Asthma - things to know

Asthma is one of the most common diseases with very serious consequences. There are about 300 million people with asthma worldwide, every year there are more than 20 thousand asthma deaths.

In Vietnam, it is estimated that 4 million people suffer from asthma (5% of the population) and the number of people suffering from the disease keeps increasing every year.

Do coughs, difficulty breathing at night have asthma?

Hen is a chronic airway inflammation disease, with 3 pathological processes: inflammation, spasms and increased overreaction of the airway, leading to 4 manifestations of the disease: cough, shortness of breath, wheezing, severe chest . These symptoms get worse at night and early in the morning with airway obstruction. If you have a cough, difficulty breathing a lot in the night, you may have asthma, but you need to go to a medical facility to get a doctor to measure your respiratory function, perform some tests to get an accurate diagnosis.

When should an asthma patient be taken to an emergency?

Spasmodic bronchial images reduce lung ventilation in bronchial asthma (Photo: TTO)

When the patient (adult) has one of the following symptoms: breathing> 25 times / minute; circuits> 115 times / minute; purple, sweating; lungs " silent ", do not hear breathing; ineffective medication, dyspnea increasingly severe.

Should people with asthma exercise? What should be done?

Exercise is healthy, including people with asthma. The sport is suitable for the hen: walking, cycling, swimming, qigong, aerobics . Do not practice the things that need to work too much like running, martial resistance, should not practice practice in the cold, dry season because it makes you more likely to have an asthma attack. Before you practice, you should consult your physician to choose appropriate physical education and get further advice.

When you are exercising, how do you manage asthma?

If you have symptoms of asthma, you need to stop exercising immediately, take a break and take the medicine as directed by your doctor. To avoid asthma attacks while exercising, you should choose the right type of sports, drink enough water to avoid dehydration, start at least 5 minutes before training, practice at a moderate pace so while practice can still be said. Before exercising for 20 minutes, it is possible to prevent with a reliever medication.

Can drugs be used to treat asthma when pregnant?

Controlling good asthma during pregnancy is essential to ensure the health of pregnant women and the development of the fetus well. Aerosolized asthma medicines have little effect on the fetus, so they can still be used. However, you need to consult your treating doctor before taking the medication and for further advice.

In addition, pregnant women with asthma need to have a full pregnancy checkup, have a work schedule and have a proper diet. From the 7th month of pregnancy, pregnant women need to be monitored regularly in health facilities because the fetus is big, oxygen demand also increases. Absolutely not use oral or injectable corticosteroids during pregnancy.

Is asthma a genetic disease?

In asthma there are genetic factors. If a parent is ill, their baby is at risk of developing asthma by 30-50%. If both spouses have asthma, this rate is 50-70% for children. If parents have no asthma, this ability in children is 10-15%.

It can be said that asthma has become a global health problem, a major social problem, which seriously affects the quality of life of patients, families and society. However, asthma can be thoroughly controlled if properly treated and the patient complies with the physician's instructions.

How is asthma treated?

Treatment of asthma is a long process, the determination and trust of the patient and the monitoring of the physician is needed. Patients need to use prescription drugs of doctors, should not arbitrarily buy and use drugs according to the instructions.

Because asthma is a chronic airway infection, the use of aerosolized corticosteroids for prevention is the most effective and basic way to treat asthma, only reliever medication when an asthma attack occurs. Preventive medicine should be used regularly even when symptoms of asthma are no longer available.

Oral medications, injections or corticoid- containing powders have many dangerous side effects when used long-term such as edema, hypertension, gastric ulcers, osteoporosis.

Antibiotics should not be used to treat asthma. Only use antibiotics when there are multiple lung infections such as pneumonia .

DS. Pham Khang