What Is Asthma

Nobody really enjoys having asthma attacks. In this chapter, you will find different methods used to prevent asthma attacks. Living healthy, happy and normal lives, without having to worry about the occurrence of the annoying signs and symptoms of an asthma attack is not only possible but probable.1) Visit A DoctorIt is very important to visit a doctor once you suspect or know that you have asthma because by doing so, precautionary measures and vital tips and advice will be given by your doctor.2) Learn What Triggers The Asthma AttacksLearning what triggers your asthma attacks is important so that you can avoid being exposed to them. Although some people may easily identify what triggers their asthma attacks, it is still highly suggested that asthmatics visit their doctor or an asthma specialist so that there will be a clear diagnosis of the triggering factors.3) Get Rid Of The TriggersWhen you are aware of what triggers your asthma attack, it's high time that you rid yourself of those triggers. If the triggers are found in your home, such as dust or flowers, you should do your best to get rid of them so that your life will be easier and avoid asthma attacks. You can ask your friends or family members to help you get rid of the triggers in your home. Why expose yourself to the triggers by trying to get rid of them, right? If the triggers are found in your workplace, you might have to consider finding a new job; or, if that's too drastic for you, you can ask your boss if it's possible to move or transfer you to a place or area that does not have any asthma triggers. Do explain your health situation to your boss clearly and honestly so that he or she can understand you and give you proper consideration.If your trigger is a scent or other beauty product, you have no choice but to stop using the product. Even though the trigger may be your favorite scent, you really have to give it up or else you will suffer asthma attacks.4) Take Medicines Faithfully

Asthma, with its resultant wheezing and shortness of breath, is a distressing condition. At worst it can be fatal, so asthma attacks should be taken extremely seriously, with sufferers and their family doing everything possible to reduce the incidence of these frightening attacks.Adult on-set asthma is often caused by environmental or dietary factors, so when seeking asthma relief it's important first of all to address these factors in your life style.The most common food allergens to avoid are: eggs, wheat, dairy products (including yoghurt), yeast, fish and citrus. Others thought to be implicated include: corn, peanuts, carrots, prawns, colas, red meat (especially pork), salt, spinach, chicken, turkey, sunflower seeds, soya products, yeast, goat's milk, kidney beans, sugar, blackcurrants and food additives - particularly tartrazine (E102), benzoates (E210-219) and metabisulphite (E220-227).Common environmental triggers include animal dander (minute scales shed from an animal's skin, hair or feathers), chemicals, drugs, house-dust mite, goose feathers, fumes, mould, grasses, pollen, tobacco smoke or environmental pollution such as fumes from paint, adhesives, industrial or dry cleaning chemicals.Other triggers to avoid include: adrenal disorders, anxiety, changes in temperature or weather, excessive exercise, extremes of dryness or humidity, low blood sugar, emotional stress such as fear, and - oddly enough, even laughing in some sufferers,Dietary Recommendations: Identify and avoid food allergens, see list above for those which are most common. Ideally aim to eat about 1lb (400-500g) of fresh fruits and vegetables daily. Include nuts, seeds, oatmeal, brown rice and wholegrains. Follow a diet that maintains a steady blood sugar level (small regular meals) and is relatively high in protein and low in carbohydrates.Include garlic and onions. They contain quercetin which has been shown to inhibit an enzyme that aids in releasing inflammatory chemicals. Include 'green, chlorophyll, drinks'. A juice fast including lots of lemon juice for three days per month can help rid the body of toxins and mucous.Avoid wheat bran, sugar, yeast and gas-producing foods such as beans, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. Don't have ice cream or iced drinks as they may shock the bronchial tubes into spasm.Flax oil seeds or capsules are a good vegetarian source of essential fatty acids (EFAs) that are necessary to produce anti-inflammatory prostaglandins. If using seeds, grind them or drink with plenty of water.

