What Causes Asthma? How Can I Treat Asthma? What About My Inhaler Use and Oral Thrush?
Mr.
Wheeze: A compact look at Athsma and Medications for treatment.
First of all, I think it's important to start off with a definition.
So here we go.
What is Asthma? Asthma is a syndrome with attacks that cause reversible narrowing of the airways in the lungs because of a physical or chemical stimulation.
How much of the US population has this disease? Answer: 7-20 million or about 5% of the population.
This means that about 1 in 20 of the people you know have or have had this disease.
This all sounds bad right? Well, there is a bright side to the coin.
2-5million of the effected population is made of children and 30-70% of the children become symptom free before adulthood.
What is the Death Rate due to Asthma? Well, in 2000 the death rate was 4,487.
While this number is great compared to the amount of people that had it, 80-90% of these deaths were preventable!! "Really?" "That's a little over FOUR THOUSAND lives we can save!!" Yep you're right! OK now that we have the basics down let's get into the nitty gritty.
How does one exactly get an asthma "attack?" Here are some of the common stimuli: oChemicals oCold Air oAllergins (grass, hay) oRespiratory Infections Instead of going into the all the specific mechanisms of the different long acting and short acting medications for asthma I'll wait for specific questions on them.
So if you are curious on how your medication works or have any other questions go ahead and comment! Instead I am going to focus on some of the common problems when using an inhaler.
First of all if you have a medication that is a steroid something called "oral thrush" can affect you.
This is a very easily controllable fungus that can start living in your mouth! How can you prevent this? Easy, just be sure to wash/rinse your mouth with water after using your inhaler! (Be sure to spit the water out not swallow).
"Wait...
So how do I know if my medication has a steroid in it?" I'll make it easy for you and list many of the common steroidal anti-asthma meds below.
Steroid ~Drug Name Budesonide:Pulmicort Respulses Pulmicort Rhinocort (Aqua) Symbicort Fluticasone:Flonase Flovent Diskus Flovent Veramyst Advair Diskus Advair HFA Alright, let's look at how to use your inhaler.
There are many people that don't have their asthma controlled simply because they are using their inhaler incorrectly.
I've heard stories of people spraying their inhaler in the air as an air freshener and then walking through it while they "breathe in deeply.
" This person was convinced that's how you use an inhaler! If you haven't figured it out yet, that definitely isn't right.
Go ahead and check out the guide below on how to take your medication if it is a regular aerosol spray.
There are also different techniques for other inhalers such as the Advair Diskus model.
I will provide another guide for those if needed.
Wheeze: A compact look at Athsma and Medications for treatment.
First of all, I think it's important to start off with a definition.
So here we go.
What is Asthma? Asthma is a syndrome with attacks that cause reversible narrowing of the airways in the lungs because of a physical or chemical stimulation.
How much of the US population has this disease? Answer: 7-20 million or about 5% of the population.
This means that about 1 in 20 of the people you know have or have had this disease.
This all sounds bad right? Well, there is a bright side to the coin.
2-5million of the effected population is made of children and 30-70% of the children become symptom free before adulthood.
What is the Death Rate due to Asthma? Well, in 2000 the death rate was 4,487.
While this number is great compared to the amount of people that had it, 80-90% of these deaths were preventable!! "Really?" "That's a little over FOUR THOUSAND lives we can save!!" Yep you're right! OK now that we have the basics down let's get into the nitty gritty.
How does one exactly get an asthma "attack?" Here are some of the common stimuli: oChemicals oCold Air oAllergins (grass, hay) oRespiratory Infections Instead of going into the all the specific mechanisms of the different long acting and short acting medications for asthma I'll wait for specific questions on them.
So if you are curious on how your medication works or have any other questions go ahead and comment! Instead I am going to focus on some of the common problems when using an inhaler.
First of all if you have a medication that is a steroid something called "oral thrush" can affect you.
This is a very easily controllable fungus that can start living in your mouth! How can you prevent this? Easy, just be sure to wash/rinse your mouth with water after using your inhaler! (Be sure to spit the water out not swallow).
"Wait...
So how do I know if my medication has a steroid in it?" I'll make it easy for you and list many of the common steroidal anti-asthma meds below.
Steroid ~Drug Name Budesonide:Pulmicort Respulses Pulmicort Rhinocort (Aqua) Symbicort Fluticasone:Flonase Flovent Diskus Flovent Veramyst Advair Diskus Advair HFA Alright, let's look at how to use your inhaler.
There are many people that don't have their asthma controlled simply because they are using their inhaler incorrectly.
I've heard stories of people spraying their inhaler in the air as an air freshener and then walking through it while they "breathe in deeply.
" This person was convinced that's how you use an inhaler! If you haven't figured it out yet, that definitely isn't right.
Go ahead and check out the guide below on how to take your medication if it is a regular aerosol spray.
There are also different techniques for other inhalers such as the Advair Diskus model.
I will provide another guide for those if needed.
Source...