1.What is asthma? Is it wheezing? Bronchial asthma (asthma for short) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways involving a variety of cells (e.g., eosinophils, mast cells, T lymphocytes, neutrophils, airway epithelial cells, etc.) and cellular components. This chronic inflammatory disease is associated with airway hyperresponsiveness and usually presents with widespread and variable reversible airflow limitation and causes recurrent episodes of wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, or coughing, which often flare up and worsen at night and/or early in the morning and resolve spontaneously or with treatment in most patients. If not treated promptly, bronchial asthma can produce irreversible airway narrowing and airway remodeling as the disease progresses. When asthma is controlled, asthma attacks are rare in most patients, and severe asthma attacks are even less common. Wheezing is an increase in breathing while feeling breathless, and is a clinical symptom caused by a variety of reasons. Wheezing is not necessarily asthma, as symptoms such as acute heart failure, emphysema, and tracheal foreign bodies can be present, and they are often misdiagnosed as asthma. Asthma is also not necessarily wheezing. Cough variant asthma often has cough as the only symptom, and not all wheezing that occurs is asthma. 2. Is asthma serious? Is it life-threatening? Poorly controlled asthma can affect daily work and life, leading to missed work, missed school, limited activity and exercise, reduced quality of life, and financial burden and negative impact on the lives of family members. If a severe acute attack occurs, it may be fatal if not treated in time. If there is a severe acute attack, it may be life-threatening if not treated in time. 3.Is it asthma if I get shortness of breath after walking for a while? There is certainly a kind of asthma called exercise asthma, also known as exercise-induced asthma. It refers to acute, temporary airway obstruction of large or small size that occurs after a certain amount of exercise. The main clinical manifestation is an acute attack of asthma of varying severity, most of which can be relieved by itself. In fact, in the 18th century in Europe, scholars have noted that strenuous exercise may lead to acute attacks of asthma. It is now well established that such exercise-induced asthma occurs mainly in people with a history of asthma or a family history of asthma. Exercise asthma can occur at any age, with approximately equal prevalence in adults and children. Most patients with asthma or allergic rhinitis can experience bronchoconstriction, such as chest tightness, cough and wheezing, after sustained exercise. In patients with severe asthma, more severe wheezing occurs after strenuous exercise. In some children or adolescents, exercise may be the only factor that triggers asthma. About 60-80% of asthma patients can have an asthma attack after a few minutes of strenuous exercise, but the severity of the attack varies greatly. Normal people can also experience shortness of breath and wheezing after strenuous exercise, but they can recover completely after a short rest. 4.What can cause asthma? Who is prone to get asthma? The development of asthma is related to exposure to certain allergens and irritants, and is influenced by environmental factors. On the other hand, normal people do not develop symptoms after exposure to these factors, suggesting that inter-individual differences are also an important factor in the development of asthma. It is now believed that the onset and exacerbation of asthma is the result of a combination of environmental and individual factors. Individual factors include: ① Genetic factors: the prevalence of asthma is significantly increased in the offspring of patients with asthma; ② Gender: asthma is more common in males than females during childhood and in females after puberty; ③ Race: the prevalence is lower in Chinese than in Caucasians and Blacks; ④ Obesity: obesity may be one of the risk factors that increase the development of asthma; ⑤ Birth, early neonatal life experience: prematurity (gestational age <35 weeks), birth The incidence of asthma is increased in infants weighing <2.5 kg, and early breastfeeding after birth may reduce the chance of asthma. Environmental factors include: ① frequent exposure to allergens, such as mites, fungi, pollen, certain foods (nuts, milk, peanuts, seafood, etc.), drug allergies, etc.; ② air pollution; ③ exposure to occupational allergens, such as the breeding industry, chemical industry, printing and dyeing industry, etc.; ④ infection: respiratory syncytial virus infection is strongly associated with wheezing episodes in children; ⑤ family size: members of the extended family are less likely to have asthma; ⑥ housing conditions: family members are less likely to have asthma (6) Living conditions: high indoor humidity is a risk factor for the development of asthma; (7) Mood swings: mental stress may be a trigger for asthma attacks. 5.Is asthma related to heredity? Is it contagious? Bronchial asthma has a certain genetic tendency, and it is not strange that several people within a family have asthma, but this is not common. If a parent has asthma, the child does not necessarily get asthma. However, if one parent has asthma, the chances of the child having asthma are high. If both parents have asthma, the chances of the child having asthma are even higher. For those with severe asthma, the children may not necessarily have the same or worse asthma than their parents, depending on how soon they are treated. Therefore, it can only be assumed that genetic factors contribute to the "potential" development of asthma as an allergic or atopic trait. Asthma is not a contagious disease, but if left untreated, it can lead to many complications and may cause infectious diseases, which are contagious. 6, allergic rhinitis patients get asthma and allergic body related? Allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma are allergic inflammatory diseases of the respiratory tract, and they have very similar features in common in other aspects, except for the location. For example, allergic inflammation of the nasal mucosa and bronchial inflammation of asthma are usually caused by the same allergens, their pathogenesis is related to type I allergic reactions, and the pathology is allergic inflammation characterized by an increase in respiratory eosinophils. According to statistics, bronchial asthma occurs in up to 40-60% of patients suffering from allergic rhinitis. Therefore, the risk of bronchial asthma in patients suffering from allergic rhinitis is at least 8-20 times higher than that of normal people. 7.Why do asthma attacks occur at the change of seasons? Is it because of the temperature change? Various allergens increase at the change of seasons. For example, in autumn, the weather is dry, and a lot of pollen, plant seeds and other things float in the air, as well as dust mites, which spread and multiply in autumn; furthermore, in places where the environment is more polluted, various pollutants, which are inhaled into the body, thus causing respiratory allergies and triggering asthma. The change of seasons, temperature changes, high and low, people are most likely to catch a cold, the upper respiratory tract is infected and then easily infected to the lower respiratory tract, so asthma will also attack; cold stimulation of temperature is very stimulating to the respiratory tract, some patients with low immunity can not adapt to such changes in the weather, resulting in changes in the neuroendocrine environment of the body or even dysregulation, resulting in capillary dilation of the bronchial mucosa, airway The increase in secretion of bronchial mucous membrane capillaries and airway secretions can trigger asthma.