Health Overview - Asthma essays

Health Overview - Asthma essays Asthma is a disease of the airways of the lungs, which is characterized by increased sensitivity of the airways to a variety of triggers. It is generally an episodic disease, i.e., acute attacks followed by symptoms free periods. Though most attacks are generally short lived, sometimes-serious conditions occur in which severe asthma is unrelieved for many hours or even days. Asthma occurs in all age groups, but is found to be more common in children. It tends to affect both sexes equally. If a person has asthma, their trachea and bronchial tubes become more sensitive. It is when they are more irritated does the muscles and the lining constrict more easily. There are two types of asthma, allergic and idiosyncratic. Allergic asthma is often associated with personal or family history of other types of allergic diseases like hay fever, rhinitis, and eczema. The offending agents causing asthma include environment and air pollution, certain drugs like aspirin, occupational factors such as working with animal skins, and chemicals, infections of the chest or upper respiratory tract can bring about an acute attack of asthma and even exercise and emotional stress. The most characteristic features of asthma are breathlessness, cough and wheezing. The attack often occurs at night but may also occur abruptly due to one of the precipitating factors I mentioned above. Another example of the effects of having an asthma attack is feeling as if someone has thrown a blanket over your head and you are unable to uncover your self. Things like tingling in your fingers and toes is due to one hyperventilating during an asthma attack. Today, in the United States and Australia, an estimated five percent of adults and ten percent of children suffer from the condition. In the UK, the number of new cases of adult onset and childhood asthma amount to a total of nearly three million people. Increased air pollution and other factors associated with 21st centur...