Asthma: A Fish's Battle Out of Water

Asthma itself is an inflammatory disease characterized by increased airway responsiveness due to a variety of stimulus. The inflammation causes the hyper-responsiveness than in turn causes bronchiolar smooth muscle constriction, resulting in obstruction of airflow. Some

To better understand the impact of asthma, a brief overview of the causes (aetiology) and disease progression (pathophysiology) must be shown. As common as asthma is, not much is known about its aetiology, according to findings presented by Subbaroa, Mandhane and Sears (2009, pg. 181-187) in a review from the Canadian

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2) Asthma (ICD-10-CM-J45). This is a chronic disease that is characterized by difficulty in breathing due to narrowing and swelling of the bronchial airways. Some of the symptoms include shortness of breath, wheezing and coughing. Asthmatic attack can be triggered by dust particles in the air, pollen, stress or exercise (Gillman & Douglass, 2012).

Asthma is a disease that affects your lungs. It causes repeated episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and nighttime or early morning coughing. Asthma can be controlled by taking medicine and avoiding the triggers that can cause an attack. You must also remove the triggers in your environment that can make your asthma worse.

It is derived from the Greek word “Aazein”, meaning to breathe sharply (Medicalnewstoday). Asthma is a respiratory condition in which the airways that lead to the lungs become inflamed and constrict thus reducing airflow and causing a shortness of breath along with a “wheezing” sound. Another familiar symptom is coughing, however this normally occurs at nighttime. If certain substances enter the airways it can cause irritation which in turn will inflame the airways which creates a much smaller path for air to flow. Symptoms can range from minor to severe. The airways also create mucus. Mucus is a thick slimy substance, which can also worsen the asthma if it sits in the airways to the lung if they are constricting. Asthma is classified as a chronic (long-term) lung disease. In the United States it affects over 25 million people, 7 million of which are children (nih). Asthma will never go away; even a healthy person with asthma can have symptoms occur with no warning. The strength of the symptoms can vary from mild asthma to severe asthma, and they can change abruptly in minutes. Occasionally if symptoms become more severe or worsen they can result to an asthma attack which makes it nearly impossible to breathe and if not treated immediately may become fatal.

COPD, however, is an adult disease whose leading cause is long-term cigarette smoking. Airway inflammation with lymphocytes, neutrophils, and macrophages is common in COPD (2), and remodeling of airways commonly occurs. While airway obstruction in asthma is usually reversible, there can be a fixed obstructive component, and in COPD, where there is usually a significant fixed obstructive component, there can be partial reversibility in airway obstruction (2). There are patients who present with an overlap syndrome with mixed features of COPD/asthma (2). COPD is also potentially preventable, if one avoids cigarette smoking, which often times is the primary cause. The most common recognized forms of COPD are chronic bronchitis, seen as bouts of coughing and severe

Asthma is an inflammatory condition of the airways causing attacks of wheezing and breathlessness. It affects a person’s

What is asthma? • Disease of the lungs that makes it hard to breathe. • Breathing tubes in the lungs that carry oxygen tighten. • This makes it hard for air to pass through the lungs.

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disorder in which inflammatory airway contraction reduces the flow of air into the lungs. The inflammation

Asthma is a lung disease characterized by variable and reversible airway obstruction, airway inflammation, and bronchial hyper-responsiveness. Causes recurring periods of wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and coughing; coughing normally occurs at night or early morning. Asthma affects people of all ages and mostly starts in childhood. In the United States, more than twenty-five million people are diagnosed with asthma and about seven million of these people are children.

Asthma is a condition in which your airways narrow and swell and produce extra mucus. This can make breathing difficult and trigger coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath.Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects your airways. Your airways are tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. If you have asthma, the inside walls of your airways become sore and swollen. That makes them very sensitive, and they may react strongly to things

Asthma is a chronic lung disease characterized by episodes in which the bronchioles constrict due to oversensitivity. In asthma, the airways (bronchioles) constrict making it difficult to get air in or out of the lungs. Breathlessness is the main symptom. The bronchi and bronchioles become inflamed and constricted. Asthmatics usually react to triggers. Triggers are substances and situations that would not normally trouble an asthma free person. Asthma is either extrinsic or intrinsic. Extrinsic is when the inflammation in the airway is a result of hypersensitivity reactions associated with allergy (food or pollen). Intrinsic asthma is linked to hyper responsive reactions to other forms of

As a young doctor on call in one of the leading hospital in Nigeria, I had a patient, an 8 year old girl that presented with breathing difficulty accompanied with wheeze. The picture fitted so well into an acute asthmatic attack and we began management along that line. There was an initial improvement but this improvement wasn 't as expected and this made us probe further. The patient’s mother attested to the fact

                  Asthma is a disease which affects the airways of the lungs, causing a kind of wheezing whenever an individual breathes, coughing, and you would run out of breathe a lot quicker than an individual without asthma. The