Bronchial Asthma is a disease of the lungs where an obstruction or disturbance in the ventilation of the respiratory passages evokes a feeling of shortness of breath. This leads to paroxysms which constrict the bronchial air passages.

Causes of Bronchial Asthma

There can be several causes of Bronchial Asthma. The main cause is a raised level of resistance to the airflow in the bronchial passages. Although the muscles of these passages work harder, they are unable to support the activity of breathing and gas exchange. The result is an attack of bronchial asthma where there are spasms of the bronchial muscles, a swelling of the bronchial wall and an increase in the secretion of mucous.

Other causes of bronchial asthma are: respiratory infections, cold air, exercise, smoke, pollutants, stress, anxiety, and allergies from food or drugs.

Sometimes, Bronchial Asthma is also triggered by pollen, dust, fungi or mold.

Symptoms of Bronchial Asthma

The main symptoms of Bronchial Asthma are wheezing breath which includes a whistling sound in the chest, and shortness of breath.

An increased secretion of mucous occurs during the asthma attack. This can also happen in the periods between two asthma attacks.

In general, a person suffering from an asthma attack will find it difficult to breathe and feel a lot of pain in the chest area.

Treatment for Bronchial Asthma

As such there is no cure for Asthma. But a patient can definitely learn how to manage it.

The first step is to control the environment. Living in an environment which is free from dust, smoke, pets, pollutants and allergens will ensure that the asthma attacks remain in control.

The patient must also wear a mask covering his nose and mouth every time he cleans the home or dusts the furniture.

People suffering from asthma should ensure that their clothes, bedding, furniture etc do not collect dust and dirt. They can also consider using an air conditioner to regulate the atmosphere and the humidity in their surroundings.

There are also medical treatments available for asthma patients. They can use inhalers based on their doctor’s recommendations. There are also a variety of pills and tablets which they can take, based on the doctor’s prescriptions, to keep a control over the asthma.

Asthma Attack Symptoms
A sudden asthma attack results from an upper respiratory tract infection or certain allergies. It can give rise to symptoms such as shortness of breath, cough, wheezing, etc. Read on to know to more about asthma attack symptoms.
Asthma is a chronic disorder of the respiratory system, which causes inflammation of the airways (bronchial tubes). This leads to constriction and swelling of airways, causing difficulty in breathing. The causes of asthma are associated with genetic, chemical and environmental factors. Some common triggering factors for asthma are infections such as cold and flu, allergies to certain medicines, pollens, dust mites, food allergies, irritants such as cigarette smoke or dust and some chemicals. Asthma could also be caused by certain exercises performed in cold and dry air. When a person is exposed to any of the triggering factors, histamine and other agents are released by the body. This can cause inflammation of bronchial tubes, which leads to narrowing and clogging of the airways. It can give rise to symptoms such as breathlessness, coughing, wheezing and chest tightness. About 20.5 million people in the United States are diagnosed with asthma.

What is Asthma Attack?

Asthma attack or asthma exacerbation is caused by swelling and inflammation of airways. The narrowing of airways is caused by inflammation, hyperreactivity or bronchospasm. The inflammation of airways results from an exposure to allergens or irritants or from the action of chemical mediators such as histamine. The inflamed tissues produce thick, sticky mucus, which can cause clogging of the airways. This mucus may accumulate within the lungs, causing breathing difficulties. The tightened muscles are wrapped around the airways, which causes constriction of airways. Chronically inflamed bronchial tubes become extremely sensitive to allergens or irritants. This condition is known as ‘bronchial hyperreactivity’. Asthma attack is triggered by upper respiratory infections, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), inhaling dry and cold air and certain allergens such as pets, pollens, dust mites, molds and tobacco smoke.

Symptoms of Asthma Attack

During an acute asthma attack, a series of changes occur within the lungs and airways, which contribute to develop signs and symptoms of asthma attack. Inflammation, excess mucus production and bronchospasm can cause various signs and symptoms of asthma attack such as shortness of breath, wheezing and cough. The symptoms of asthma attack may vary in severity and duration from person to person. Early warning signs of asthma attack are headache, chronic cough, itchy throat, difficulty in talking, disturbed sleep patterns, difficulty in breathing, chest tightness and wheezing. Wheezing is one of the most frequently seen symptoms of asthma attack. It is a whistling or hissing sound that comes with breathing. Wheezing is heard usually during exhalation; however, it can also occur during inhaling. When these early signs of asthma attack are noticed, then one should seek immediate medical treatment in order to prevent severe asthma attacks. Mild asthma attacks are more commonly seen and they can be cured within a few hours after an appropriate treatment.

Severe asthma attacks are less frequent. However, they may last for a longer duration and require immediate medical treatment. The symptoms of severe asthma attack develop gradually and may become serious within 6-48 hours. There are certain signs that indicate worsening severity of asthma attack. These signs include a low peak expiratory flow (PEF) rate, increased pulse rate, increased wheezing, fatigue and restlessness.

