Asthma

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Symptoms

Wheezing, usually begins suddenly, comes in episodes, which may be worse at night or in early morning, and gets worse in cold air, exercise, and heartburn (reflux), and it may go away on its own. It would be relieved by bronchodilators (drugs that open the airways). Cough with or without sputum (phlegm) production. Shortness of breath that gets worse with exercise or other activity. Intercostal retractions (pulling of the skin between the ribs when breathing)

Emergency symptoms

Extreme difficulty in breathing. Bluish coloring of lips and face. Harsh anxiety due to shortness of breath. Rapid pulse, sweating, decreased level of alertness, such as severe drowsiness or confusion, during an asthma attack.

Additional symptoms that may be associated with this disease is Nasal flaring, chest pain, tightness in the chest, abnormal breathing pattern, such as breathing out takes more than twice since breathing in, breathing temporarily stops.

Tests

Allergy test may be helpful in identifying allergens in patients with persistent asthma. Common allergens include pet dander, dust mites, cockroach allergens, molds, and pollens. Common respiratory irritants include smoke, pollution, and fumes from burning wood or gas. The doctor will use a stethoscope to listen to the lungs. Asthma-related sounds may be heard. However, lung sounds are usually normal between asthma episodes.

Tests may include:

Lung function tests, Peak flow measurements, Chest x-ray, Blood tests, including eosinophil (a type of white blood cell) count, Arterial blood gas Treatment, Treatment is aimed at avoiding known allergens and respiratory irritants and controlling symptoms and airway inflammation through medication.

There are two basic kinds of medication for the treatment of asthma:

Long-term control medications are used on a regular basis to prevent attacks, not for treatment during an attack. Types include:

Inhaled steroids (such as Azmacort, Vanceril, AeroBid, Flovent) prevent inflammation

Leukotriene inhibitors (such as Singulair and Accolate)

Anti-IgE therapy (Xolair), a medicine given by injection to patients with more severe asthma

Long-acting bronchodilators (such as Serevent) help open airways

Cromolyn sodium (Intal) or nedocromil sodium

Aminophylline or theophylline (not used as frequently as in the past)

Sometimes a combination of steroids and bronchodilators are used, using either separate inhalers or a single inhaler (such as Advair Diskus).

Quick relief, or rescue, medications are used to relieve symptoms during an attack. These include:

Short-acting bronchodilators (inhalers), such as Proventil, Ventolin, Xopenex, and others.

Corticosteroids, such as prednisone or methylprednisolone) given by mouth or into a vein

Persons with mild asthma (infrequent attacks) may use quick relief medication as needed. Those with persistent asthma should take control medications on a regular basis to prevent symptoms. A severe asthma attack requires a medical evaluation and may require a hospital stay, oxygen, and intravenous medications.

A peak flow meter, a simple device to measure lung volume, can be used at home to help you "see an attack coming" and take the appropriate action, sometimes even before any symptoms appear. If you are not monitoring asthma on a regular basis, an attack can take you by surprise.

Peak flow measurements can help show when medication is needed, or other action needs to be taken. Peak flow values of 50-80% of an individual’s personal best results show a moderate asthma attack, while values below 50% show a severe attack.

There is no cure for asthma, though symptoms sometimes decrease over time. With proper self management and medical treatment, most people with asthma can lead normal lives.

Asthma

May is the asthma month. May be because this is the month when asthma is more cruel for its victims. One of the reasons may be that it is after harvesting month. After harvesting there would be more pollutants or allergens or triggers rove in the air. These pollutants are the main cause of asthma. As you know Panjab- Hariyana are the major supplier of India’s food grains, so are they major asthma hit areas. It is because of the allergens, which are result of harvesting.

What is Asthma?

Asthma is an inflammatory disorder of the airways, which causes attack of wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing. It is also known as Bronchial asthma; Exercise-induced asthma, etc.

Asthma is caused by inflammation in the airways. When an asthma attack occurs, the muscles surrounding the airways become tight and the lining of the air passages swell. This reduces the amount of passing air, and can lead to wheezing sounds.

Most asthma patients have wheezing attacks in among periods of symptom-free time. Some patients have long-periods shortness of breath. In others, a cough would be the main symptom. Asthma attacks can last from minutes to days and can become dangerous if the airflow becomes severely constrained.

Asthma symptoms can be triggered in sensitive persons, by breathing in allergy-causing substances, which are called allergens or triggers. These triggers include pet dander, dust mites, cockroach allergens, molds, or pollens and hay dust. Asthma symptoms can be triggered by respiratory infections, exercise, chilly air, and smoke by tobacco, other pollutants, stress, foods, or drug allergies. Aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medicines (NSAIDS) may provoke asthma in some patients.

