Incessant coughing, shortness of breath or troubled breathing, chest tightness, difficulty in talking are some of the signs of an asthma attack which can be fatal if the attack is severe. “Though a leading chronic disease in children, asthma can arise in people of any age”, say the lung specialists.
Over 2 crore Indians suffer from asthma today in our country, which means that one in every 10 asthma patients in the world is an Indian. If you want to control your asthma, you must know brief details about this medical condition. So let us dive straight into the topic:
What is Asthma?
Asthma is a life-long chronic lung condition that is caused by the swelling of airways’ linings in the lungs. As the lining swells, the airways become tad narrow reducing the airflow in and out of the lungs causing wheezing and breathlessness. This lung disease can start in infancy, during early childhood or even in the adult phase of one’s life – Adult-Onset Asthma.
Diagnosis and Types of Asthma:
Asthma is diagnosed by a lung specialist after a thorough physical exam & lung function tests. The severity of the asthma condition is determined based on the frequency of the symptoms and the function of your lung. Asthma is further classified into 4 levels: Intermittent, Mild, Moderate & Severe asthma based on the severity levels. What makes asthma a serious problem is that even a mild condition can cause an asthma attack and it can be fatal. Though asthma has no cure, it can be managed with the help of asthma and lung specialists.
By taking an expert medical help and making a few lifestyle changes can help an asthma patient to live a healthy and normal life. In addition to seeking medical help, here are five simple things that can help you control your asthma condition:
- Quit Smoking:
The tobacco smokes further irritates the lung tissue, swells the lining further and causes excess production of mucus flaring up the asthma symptoms. In addition to making asthma harder to control, cigarette smoke further leads to the development of chronic lung conditions like COPD too.
As an asthma patient, the last thing you need is to burden your lungs making it harder to recover. So please stay out of the smoke.
- Stay active and help your lungs:
Many patients who successfully improved their asthma conditions vouch for the importance of physical activity in their daily life. Choose a humid and warm place (if possible) and pick a moderate exercise that requires deeper breathing and aim for at least a 30 minutes session a day. You can seek help from your lung doctor for picking out exercises that can help you improve your lung function.
- Embrace healthy nutrition:
Now that you are making all the healthy choices to improve your asthma condition, it’s high time you take care of your food habits as well. Limiting saturated fat intake, avoiding foods with Sulfites, Salicylates and consuming foods loaded with Vitamin E and Vitamin D are found to particularly help in decreasing the inflammation to improve the lung function. You can also take help from your lung specialist or even a nutritionist to help you adopt healthy food habits. When you compound your active lifestyle with healthy habits, it also helps in weight-loss further lightening the burden on your lungs improving your condition in the long run.
Asthma is a serious condition that needs immediate medical help from a specialist. Though there is no cure it can be successfully managed with the help of an expert specialist followed by your self-care. For more help, we advise you to contact the best lung surgeon in your city to help you improve your symptoms.
If you are in Hyderabad you can contact Dr.Gokhale, Best Lung Specialist and Transplant Surgeon in Hyderabad, to improve your asthma condition.
