With summer approaching and the high season of asthma, let’s get together to learn the basic knowledge of asthma.
Bronchial asthma is referred to as asthma
Asthma is a chronic non-specific inflammatory disease of the airways, characterized by airflow obstruction and airway hyperresponsiveness. Airway nonspecific inflammation in asthma is commonly understood as inflammation that is not well treated with antibacterial anti-inflammatory drugs.
Airway hyperresponsiveness in asthma, commonly understood as odors that do not pose irritation to normal people, such as cold air, oil smoke, or even perfume odors that are usually insignificant irritants to normal people, may induce catastrophic attacks relative to asthmatics; the clinical manifestations are recurrent, episodic coughing, wheezing, or chest discomfort. These symptoms are usually markedly aggravated by odor irritation and at night, and the diagnosis can usually be confirmed by the physician based on typical symptoms or supplemented by pulmonary function tests. Chronic cough is often mistaken for bronchial and is treated with repeated antibacterial medications.
What are the factors that trigger asthma?
1. stimulation by allergens: common allergens are mainly general substances such as airborne dust, dust mites, pollen, carpets, animal hair, clothing fibers, etc.
2, irritants such as cigarettes, spray, paint, gasoline; food such as shrimp, crab, cheese, milk, etc.
Bronchial asthma patients should pay attention to experience whether they have allergic factors present, if there are allergic factors present, they should do everything possible to avoid contact with allergens.
3, infection: viruses, bacteria, mycoplasma, fungi, etc. can induce asthma, and these microorganisms are widely found in nature. In the summer rainy season, with high environmental humidity, all kinds of microorganisms multiply, which can easily lead to acute attacks of asthma patients.
4, air pollution: there are many different kinds of pollutants in the air, such as sulfur dioxide emitted from factories, which may induce asthma. Especially now that the wheat harvest has been completed, a large number of wheat straw burning, air dust increased, asthma attacks increased significantly.
5. Climate change: Whenever there is a drastic change in the weather or a day of seasonal transition, for example, between summer and autumn, or from winter to spring, the change in air temperature and humidity can cause a sensitive reaction in the patient’s respiratory tract and trigger asthma.
Treatment of asthma
With current science and technology, asthma is not yet completely curable. Although it cannot be cured, if it is treated scientifically and reasonably and medication is adhered to, it is entirely possible to achieve good control to the point of being symptom-free, attack-free and living, studying and working like a normal person.
The aim of asthma treatment is to control the disease, achieve the least number of asthma symptoms, the least number of asthma recurrences, and not to seek emergency medical treatment for asthma attacks, and to maintain the quality of life of a normal person, so its prevention and treatment principles are to relieve symptoms as the primary purpose during the acute attack period, while patients with persistent asthma should use anti-inflammatory drugs (inhaled glucocorticoids) at the appropriate level according to the asthma diagnosis and treatment guidelines, to achieve long-term treatment, early medication, individualized regulation, and to add bronchial medication as needed. The patients with persistent asthma should use anti-inflammatory drugs (inhaled glucocorticosteroids) at the appropriate level according to the guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of asthma. The focus of the remission period is to enhance physical fitness, prevent relapse, and improve the patient’s quality of life. Depending on the patient’s condition, a combination of measures can be taken.
Glucocorticoids
Glucocorticoids are currently the most effective anti-inflammatory drugs for the treatment of asthma. However, there is an obvious phenomenon of overuse of wheezing drugs and underuse of anti-inflammatory drugs in asthma treatment. According to a survey, only 6% of asthma patients in China currently use inhaled glucocorticosteroids as treatment. Many people are afraid to use hormones or reduce their own medication because they are afraid of the side effects of hormones, so that the dose is insufficient, the course of treatment is not enough, and the disease cannot be effectively controlled.
In fact, hormones are not terrible, but the key is to apply them scientifically and reasonably. Long-term application of large doses of hormones has systemic side effects such as obesity, hypertension and ulcer disease, mainly referring to oral and intravenous medication. The treatment of asthma is mainly local inhaled hormone therapy, and the main side effects are local hoarseness, throat discomfort, and induced growth of Candida albicans in the mouth, etc. By rinsing the mouth after medication and other methods, its adverse effects can be avoided and reduced. Although hormones for asthma treatment are applied for a long time, they are mainly inhaled locally in small doses and have very few systemic side effects.
We use micrograms as the unit for the dose used for inhalation therapy, while oral and intravenous doses are in milligrams, a difference of 1000 times, so it is still very safe. The side effects of hormones are insignificant compared to the impact of asthma on people’s body and life, so there should not be too much concern about them. Generally speaking, the dosage is safe as long as it is applied under the guidance of a doctor.
The following principles govern the dosing of inhaled hormones.
If the treatment effect is not satisfactory, the treatment can be escalated, i.e. the amount of hormone inhalation should be increased, and the dosage should be gradually increased under the guidance of the doctor, or the treatment can be combined (i.e. the addition of long-acting beta agonists and other bronchodilators, such as the use of Sulindac, Cymbalta, etc.). In this way, we can use as few hormones as possible to achieve better therapeutic effect.
In addition, experiments have shown that early use of hormones can not only maintain good lung function and better quality of life, but also use a relatively small amount of medication with fewer side effects. Inhalation medication, different from oral and intravenous medication, also requires close cooperation from patients and skillful mastery of the use of aerosol or inhalation device, otherwise the intended efficacy cannot be achieved. Some patients, due to improper inhalation methods, spray the medication into the mouth with little or no medication entering the trachea, which is not only ineffective but also prone to the side effect of growing mycobacteria in the mouth. The correct way to use the drug is to arrange a fixed time for spraying every day, first shake the drug (shake it), then make the drug enter the airway during inhalation, then hold your breath for 10 seconds, and finally don’t forget to rinse your mouth with cold boiled water to reduce local side effects.
Due to the incurability and recurrent nature of asthma, doctors in regular hospitals cannot guarantee that they can cure it, or some patients think that inhaled hormone therapy is more expensive, so many charlatans sell drugs that can supposedly cure bronchial asthma under the guise of ancestral recipes, which are basically a mixture of hormones, aminophylline, Bolikonib and other drugs, and the initial use is very effective, but later the dose will become larger and larger, and the effect After the side effects of hormones and other drugs appear and then go to the hospital, the condition will be very heavy or have serious complications, the effect of drug treatment is poor, then not only to spend a lot of money, but also life-threatening.