The myth that asthma limits physical abilities is not true. Exercise is an important activity for our everyday life and people with allergies and asthma are usually able to exercise. Research has also shown that regular moderate exercise as part of a professionally guided programme of asthma management helps prevent asthma attacks. Exercise should however, not be done during times of sickness.Here are some tips to help you prevent asthma and allergy attacks during exercise:1. Pack your medicine in your gym bag: The type of medication will depend on your condition- either allergy or asthma. People with allergies may take antihistamine tablets before the activity while those with asthma can use the inhaler before the exercise. If you take the medication 15 minutes before the exercise, you should be all right.2. Consider your environment and the weather: For those who have dust mite allergy, you may consider exercising outdoors because of household mites but those who are allergic to grasses or weeds should consider an indoor location during certain seasons.Check that the air is not too cold or too dry. This can irritate the bronchial tubes. Warm, moist air generally allows people with asthma to exercise successfully. Do all you can to avoid exercising in areas with large amounts of chemicals. Industrial areas are a perfect example, or heavy traffic areas with high levels of exhaust fumes. Keep indoor exercise free of irritating odours.3. Participate in exercises that require shorter bursts of exercise: these exercises tend to cause less trouble than those that involve long periods of running. For people with asthma, swimming is the ideal exercise. This is because, with the high humidity, you mouth won't dry out. Baseball, tennis and golf is also good.4. Breathe through your nose, not your mouth: If you open your mouth to gasp for air when exercising hard, you are drying out the back of throat and it becomes cool, which triggers your asthma. So keep your mouth closed and breathe through your nose.5. Take time to warm up: It is recommended that you should not push yourself beyond your capabilities. Begin your exercise programme carefully. Take time to warm up and then start out slow but steady. Starting out fast will make you wear out fast.6. Take precautions seriously: For those who have insect sting allergies, here are some tips if you are exercising outdoors.

How to explain asthma? Asthma is something we are all aware of; even if it doesn't affect us directly we know it kills, but what is it? Here are some useful things you should know about asthma.Asthma kills. We have had epidemics of Cholera and Typhoid killing thousands of people and now, in this generation, we have asthma. It is not as dramatic as those other two diseases since it is not contagious and doesn't wipe out swathes of population at a time. Headline news is not as attention grabbing when it is not a threat to the entire population. However, the facts show asthma is steadily on the increase and potentially a greater killer than Cholera and Typhoid combined.Asthma is something we are all aware of. Even if it doesn't affect us or our families directly, we have heard of it. But what exactly is it?Asthma Attacks and Panic AttacksHere is a general description of what happens during an asthma attack. The lining swells in the tubes running from the lungs, up through the throat to the mouth and nose, thus leaving less space for the passage of air; the throat muscles contract and mucus builds up giving the sensation of being strangled from the inside. It continues getting narrower and the sufferer finds it more and more difficult to breathe.At this stage it is called an asthma attack. What follows is gasping for air accompanied by a sense of panic. This may develop into a panic attack with the sufferer feeling like they are drowning. Frequently this is accompanied by chest pains. It's a very scary experience. If asthma has not been diagnosed, you may well believe you are having a heart attack.So, assuming you know this is asthma, the next question is "Why does it happen?" The truth is there is no single simple answer. There is frequently a family pattern, so a genetic predisposition is a factor. Studies into asthma show that smoking and obesity are significant contributors. The environment has changed considerably in recent times and, interestingly, underdeveloped countries have a much lower incidence of asthma than the more developed hygiene-conscious populations.Asthma TriggersAsthma affects different people in different ways. Pollen does affect some people while others may be unaffected by the pollen but react to domestic pets, certain wines or cigarette smoke. These are called asthma triggers and there are many of them. As well as those already mentioned, some common ones are dust mite droppings, exertion, anything requiring good breathing such as laughing or even speaking sometimes. It is well worth it to try and discover just what your individual trigger is (there may be more than one). This is time consuming, so please be patient - it will be worth it, I promise! Observation and common sense will help make your life easier.

A natural asthma relief comes in the form of apple cider vinegar. Apple cider vinegar, known as the "wonder medicine", has been used since ancient times to cure ailments. It has been used to aid and promote a variety of number of health benefits, including promoting longevity! And if you are suffering from asthma, regular intake of it will help you feel much better.Just take a spoonful of it every day, and you will reap all the health benefits that comes with it. If you do not like the taste, you can put the spoon right to the back of your mouth, beyond your taste buds, and just swallow it quickly. Otherwise, you can mix it with a glass of water and some lemon to hide the taste. Usually, after a few days, you will get used to the taste and may even begin to enjoy the acquired taste.Another way that you can take it is by heating it slightly and take it with some honey. Make sure that you heat it over the stove, and not in the microwave, as this will change the molecular structure of it and cause it to lose its efficacy. Do not over heat it, just heat it slightly with some honey to make it more pleasant for you. This will soothe your throat and bronchial, and ward off the irritation of the throat that cause those nasty coughs that accompany asthma.By taking this regularly, you will find your health improving drastically. Whenever you feel an asthma attack coming on, take one tablespoon mixed in water and sip it slowly. You will find that the wheezing will lessen considerably. If it does not stop, take another spoonful with another glass of water, and breathe deeply. Apple cider vinegar contains a potent supply of potassium which can help relief symptoms like running nose, sinus, excessive mucus formation and watery eyes. You will find that it will clear your breathing passage.However, natural asthma relief remedies can only do so much for you, if you do not get rid of the cause of the asthma itself. If it is work related asthma due to stress, you may need to find alternative jobs in the long term. So many people are suffering from asthma that it is becoming a rather alarming disease to society. We need to take preemptive measures to put a stop to this.

