Regarding asthma, you should know these 5 points.

Tuesday, 3 May 2022 is the 24th World Asthma Day! The theme of this year's Asthma Day is "Narrowing the Gap in Asthma Care", Hunan Provincial Brain Hospital (Hunan Second People's Hospital) Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine Department Chief Physician Zeng Xiangbo, Deputy Chief Physician Yi Daijiao, Physician Yuan Yanqing, Dr. Shao Chun popularized asthma-related knowledge to everyone, enhanced people's awareness of asthma management and prevention, and protected people's lung health.

How do asthmatics manage themselves on a daily basis?

1. Adhere to the self-monitoring of asthma symptoms, you can record an asthma diary, monitor the peak expiratory flow rate and record it to assess asthma control;

2. In daily life, the indoor temperature and humidity should be often adjusted, the indoor air should be kept fresh, the living room should avoid placing flowers, grass, fur, etc., and the allergens of the family and living environment should be understood, such as preventing the inhalation of pollen, soot, and odorous gases;

3. Pay attention to smoking cessation, keep warm, prevent upper respiratory tract infections, try to go to public places as little as possible, avoid exposure to cold air, and avoid contact with respiratory infections, especially in the peak season of pollen and fungi;

4. Reasonable diet, reasonable arrangement of life and living, to ensure adequate sleep, to avoid fatigue, emotional agitation, adhere to exercise, in order to enhance the body's resistance, do breathing exercise exercises, to avoid strenuous exercise;

5. Carry and can correctly use asthma breathing aerosol, pay attention to whether there are signs of asthma attack, such as dry cough, continuous sneezing, tears, etc., adhere to long-term correct use of asthma drugs, prevent recurrence, regular follow-up;

6. Maintain close contact with the doctor, once the acute attack of breathing difficulties, cough, wheezing and other acute attacks occur, contact the doctor at any time for guidance; every three to four months of outpatient follow-up, the doctor will systematically evaluate the efficacy, as appropriate, consider whether it is necessary to increase or decrease the dose of the drug.

Asthma, the biggest feature of the clinic is repeated attacks, triggered after the rapid onset of the disease, but after treatment or self-reliance can be relieved, in the remission period can be completely normal. Asthma sufferers are very important in their daily self-management. The Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine will systematically bring health science knowledge to asthma patients, and welcome everyone's attention.

The harm of asthma not being treated in a timely manner

The clinical signs and symptoms of typical asthma are recurrent wheezing, shortness of breath, with or without chest tightness or cough, multiple at night and in the morning, and are often associated with exposure to allergens, cold air, physical and chemical irritation, upper respiratory tract infections, and exercise. During the attack, scattered or diffuse wheezing sounds may be heard in both lungs, and the expiratory phase is prolonged. These signs and symptoms may be relieved by treatment or spontaneously.

Bronchial asthma is a chronic respiratory disease, after long-term standardized treatment and management, 80% of patients can achieve clinical control of asthma, but asthma patients do not treat, will lead to sustained aggravation of the disease. In severe cases, complications such as respiratory failure, pneumothorax, emphysema of the mediastinum, and atelectasis may occur. Long-term recurrent attacks or infections will develop into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchiectasis, chronic pulmonary heart disease, which seriously affects the quality of life of patients, so it is recommended that patients should be treated in time to avoid adverse consequences and complications caused by delayed treatment.

How to save yourself during an acute asthma attack

Acute attack of asthma refers to chest tightness, shortness of breath, shortness of breath and other symptoms of sudden onset of aggravation, often due to contact with allergens and other irritants or improper treatment caused, asthma acute attack its severity is not the same, the disease can occur within hours to several days, occasionally serious disease, can be life-threatening within a few minutes, so we need our majority of bronchial asthma friends to cause a high degree of attention.

How can patients with bronchial asthma help themselves? First of all, emergency detachment from the sensitizing environment, secondly, bronchial asthma patients should always have bronchodilators, especially short-acting bronchodilators, for the control of acute attacks of bronchial asthma, such as patients through the sensitization environment inhaled short-acting bronchodilators and other measures, symptom relief is still not obvious, or even repeated attacks, then it is necessary to go to the hospital in time for standardized treatment.

Cough variant asthma and chest tightness variant asthma

What are the types of asthma? Cough variant asthma, chest tightness variant asthma, exercise asthma, drug-induced asthma, occupational asthma, allergic asthma Infectious asthma... Today I will introduce two types of asthma: cough variant asthma and chest tightness variant asthma

What is cough variant asthma? It is a special type of asthma with chronic cough, that is, cough time greater than eight weeks as the main or only clinical manifestation, which is not accompanied by wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath and other typical asthma clinical manifestations; and chest tightness variant asthma, which is a special type of asthma with chest tightness as the only clinical manifestation, is also not accompanied by wheezing, shortness of breath Typical clinical manifestations, can occur after activity, can also occur late at night; these two types of asthma, are a chronic disease, need long-term monitoring and management of patients with onset, In this category, most of these patients can improve their symptoms after 6 to 8 weeks of treatment.

How to use medication in people with asthma

Asthma is a chronic inflammation of the airways that requires long-term medication. The medication for asthma is basically divided into two categories: the first is a relief drug, which is mainly used to alleviate its symptoms when asthma has acute symptoms, including short-acting bronchodilator inhalers, short-acting theophylline, oral and intravenous glucocorticoids used throughout the body, etc.; the other is the most important drug for asthma, we call it a control drug, mainly used to control the onset of asthma. It controls some of the symptoms of asthma by fundamentally controlling inflammation in our airways, radically alleviating them. Such drugs include long-acting bronchodilators, β receptor agonists, M-blockers, inhaled glucocorticoids, long-acting theophylline, and coppertififen, montelukast and other drugs used to control airway inflammation.

What is the difference between the two drugs?

In the acute exacerbation of asthma, the drugs we use are mainly remission drugs, plus to remove the cause of asthma attacks; in the period of asthma remission, the drugs we use every day are control drugs, such as long-acting β receptor agonists, plus inhaled glucocorticoids. General drugs will be made in the same inhalation device, in most cases, we do not need to use other drugs, as long as we use drugs in a standardized manner, more than 85% of patients can be better controlled, of course, in some special cases, if there is exercise asthma or special environment induced asthma, then we need to carry spare medications at any time, such as inhaled salbutamol.

Does the drug require lifelong medication?

Asthma is a chronic airway inflammation, he needs long-term medication, patients must not adjust or stop the drug, the general norm of treatment is that the doctor prescribes inhaled drugs, it is recommended to follow up for one month, to assess whether you are suitable for the dose, dosage form, method, etc. of the drug, if the evaluation needs to continue to use, please follow up every 3-4 months outpatient clinic, evaluate the medication and asthma control; 1 to 2 times a year for pulmonary function tests, if the asthma control is stable, then, the doctor will be based on the situation Every three months or so, it is assessed whether a dose reduction is required until the drug is finally discontinued, which generally takes one and a half to two years.

Contributed by: Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Hunan Brain Hospital (Hunan Second People's Hospital).

Editor: Yang Wen, Liu Yuchen