Most asthma patients have family history of allergy, such as hay fever (allergic rhinitis) or eczema. Some have no history of any allergy.

Myths about asthma

There are some common myths about asthma. Such as, asthma is all in the mind. You will grow out of it. Asthma is not serious disease and nobody dies from it. You can catch asthma from someone who has it. Going to a different place, like desert, can cure asthma. People with asthma should not exercise. Asthma would be best controlled if you follow an asthma management plan designed by your doctor, include the medications used for quick relief and maintenance treatment. Medicines used to treat asthma is habit forming. Asthma can provoke episodes anytime you want to get attention.

Actually asthma is not a psychological condition. However, emotional triggers can flare-ups the cause. You cannot outgrow asthma. In about 50% of child patients of asthma, the condition may become inactive in the teenage years. But these symptoms may reoccur anytime in adulthood. There is no cure for asthma, even there is a saying in Hindi damaa dam ke sath jata hai (asthma goes only by last breath), but the disease can be controlled in most patients with good medical care. The condition should be taken seriously, because uncontrolled asthma may result even in the death. Asthma is not contagious. The new environment may temporarily improve asthma symptoms, but it will not cure asthma. After a few years many people become sensitized to the new environment and the asthma symptoms return with the same or even greater intensity than before. Swimming is one of the best exercises for asthma patients. On the other hand, exercising in dry, cold air may be a trigger for asthma in some people. Asthma cannot be controlled by any asthma management plan. Asthma medications are not addictive. Asthma attacks cannot be faked. In rare cases, there is a psychological condition which is known as various names (factious asthma, spastic dysphonia, globus hystericus) where emotional issues may cause symptoms that imitate asthmatic symptoms.

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Next week about symptoms and treatment and other useful information

Rice cooked in tea can control diseases

In India, tea is the most popular drink. But doctors particularly Ayurvedic doctors who are calling Vaidya, always appose it. They believe it is harmful to our body. But, quite the opposite, in China, they believe that tea is useful to body. Here are some interesting facts about Chinese people’s obsession about tea. This may be, because of the fact, that tea is first found in China. Anyway whatever the reason is, knowing this is not only interesting but useful too.

In china, rice is the family food. Chinese People usually like to eat new harvested rice, not old rice like it is popular in India, because new rice contains rice mellowness. Actually, in order to eat the fragrant rice, which is also a type of rice and popular in China, it is not necessary to use the new rice. Cooking with tea can make rice get color, smell and taste. The most amazing fact is that tea may have the benefits of cleaning mouth, digesting food and disease prevention. According to nutritionists research, often eating rice, cooked with tea can prevent four diseases.

Cardiovascular disease: In tea, polyphenols is a most important substance; water extracts it up to about 70% to 80%. Scientific evidence shows that tea polyphenols can enhance the flexibility of capillaries, and prevent capillary from rupturing and bleeding. Moreover, tea polyphenols may reduce blood cholesterol, slow down atherosclerosis. Elderly, often eating tea rice, it can soften blood vessels, reducing blood fat, preventing cardiovascular disease.

Stroke: One reason of stroke is lipid peroxide formation in the human body, so the loss of vascular wall elasticity. And the tannins in tea can suppress the role of lipid peroxide formation, and it can effectively prevent stroke.  

Cancer: Tea polyphenols in the body can block the synthesis of N-nitrosamines. Amines and nitrite are widespread in food substance; they are easy to produce N-nitrosamines at 37 ℃ temperature and with appropriate acidity circumstances. Overall, tea rice can easily prevent the formulation of nitrosamines and can be effective in preventing the gastrointestinal cancer.

Dental desease: Tea contains fluoride, which is very important and indispensable for dentin material. If we keep a small amount of fluoride immersed in teeth, it can strengthen the flexibility of the teeth and enamel to prevent caries.

Rice-tea cooking is simple. 2-4 grams of tea, with 500-1000 ml. of water to soak for 8-10 minutes, take a sieve, tea will be ready after filtering; then put rice into another pot, wash, then put tea into the pot, cook and serve. If the water is not enough, may appropriately add.

microbes could defeat us!

