyed up by allergens or other environmental triggers. Such changes appear to be two particular responses:
- The hyper-reactive response which is also known as hyperresponsiveness
- The inflammatory response
These responsive actions in the airways of the lungs result in patients to cough, wheeze, and experience shortness of breath that is also called dyspnea. These are basically the classic symptoms of asthma.
Hyper-reactive Response
In the hyper-reactive response, gentle muscles in the airways of the lungs inhibit and constrict in response to breathed in allergens or other annoyance. Airways generally have a tendency to respond by constricting when exposed to allergens or irritants, but a special hyper-reactive response occurs in people with asthma:
- When people without asthma inhale and exhale deeply, the airways relax and open so that they can free the lungs from the irritant.
- When people suffering from asthma try to take those same deep breaths, their airways behave differently. They do not relax and contract that forces patient to pant for breath.
Inflammatory Response
The hyper-reactive stage is followed by the next step that is the inflammatory response, which usually contributes to asthma in the following way:
- In response to allergens or other environmental pollutants, the immune system delivers white blood cells and other immune factors to the airways.
- These inflammatory factors cause the airways to swell, to fill with fluid, and to discharge a thick sticky mucus.
- These events result in wheezing, breathlessness, inability to exhale properly, and a phlegm-producing cough.
Symptoms
The major symptoms by which you can determine an asthma attack are:
- Wheezing
Wheezing when breathing out is one of the most common symptoms that are nearly always present during an attack. In a majority of the cases, the asthma attack begins with wheezing and fast breathing, and, as it becomes more severe, all breathing muscles become active apparently.
- Shortness of breath (dyspnea)
Shortness of breath also called dyspnea is one of the major sources of depression, problems, stress, and distress in patients with asthma. Nonetheless, the complexity of this specific symptom never always reflects the level to which lung function is impaired. Some patients are not even able to figure out that they are going through shortness of breath. People like this are at specific risk for very hazardous and even life-threatening asthma attacks, due to the fact that they are less conscious of symptoms.
- Coughing
In the majority of people, the first symptom of asthma is always a nonproductive cough. It is quite obvious that many patients find this cough even more distressing than wheezing or sleep disturbances.
- Chest tightness or pain
Initial chest tightness in absence of any other symptoms could be an early indicator of a serious asthma attack.
- Neck muscles may contract just before an attack that can make talking more difficult or impossible in some cases.
- You might go through an increase in the heart rate and heavy sweating.
- The end of an attack is generally considered by a cough that produces thick, stringy mucus.
After an initial severe attack, inflammation generally lasts for several days to weeks, usually with no symptoms. The inflammation must still be treated, nonetheless, since it generally causes relapse.