In case of severe asthma attack, there may be life-threatening symptoms. Some typical symptoms of severe asthma attack are breathlessness, difficulty in talking, nasal flaring, increased pulse or heartbeat, chest pain, sweating and peak flow reading in the ‘red zone’. Silent chest is an important sign of severe asthma attack. There is no wheezing during inhalation or exhalation. There may be certain symptoms of cyanosis such as gray or bluish tint to skin, lips and nail beds. There may a feeling of anxiety, reduced alertness, severe drowsiness or confusion during severe asthma attack. An extremely severe asthma attack may lead to respiratory arrest and death. Asthma attack is considered a medical emergency and requires immediate medical assistance.

Treating Asthma Attack

The symptoms of asthma attack may resemble other respiratory disorders such as respiratory tract infection, bronchitis and emphysema. Hence, an accurate diagnosis of asthma is very essential to decide adequate treatment option. The severity of asthma symptoms is monitored with the help of pulmonary function tests, such as peak flow reading, spirometry, nitric oxide measurement and pulse oximetry. Asthma treatment focuses on managing the symptoms, maintaining normal lung function and preventing severe asthma attacks. Certain medications such as short-acting beta agonists, oral corticosteroids, leukotriene inhibitors such as montelukast and zileuton and methylxanthines can be used to reduce inflammation in an acute asthma attack. The use of HFA inhalers (hydrofluoroalkane) can help in controlling the symptoms of breathlessness. If symptoms of asthma attack are life-threatening, then intubation and mechanical ventilation become necessary to help breathing.

The best way to prevent an asthma attack is to avoid any contact with triggering factors. You need to identify the allergic triggers and avoid their exposure as much as possible. With the help of appropriate medical treatment, nutritious diet and a healthy lifestyle, you can prevent these troublesome symptoms of asthma attack.

People with asthma experience symptoms when the airways tighten, inflame, or fill with mucus. Common symptoms of asthma include:

• Coughing, especially at night
• Wheezing
• Shortness of breath
• Chest tightness, pain, or pressure

Still, not every person with asthma has the same symptoms in the same way. You may not have all of these symptoms, or you may have different symptoms at different times. Your asthma symptoms may also vary from one asthma attack to the next, being mild during one asthma attack and severe during another.

Some people with asthma may go for extended periods without having any symptoms, interrupted by periodic worsening of their symptoms called asthma attacks. Others might have asthma symptoms every day. In addition, some people with asthma may only have asthma during exercise or asthma with viral infections like colds.

Mild asthma attacks are generally more common. Usually, the airways open up within a few minutes to a few hours. Severe attacks are less common but last longer and require immediate medical help. It is important to recognize and treat even mild symptoms to help you prevent severe episodes and keep asthma under better control.

1. Know the Early Asthma Symptoms

Early warning signs are changes that happen just before or at the very beginning of an asthma attack. These asthma attack symptoms may start before the well-known symptoms of asthma and are the earliest signs that your asthma is worsening.

In general, these signs are not severe enough to stop you from going about your daily activities. But by recognizing these signs, you can stop an asthma attack or prevent one from getting worse. Early warning signs include:

• Frequent cough, especially at night
• Losing your breath easily or shortness of breath
• Feeling very tired or weak when exercising
• Wheezing or coughing after exercise
• Feeling tired, easily upset, grouchy, or moody
• Decreases or changes in lung function as measured on a peak flow meter
• Signs of a cold, or allergies (sneezing, runny nose, cough, nasal congestion, sore throat, and headache)
• Trouble sleeping

If you have early warning signs or symptoms, you should take more asthma medication as described in your asthma action plan.

2. Know the Asthma Symptoms in Children

Asthma affects as many as 10% to 12% of children in the United States and is the leading cause of chronic illness in children. For unknown reasons, the incidence of asthma in children is steadily increasing. While asthma symptoms can begin at any age, most children have their first asthma symptoms by age 5.

Asthma is characterized by inflammation of the bronchial tubes with increased production of sticky secretions inside the tubes. Not all children with asthma wheeze. Chronic coughing with asthma may be the only obvious sign, and a child’s asthma may go unrecognized if the cough is attributed to recurrent bronchitis.

Asthma Symptoms - Fight the Good Fight

Asthma is a frightening condition. I have lived with asthma symptoms for 17 years and the thought of an allergy induced asthma attack is ever present each day. Always being sensitive to the beginning signs of an asthma attack are important so that one can avoid a trip too the emergency room of the local hospital or medical center.

