Chronic asthma is an inflammatory disease of the airways

Not everyone with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease suffers from chronic asthma, but many individuals who experience emphysema or chronic bronchitis have similar symptoms. Medical experts continue to debate whether the illness should be classified as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

This condition is an inflammatory disease of the airways; the term asthma is derived from an ancient Greek word which means panting. The inflammation leads to the narrowing of the airways, which can cause wheezing, breathlessness, and gasping for air.

Studies indicate that this condition involves two stages: the hyper-reactive response and the inflammatory response. The hyper-reactive response refers to the constriction of the airways in response to inhaled irritants, while the inflammatory stage involves the production of white blood cells in the airways.

During a chronic attack, the muscle tissue in the walls of the bronchi experiences spasms, causing labored breathing. Coughing, shortness of breath and wheezing occur almost everyday. In order to combat these symptoms, several medications may be needed.

Some medical experts speculate that the persistent symptoms indicate a food allergy. As a result, some doctors encourage those sufferers to revise their diets in order to reduce the incidence of flare-ups.

There are some other simple strategies one can follow in order to alleviate symptoms. These include removing the cause, treating the symptoms, or altering the host to be more tolerant of the causes.

If you've been diagnosed with this illness, medical experts suggest stopping all smoking and banning cigarette smoke from the house. Patients should also stop the use of volatile chemicals, which may exacerbate one's symptoms. Ending contact with pets can also alleviate the condition.

The aims of any treatment program should include: avoiding the trigger factors, eliminating symptoms, restoring normal lung function, reducing the incidence of severe attacks, and minimizing the side-effects of drugs.

Drug therapy can fall into three categories. the condition can be attacked with preventors or anti-inflammatories; relievers, which provide acute relief of symptoms; and controllers, which provide a sustained bronchodilator action with a mild anti-inflammatory action.

It should be noted that there are some misconceptions about treatment. For instance, antihistamines do not appear to be an effective treatment strategy. Immunosuppressives such as methotrexate are rarely beneficial, and acupuncture has a negligible effect.

The basic goals of educating sufferers include an ability to understand the nature of the illness, an understanding of different types of medication, an understanding of prevention strategies, knowing the correct use of inhalers, and recognizing signs of a worsening of the illness.

Interestingly enough, Chronic asthma is often misdiagnosed in the elderly. Also, older people are more susceptible to the side-effects of drugs used to treat the illness. As a result, senior citizens need special prevention strategies.