Asthma

 Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease characterized by episodes or attacks of inflammation and narrowing of small airways in response to exposure to environmental stimuli.  Asthma attacks can vary from mild to life threatening.  The main symptom of Asthma is shortness of breath as the result of the bronchial passages becoming narrowed through exposure to some type of stress, either physical (allergy) or psychological.

During an asthma attack, histamine and leukotrienes are produced by respiratory system, which results in a rapid constriction of the smooth muscle of the bronchial tubes.  The bronchial tubes narrow and reduces the amount of air that can pass.

Asthma is a seriously debilitating and sometimes life-threatening disease that affects more than 8 million adults in the United States.  The incidence of asthma cases has surged in recent years, although researchers are not sure why.  Asthma is the most common chronic pulmonary disorder in the United States.  Asthma prevalence has been increasing to epidemic levels, especially in areas with high urbanization.  More than 5,000 deaths are attributed to asthma attacks each year.

Asthma is experienced during the life span of approximately 10% of the population, resulting in morbidity and mortality costing a substantial economic burden on individuals and on society.  Although the research in asthma has advanced rapidly in recent years, the etiology of asthma remains unclear.  Asthma is not contagious, and although it appears to follow some genetic pattern.  Researchers have found that an asthma attack can be caused by heredity, air pollution, food allergy, infections, emotional disturbances, and dozens of other factors.

Almost 5% of adult-onset asthma cases were recognized as having work-related symptoms.  A worker reporting improvement of symptoms after being gone from the workplace over the weekend or after a vacation and then reporting a worsening of symptoms upon returning to the workplace is  labeled as having work-related asthma.

Among the various risk factors of asthma, those of occupational origin are gaining more importance with time due to use of various chemicals in industries which potentially induce hypersensitivity and predisposition to asthma.  In addition, there has long been evidence that physicians do not adequately assess the work-relatedness of many diseases, including asthma.  It appears that providers seldom recorded information about occupation in notes on asthma unless they considered the symptoms triggered by workplace exposures.

Although prescription medication for the treatment of asthma are abundant and are improving in effectiveness, there are inherent risks and side effects with most of them.  Despite many newer drugs for asthma, people are dying more frequently from this illness.  It is apparent that asthma is not well controlled in many individuals..... Asthma Treatment ...Continue