Asthma: What is Asthma?, Causes, Signs, Symptoms and Home Remedies Of Asthma - Page 3 of 5

A skin rash, allergies, and respiratory symptoms are health problems commonly experienced by children. Older adults suffer from chronic disease, but children are usually affected by food intolerance, influenza, and asthma. Out of many health problems in children, asthma is one of the most concerning for parents. You want the best for your child and feel afraid of him running out of air or gasping to breathe. It is one of the most common causes of recurrent visits to the emergency room by children accompanied by their parents.

Many asthmatic patients stop having episodes as an adult, but others are not so lucky. They keep experiencing wheezing and breathing problems despite growing older. That’s why in this article, we address asthma with a particular focus on signs and symptoms that require immediate attention. We’re also describing what you can do at home to prevent a future asthma episode and when experiencing mild symptoms.

What is asthma?

Asthma is a long-term health condition of the lungs that obstructs the airways. There’s inflammation in the airways, and they become narrow. As such, breathing becomes more difficult, and a characteristic sound develops.

This disease affects people of all ages, but it usually starts in children and improves as children grow into adult men and women. It causes cough, wheezing, and a tight chest sensation, as we will describe in the signs and symptoms section. These symptoms can be very mild or disturbing and very severe, and patients can have an episode every once in a while or every day, depending on their condition.

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In most cases, asthma has a trigger, and it is usually related to allergies. But even low temperatures and other environmental settings can also trigger the symptoms. Thus, part of the treatment is discovering the trigger, avoiding future episodes, and using rescue medicines when these episodes develop.

Many people live with asthma, and it is not usually a dangerous condition. It affects 26 million people only in the United States, and it is the most common chronic disease in children. As such, multiple education and prevention campaigns are held, and most doctors are trained to identify and treat asthma episodes.

What causes asthma?

We don’t know precisely what triggers asthma and why, but it is apparently a multifactorial disease. In other words, different elements contribute to the development of this health problem, and the trigger varies from one person to another.

Regardless of the origin of the disease, asthma triggers an immune response against normal tissues in the airways, and this mechanism is the same in all patients with asthma. The immune system is made to destroy invaders, and it is very active in the respiratory system because the airways are always in contact with bacteria and viruses. The role of these cells is to protect the body, but when the immune system responds aggressively and exaggeratedly to specific triggers, it also causes harm to healthy tissues. The trigger is known as an allergen, and the harmful reaction is known as allergy.

In the airways, this immune response causes inflammation of the walls, making them swell. As the walls of the airways swell, the available space for breathing air is reduced. Moreover, as a part of the response to expel the invaders, the airways start to produce mucus, which also takes up extra space in the airways, making them narrower still. This causes breathing problems by itself, but it is not the end of it. To top it off, the muscles around the airways start to contract. This is known as bronchospasm and has the same effect as in blood vessels: The lumen narrows further, and the air passage becomes severely compromised.

Altogether, airway edema, mucus, and bronchoconstriction cause airway obstruction. All of this is triggered by a substance known as Immunoglobulin E as a response to an allergen. After being exposed to the allergen, the airways start to swell in around 6 hours, but more immediate asthma attacks may also develop in some cases. When this happens, it is probably because the airway has remodeled, and this remodeling causes structural changes that predispose to sudden and very severe symptoms.

Another aspect of asthma that is important to understand is bronchial hyperresponsiveness. In simple words, the airways become predisposed to contract very rapidly, and bronchospasms appear shortly after being exposed to the trigger. Luckily, this predisposition can be reversed using bronchodilator drugs.

Signs and symptoms

Patients with asthma may not feel anything different with breathing when they are not undergoing an exacerbation. Thus, the disease may not have any sign or symptom if your child is not exposed to the trigger. That’s why the bronchial challenge test was developed, which uses histamine or another trigger to prompt bronchospasms in a controlled setting in order to evaluate the extent of the disease.