These are the signs to be aware of, yet not always signaling the start of an asthma attack:

Shortness in breathing
Sighing
Chest tightness or pain, this one is scary
Problems sleeping due to shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing and allergy symptoms
A very audible whistling or wheezing sound when you exhale
Quick occasions of coughing or wheezing that get worse because of a respiratory virus such as a cold or the flu
Rapid breathing
General fatigue symptoms
When one is not able to exercise properly (which is called exercise-induced asthma)
Anxiety and stress
Difficulty concentrating and focusing, excess worry
Chronic aggravated cough without wheezing
Keep this in mind and do not panic, asthma symptoms can look like many other conditions like bronchitis, vocal cord dysfunction, and even sometimes heart failure.

The severity of asthma attacks can increase very rapidly, it is very important to treat asthma symptoms immediately.

Not getting immediate treatment, or using an asthma inhaler or bronchodilator, breathing most likely will become more labored. If you wee to use a peak flow meter (that is if you have one and you should) at this time, the reading will be as low as <50% of capacity.

People with severe asthma must receive adequate asthma treatment, and will eventually be unable to speak, and develop a bluish coloring around the lips. Known as cyanosis, this color change means the asthma symptom sufferer will have less and less oxygen in the blood. Without aggressive treatment immediately for this asthma emergency, can lose consciousness and eventually die.

Not an experience anyone wants to have.

Trips to the hospital are not fun at all. They are scary, time consuming and expensive. If those who suffer from asthma symptoms just stay ahead of it and use every means at their disposal to fight asthma, especially using preventative measures, treatment, asthma management becomes a lot easier.

Don't let asthma beat you. Learn all you can to make your life with asthma a life with very few asthma symptoms.

When seeking information on asthma help, many people first want to know what it is. Then they want to know what is causing them to have their nasty symptoms. And another very big question have is what can they do about it. We will address those three questions here in this article.

Having asthma means that your lungs and airways are extremely sensitive to and easily irritated by certain things. There is no clear and definitive answer as to why some people get it and others don't. If you do have it and your airways get irritated, here is what happens:

1. The insides of your airways begin to swell from the irritation. So now, instead of breathing through a normal sized opening, that opening starts to get smaller.

2. The muscles around the outside of your airways start trying to squeeze your airways closed. This makes the airways even smaller.

3. To make matters even worse, your already shrunken airways start to fill with gunk or mucus.

You are now left to try and breath through plugged up much smaller airways. This is all happening inside your body. Soon you will start having the typical symptoms such as a tight chest, wheezing, shortness of breath, and coughing.

The next item on our asthma help list is to answer the question of what is causing your symptoms. We mentioned that certain things irritate your airways. These things are called your triggers. Unfortunately, there is no specific list of things that everyone with this disease is sensitive to.

You will need to figure out on your own what things irritate your airways. Once you figure them out, you will need to do your best to stay away from them. Since prescription medications aren't very effective for many people, staying away from your triggers will help to reduce your signs and symptoms.

Our final asthma help question addresses what you can do about your disease. Unfortunately, what many people do is believe the lie of the big drug companies that there is no cure for this disease. By getting you to believe that, they are assured of a lifetime customer for their over priced and inferior product.

When taking prescription medications, most people have to be on at least two different meds, one of which is an emergency inhaler for when their everyday drug doesn't work. And they will still spend too much time in their doctor's office or even the emergency room. We won't even get into the potentially dangerous side effects of these drugs.

What many more people are beginning to do is switch to natural cures for this and other diseases. These people soon realize that they've been lied to for many years after their symptoms begin to disappear in as little as a weeks time.

Hopefully this asthma help article has given you a little better understanding of what this disease is and what causes your symptoms. As far as what to do about it goes, you can continue to be miserable with your symptoms for the rest of your life by taking prescription drugs. These drugs just try to control your symptoms and the frequency of your asthma attacks.

But you do have a much better option. There are some very effective natural asthma cures and treatments available that can completely eliminate your disease.

Don't believe the lie of the billion dollar drug companies who make their profits selling you inferior products. Check out my web page that has all the details on the most effective natural asthma cures and treatments available.

Asthma Attack - What Three Things Happen Before You Know You Are Having One

Asthma attacks are very common in the US. 30,000 people go through this potentially serious and many times scary event every day. And about four hundred people die every year from asthma.

So what causes an asthma attack or even what is asthma? The airways between your mouth/nose and lungs are overly sensitive to one or more things when you have asthma. These things are called your asthma triggers and can be anything such as dust mites, molds, pollen, smoke, certain foods, weather, weather changes, stress etc.


Coming into contact with any of these triggers causes bad things to happen to your airways. This is the first step toward having an asthma attack. Here are the 3 bad things that can happen:

1. Your airways have linings on the inside which become swollen and very irritable. This leaves less room for air to get back and forth to your lungs when you breathe. It also causes you to cough.