For some reason or other more than 50% of people with asthma also have sinus symptoms or nasal symptoms of some kind. Oftentimes the symptoms are of an allergic nature and can be triggered by mold, animal dander, pests, pollen or dampness. If you have chronic inflammation in your nasal passages due to sinus problems this can trigger symptoms of asthma. It's unknown just how asthma can be triggered by sinus infections or sinus problems and scientists are still working on it. What causes asthma is one of the mysteries or puzzles that affect many sinus and asthma sufferers.One possibility is that something in the diet is causing both the sinus and asthma symptoms, in other words - from the same food source. People on vegan diets experience less sinus problems. One possibility is that the postnasal drip (the sinus drainage that goes down the back of your throat) drains into the lower airway leading to increased inflammation and hyper-reactivity. Asthma can be aggravated if the nasal obstruction causes you to breathe through your mouth. This can cause a loss of heat and moisture into the lower airways.Until scientists determine what exactly the connection is between asthma and asthma attacks and sinusitis, sinus infections and sinus problems you want to make sure and do everything you can to control or eliminate the sinus problems. By doing so you can be in a good position to control and manage 50% of the asthma problems just by eliminating known causes of sinus problems and sinus infections.By managing the sinus problems you should be able to experience less asthma attacks and may actually come up with the reason you're having the asthma and sinus issues, especially by changing your diet - say to a raw food diet or raw vegan diet. That would be eliminating milk, which has long been suspect and meat, grains (which can cause celiac disease - the gluten in wheat, spelt, barley, rye, kamut and others) and wheat is the most allergic food there is. And there are other highly allergic foods to consider.People have cured themselves of asthma; it doesn't necessarily have to be a life sentence. Many kids have outgrown it. If you start today on working on getting rid of all the causes of sinus problems in your life you may just stop the asthma for good. Sinus medications are not the answer and may interfere with any inhalers or asthma medications you may be taking. Antibiotics are no longer routinely prescribed since most sinus infections are caused by fungi or mold and not bacteria. There are good natural home remedies for sinus infections that work.

You can conquer your asthma beginning immediately. You will have to fight a battle on 3 fronts, but in this technological age everything you need to know is at your fingertips. Plan your campaign of attack and begin today, and in a very short time you could be experiencing life-long freedom from asthma symptoms.1. Triggers of asthma and allergiesIf you suffer from asthma, chances are that your attacks are triggered by something in your environment. either at work or at home. More and more information about asthma triggers is now available via the internet.2. Breath re-trainingBut even where triggers are present, breath re-training has been proven to be highly effective for the prevention and control of asthma symptoms. Scientific tests have shown that by re-training your habitual breathing patterns, you can control the onset of an attack, and with further practice, eliminate attacks altogether using the simple method described in this article (Read on).3. Nutritional supplements and herbal remediesOver the past century, the march of Western Medicine has enabled us to control the symptoms of a variety of illnesses. Meanwhile, age-old herbal treatments have been forgotten or relegated to the status of "snake-oil" and quackery, but evidence shows that our ancestors new more than most of us realize about freely available herbs and natural remedies that can be highly effective.