Health fraternity has been ringing the alarm over resistance to antimicrobial for so long, but all falls on deaf ears. You may surprise to know that resistance to antibiotics was identified even before the wonder drug of Fleming, going to market. The first clinical application of penicillin came 70 years back, but the discovery of a bacterial enzyme which is capable of destroying penicillin came a few years earlier that wonder drug. The microbes are always one step ahead. The microbes are always one step ahead. In 1960s it was cleared to the public that over use of antibiotics was driving the emergence of resistant species.
The interesting fact is, we already knew that how to combat the problem, which is to control the use of antimicrobials, and above all, ensuring that the patients are completing their courses, of antibiotic. But despite repeated appeals, we couldn't compete with doggedness of microbes. In 2010, resistant bacterial infections killed more than one lac people.
It is believed, that this danger started arising in 2008. When Klebsiella pneumoniae’s unusually tough strain was secluded, from a 59-year-old Swedish patient, who had been treated in a New Delhi hospital. The bacteria were unresponsive to even our most powerful antibiotics. To make it worse, the genes, which gave it this superpower, were found on a small ring of DNA that could be easily traded among different species of bacteria.
Since then, this so called New Delhi metallo beta lactamase (NDM-1) has turned up in more than 16 countries across the world. A study published in Lancet Infectious Diseases today shows the resistance factor has been spread to 14 different species of bacteria, including pathogenic varieties which are responsible for dysentery and cholera. Most bacteria holding the NDM-1 plasma Id is resistant to all, but the few of our most hopeless, atrocious antibiotics. One strain is immune to all of them. In a report published in 2010, the US Institute of Medicine described the antimicrobial resistance as global health and environmental disaster, while the WHO called the rise of so called NDM-1 a doomsday situation, where the world would be without antibiotics.These are not empty words. Without antibiotics, we have few options left. New antibiotics take around 10-20 years to develop, and of course, there are few in the pipeline. Vaccines are the most obvious alternative, but vaccination is not possible even in the most industrialized societies.
Scientists are not sitting quiet, they are trying to train viruses to chase down bacterial cells, for years, but Georgia is the only country in the world, which gives license for such bactiriophage therapy. An experimental procedure using a jet of ionized argon gas seems positive, though it can treat external infections only.
After a flooding of dramatic headlines, media’s interest in NDM-1 cut down. After all, in a world well-stocked with superbugs like MRSA, MDRTB, C diff, what was the use of another acronym? Media is tend to train their gun on highly pathogenic diseases, particularly those that kill in no time flat, they are not interest in such untreatable diseases, which are far less dramatic. The trouble with superbugs like NDM-1 is that once they get a foothold in hospitals, even minor surgerical procedures would be burdened with a much higher risk of serious postoperative complications.
Although previously campaigns in France and America, have achieved considerable declining in the prescription of antibiotics, their uncontrolled use in other countries has diluted those successes. Even if we control our habit of taking antibiotics, NDM-1 is here to stay. That may be enough to timely action called for by health fraternity 50 years back, but it's next to impossible, for us to shake the thinking that the microbes could defeat us.

Unnecessary use of Antibiotics would be dangerous!

This Year's World Health Day is focused on the intensifying threat of bacteria resistance which is developing against antimicrobial drugs, particularly against antibiotics.

In this era of medical breakthrough, where every now and than a new wonder drug comes to treat diseases which were considered fatal a few decades ago, or even a few years ago in the case of HIV/AIDS. WHO has launched a worldwide campaign for World Health Day 2011, to conserve these medicines for future generations.

 Antimicrobial resistance is spreading globally and threatening usefulness of today’s several medicines’ which are in use to treat the diseases. At the same time, the risk of jeopardizing the significant progress being made against the major infectious killers.

Today’s World Health Day theme is Antimicrobial resistance and it’s spreading on the whole world. It is focused on the need for governments to implement the policies and practices to prevent and counter the emergence of highly resistant microorganisms. Drug resistance is also known as the resistance to infection, caused by microorganisms, antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs, including the standard treatment, fail to respond to the long illness and death could result in greater risk.

Last century’s several drug breakthroughs could be lost because of the spreading of the antimicrobial resistance. Consequently, one day a lot of infectious diseases may become uncontrollable and could rapidly spread all over the world. That’s why WHO has planed to bring attention to the urgent need to fight drug resistance by intensify the actions to deal with the threat.

Unnecessarily popping antibiotics at random is resulting in antibiotic bacteria resistant to first line antibiotics are, forcing doctors to prescribe stronger, and more toxic and more expensive drugs to treat the disease. For example, the drugs needed to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), are 100 times more costly than regular drugs. To cop with the situation, over the counter sales of antibiotics must be stopped and the use of antibiotics as growth-promoters in livestock must be curtailed. To help this, the government, the medical fraternity, and the public have to lend a hand.