Asthma

Caroline Leal

In the United States alone, an estimated twenty million people or more suffer from a type of asthma (Healthmad website, 2009). Asthma is a lung condition which affects a person’s bronchial (or “airway”) tubes, making the process of breathing difficult. According to Tortora and Derrickson (2007), asthma is “a disorder characterized by chronic airway inflammation, airway hypersensitivity to a variety of stimuli, and airway obstruction” (p. 467). When a person breathes normally, air is carried through the nose or mouth and into the trachea, (or “windpipe”), passing through the bronchial tubes, into the lungs, and back out again. In a person with asthma, however, these airways are inflamed, meaning that they swell and produce an overabundance of thick mucus. Because the airways are also highly sensitive, anything from dust mites, molds, and sulfating agents to cigarette smoke, cold air, and exercise can trigger an asthma attack. “Symptoms [of asthma] include difficult breathing, coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, tachycardia, fatigue, moist skin, and anxiety” (Tortora, Derrickson, 2007, p. 467).

Fortunately, asthma is a condition that may be reversed, at least partially if not fully, with treatment. Theophylline, for example, is a daily pill that opens airway passages by relaxing muscles around the airway, and is just one of many long-term medications that are available to asthma sufferers. Other short-term medications may include allergy-desensitization shots (immunotherapy), which are usually given once a week for several months, and inhaled medications such as Beta-2 agonists and Ipratropium (Mayoclinic website, 2009). Although treatment varies from person to person, a combination of long-term and short-term medications taken with a handheld inhaler are generally an effective means of combating this widespread lung condition.

References

Asthma: Treatment and drugs. (2009). Retrieved June 16, 2009, from http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/asthma/DS00021/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs

How many people have asthma? (2009). Retrieved June 16, 2009, from http://www.healthmad.com/Conditions-and-Diseases/How-Many-People-Have-Asthma.453941

Tortora, G.J. & Derrickson, B. (2007) Introduction to the human body: The

essentials of anatomy and physiology (7th edition). New York, NY: John

Wiley & Sons, Inc.