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Breathe Easy Series

Breathe Easy Finale Breathe Easy series finale on asthma. By OC FamilyPublished: December, 2006

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Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases among children in the United States. An estimated 5 million children have suffered an attack in the past 12 months, and many others have an undiagnosed ailment. Depending on the severity of your child’s asthma, he or she may experience airway obstruction, chest tightness, coughing, wheezing, severe shortness of breath and low blood oxygen. If you or someone you know has asthma, you are sensitive to “triggers,” including particles carried in the air. These “triggers” can set off a reaction in your lungs and other parts of your body. Triggers can be found indoors or outdoors. They can be simple things like cold air, tobacco smoke and wood smoke, perfume, paint, hair spray or strong odors or fumes, allergens (particles that cause allergies), such as dust mites, pollen, molds, pollution, and animal dander, and the common cold, influenza, and other respiratory illnesses. Controlling the home environment is an important part of asthma and allergy care. Some general rules for all members of the family are: 1) reduce or remove as many asthma and allergy triggers from your home as possible, 2) use air filters and air conditioners (and properly maintain them) to make your home cleaner and more comfortable, 3) pay attention to the problem of dust mites especially in the bedroom of your asthmatic child, and 4) select a vacuum cleaner model with high-efficiency filters, such as micro filter or HEPA media, good suction, and sealed construction. Successful asthma management and the proper use of medication go hand-in-hand. Asthma medicines have the important job of keeping your airways open. There are two groups of medicines: 1) Bronchodilators are medicines that help to stop asthma attacks after they’ve started and can help prevent expected attacks, as from exercise. 2) Anti-inflammatories are medicines that help to control the airway inflammation and prevent asthma attacks from starting. If a child should experience an asthma episode, anxiety and panic should be controlled as much as possible. Parents should remain calm, encourage the child to relax and breathe easily and give appropriate medications. For information about smoking cessation and advocacy efforts, please call 800.LUNG.USA or log onto lungusa.org.

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