2. The muscles around the outsides of your airways start to get real tight. They try to squeeze your airways shut. This makes your airways smaller, which means that there is even less room for air to get through to your lungs.

3. The insides of your airways start to fill with what I call gunk or what others might call mucus or phlegm. This starts to plug up your already small airways which makes it even harder to breathe. Every time you cough, some of this gunk comes out.

Every asthma attack you have can be different. So sometimes those 3 bad things can be very mild and other times they can be very severe. They might also happen very slowly one time and very quickly another time.

How long those things last can also be different every time. Getting away from your triggers might stop them, but sometimes they can last for days.

Those 3 things are all happening to your airways or breathing tubes. Once they start to get bad enough, then you will start to have what are called your typical asthma symptoms. When we think of an asthma attack, we normally think of these things on the following list:

1. Coughing - with your now irritated and sensitive airways, you will be coughing quite a bit. And all that gunk or mucus will be coming up when you do cough.

2. Wheezing - this is sort of a whistling sound, usually when you breathe out. This is from your airways being much smaller than normal.

3. Tightness in the chest - this can sometimes be painful also. It is from the muscles around your airways getting so tight.

4. Shortness of breath - you just can't take a normal breath while those 3 things are happening.

When those 3 things happening to your airways are bad, then these asthma symptoms will also get bad. When these symptoms get real bad you might not be able to breathe at all. The medications in your emergency asthma inhaler try to reduce your symptoms so that you can breathe normally again.

Asthma symptoms are pretty much the same for all asthma types except for cough variant asthma. With this type of asthma, your only symptom will be a very bad cough. And this cough will be a dry cough with none of the gunk being present.

It can also be a very loud cough that is sometimes referred to as a barking cough. And the worst thing is that this cough can sometimes last for weeks. Because there are no other asthma symptoms present, this type of asthma often goes undiagnosed.

Knowing what is happening during an asthma attack should help you to keep from panicking. Getting stressed out can make your symptoms even worse. It is important to do what you can to help someone who is having an attack to try and stay as relaxed as possible.

If you notice that your asthma inhaler isn't helping you breathe and your other symptoms aren't getting any better either, then you might be having an acute asthma attack. If that happens, then it is very important that you seek immediate medical attention. Don't wait and hope that it will get better. An acute asthma attack is so serious that without immediate medical attention death can result.

Natural Remedies For Asthma

Asthma is a condition that people all over the world suffer from. It is a chronic condition that causes the breathing passages to shrink, causes shortness of breath and wheezing. Breathing becomes very difficult because mucus accumulates in the air passages. Sometimes the attacks may become very severe that it may require a visit to the emergency room. Excess Mucus, the shrinking of the air passages and inflammation make it more difficult to breathe.
The best prevention for an asthma attack is to avoid anything that can result in an attack. It is very important that you control asthma and prevent an attack. There are different methods that can be used to prevent asthma attacks and some may be found right in your own home.
Sit in a cool place and practice to breathe deeply as you try to relax, this will help to ease the tension in your body and clear your air passages. You can drink a cup of hot coffee or tea without milk, as milk may cause excess mucus. You can also drink a cup of hot water. Without burning your throat, use liquids as hot as you can stand them. Using a towel over your head, lean over a pot of boiling water and inhale the steam. You can also turn on the shower on hot until it starts steaming and push your head under the shower to inhale the steam.
You can also use some ingredients that you may have in your kitchen. Boil one teaspoon of olive oil, one teaspoon of honey and a half cup of milk adding some garlic to the mixture and drink it every morning. You can also drink two tablespoons of lemon juice with one tablespoon of water in the morning and in the evening.
You can drink fresh cabbage juice everyday or you can blend honey and lemon juice with a radish, 20 minutes after, cook the mixture over a low heat, then, every morning after you wake up, take one teaspoon of this mixture.
Many exotic home remedies that can help relieve the symptoms of asthma, include ingredients that may be found in a natural food store. Some of these ingredient are given below.
Fenugreek seeds
Fresh cranberries
Dark tea
Licorice root
Fennel oil
Wild cherry bark
Put one teaspoon of ground fenugreek seeds in a glass of boiling water, add sugar and lemon to taste and drink the mixture three times a day. Mash fresh cranberries in water and take two or three teaspoons everyday. If you put fennel oil in a burner, it produces an aroma that should prevent attacks of asthma. Put a half teaspoon of tea in a cup of hot water allowing it to cool for ten minutes, then strain it and drink it every morning. You can also use a tea bag to make dark tea to drink and this should help to prevent an attack of asthma.
To help you prevent an attack of asthma, practice deep breathing, do plenty of exercise and avoid anything that you know will result in an attack. If stress is one of those that causes an asthma attack, then try stress reducing deep breathing, exercise regularly and make sure that you eat a healthy diet.
For more information on home remedies stop by Easy Green Living Naturally today!