Have you actually calculated how much you will owe on that student loan, yet? The numbers are staggering, and you'll likely spend the first decade after graduation still living paycheck to paycheck because of the payments. There are alternatives that many still haven't learned about.The federal government and private companies are offering a $10,000 scholarship for undergraduate students for university education purposes. This money is not a loan, but instead a grant that will never be repaid. The obvious question: "how can I get one?"Well, let's first understand where this money is coming from. When the economy tanked, many headed back to school, and our President saw this as an opportunity to educate America's workforce to ensure our success in the global marketplace. In doing so, many private organizations joined in, and suddenly there was plenty of scholarship money to go around. In fact, the qualifications are endless.Many students still don't understand how to find college scholarships. The process can be tedious, but it doesn't have to be. The private corporations have websites that you can register with, using simple a name and an email address, that will update you with information regarding grants that you may qualify for. Many students are learning that there is $10,000 waiting on them, they needed only to claim it!To broaden the qualifications, in addition to "field specific" scholarships, there are scholarships for students with ADHD, asthma, or any disability. These grants are designed to help those in need to offset the costs of a college education, allowing them to focus on their studies.Visit a reputable collegiate grant site, and find out just how much in scholarship money to qualify for. Whether you're seeking a scholarship for undergraduate students for university education purposes, or scholarships for students with ADHD, asthma, or any disability, you'll find what you're looking for via one of these sites.So, to answer the question of how to find college scholarships...right here!

In the previous years, a large variety of asthma treatments has been released adding to the confusion of parents on which needs to be used in different situations.There are basically two types of medications. What are these?Controller Asthma MedicinesThese is also called preventive treatment for asthma which can be given to your child daily to aid in keeping symptoms at bay as well as asthma attacks.What are these controller asthma medicines?• Inhaled steroids like Asmanex, Aerobid, Flovent HFA, Azmacort etc.• Leukotriene receptor antagonists• Advair which is a mixture of beta2 agonist and steroids• Long acting beta2 agonists

The first step to learning how your body can overcome asthma and many other diseases is to first understand how your body works and how asthma may be caused. There is no sure thing on what will causes asthma because of the issues that surround the problem. Hereditary is to blame in a lot of cases of asthma, even if the person from your family was like your great granddads granddad. Another theory on what causes asthma is environmental pollution. Environmental pollution plays a big role in an asthma sufferer's triggers list for what can trigger an asthma attack. For example the cleaning products that you use inside your home can trigger an asthma attack. On high pollution days when the ozone layer has dropped down to ground level, you begin breathing in all the toxins that have been floating around on the jet stream. Breathing in these toxins right in your own front yard can be catastrophic to someone with asthma, and it happens all over the world.So, understanding some of those triggers may lead us back to what actually causes the disease in the first place. Let us start at the beginning of when you were being created inside your mother's womb. Your mother had already started to share her toxic burden that she has accumulated with you during your first stages of life. That means when you were you born your body was already burdened with environmental pollution. Each child born anywhere in the world has an approximate amount of toxins they are born with and that numbers is about 200 known toxins and carcinogens in their blood stream. So our battle with disease like asthma and your body's immune system are already compromised the day you are born. We have already begun to work on cleaning up our planet but what about the damage that has already been done? Our planet is a toxic playground and we are in constant danger from this pollution.Since the damage has already been done to our planer then a simple action plan should be simple to formulate. The idea of toxins in our bodies creates the problem of having to remove these toxins. Like our planets problem, where we have buried tons of toxins in the ground it's not likely the job of removal would be an easy one. Unlike the planet our bodies can make it much simpler. Cleaning out the toxins from our body can open up many doors to healing. The war that goes on daily inside your body could slow down to just a small fight because of toxins that won't give your body the leverage it needs to fight against disease and illness. Now, the process of removing these toxins can be hard to find and you have to decide if you want to remove them chemically or naturally. Which one would you prefer? If you said naturally you're on the right track because chemicals are what are making our toxic burden grow out of control. This accounts for the sharp rise in asthma cases and many other diseases.The removal of your toxic burden naturally starts right in your home and in your kitchen. Vegetables and fruits must be washed thoroughly to insure that the chemicals they were sprayed with to keep the bugs off are not going to end up in your digestion track or other places. The best defense is not to take in any toxins at all, but unfortunately as our planet becomes more and more polluted our options start to decrease. There is one method that can remove toxins and relieve the stress on your body and can work so effectively that you don't even know that it's doing its job. It is a subtle thing created by Mother Nature herself to help us in this time of great need. Environmental pollution is slowly killing us all. Our bodies do have the natural ability to remove toxins and metals but it is being overrun with them. What it cannot remove it is forced to absorb into your body. Once absorbed the problems begin with sickness, slowly moving, having no energy to the onslaught of disease and illness because of the weakened state of your body. Can your body overcome asthma? I believe so, it's been done before. All you need is to believe and try something new and natural. Do your homework first.