When flare-ups are starting to develop, and in severe cases, patients will have various symptoms in different degrees of intensity. The most common include:

Breathing difficulty: The most common symptom is the sensation of breathing difficulty. The patient has a noticeable change in his breathing pattern and feels he’s getting out of breath. He would take deep breaths trying to compensate and often feel anxious about their own condition.
Wheezing: This is another characteristic sign, and usually the give-out sign in infants and children who do not communicate their symptoms with their parents, caregivers, or physicians. The airways make this sound as they reduce their size and the flow of air on the walls starts to create an audible pitch. In mild cases, it will only be noticeable with a stethoscope.
Cough: In some cases, cough is the only presenting sign of asthma, and this modality is known as cough variant asthma. It is a condition that turns into traditional asthma when nothing is done to treat the problem. In the classic variant, asthma triggers cough as the airways become affected by mucus. It is a reflex to eliminate mucus along with the allergen.
A pressing sensation in the chest: As the airways tighten, patients also feel a tight sensation in the chest. It is not a painful sensation. It feels tight, similar to wearing a very small shirt.
Low tolerance to exercise: These basic symptoms are often triggered by exercise, and patients develop a low tolerance to exercise as the disease advances. Overweight and obesity also contribute to asthma, so the habit of sedentarism is potentially a source of more asthma symptoms in a vicious cycle.
Blood pressure changes: If you take the blood pressure of a person with asthma, you could notice a change in their blood pressure. Their systolic blood pressure lowers by 10 mmHg as they breathe in, and this is known as pulsus paradoxus. It is an important sign in asthma patients typically found in the physical exam.
Rapid breathing: These patients feel that they’re out of breath and need to breathe more rapidly and profoundly to compensate. The normal breathing rate is around 12 to 16 breaths per minute in adults and approximately 30 breaths per minute in a 6-year-old child. But asthmatic patients breathe more rapidly than expected for their age.
Rapid heartbeat: Tachycardia or a rapid heartbeat is also very likely in these patients, especially in more severe cases. Feeling nervous also contributes to increasing the heartbeat in grown-up children and adults aware of the consequences of not breathing and feeling afraid about their condition.
Accessory muscle use: Using accessory muscles for breathing is an essential step for a deep breath. These muscles are rarely used in normal breathing and include muscles of the neck, above the sternum, and between the ribs. A skilled physician would look at the patient without a shirt and examine his chest as he breathes to evaluate if they are using accessory muscles.
Barrel-shaped chest: Another sign that is visible for doctors at plain sight is a barrel-shaped chest. The chest increases its anteroposterior size when patients are not appropriately treated or remain symptomatic for a very long time. This is also seen in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Muting: The breathing effort is sometimes very intense and does not allow talking normally. This is more common in young children and may also be noticeable in adults with a more severe condition.
A prolonged expiratory phase: If we evaluate the breathing pattern, we will see a change in asthma patients. In most cases, the time we take to breathe in and breathe out is almost the same. In these patients, the breathing out phase of respiration is very long, and the relationship between inspiration and expiration is close to 1:3.
Cyanosis: When these symptoms are held for a very long time, and in severe respiratory insufficiency cases, patients can develop cyanosis. This is a change in the skin tone to a purple or violet tone as the blood reduces its levels of oxygen. Cyanosis is particularly common in very young children and infants who are more susceptible to oxygen changes.
Changes in the level of consciousness: In some cases, low oxygen levels affect the brain and cause a change in consciousness level. Patients may become drowsy, confused, or start talking incoherently. This symptom is not very common but primarily seen in older adults with a severe asthma case.

Alarming signs that require immediate attention

You can deal with asthma symptoms at home, and they are not always a reason to go to the emergency room. But you shouldn’t neglect the problem, either, especially if your child is having alarming symptoms. How can you tell when he needs immediate attention?

Gasping for air: Forced breathing and gasping for air is an alarm sign and requires immediate medical attention. These patients probably use their accessory respiratory muscles, and they are only activated when oxygen levels drop dramatically. A tight sensation in the chest, breathing difficulty, and very rapid breathing are alarming signs, too, but sometimes they improve after using rescue medications.
Audible wheezing: If your child keeps having an audible wheezing sound when breathing, it might be a good idea to bring him to the emergency room. It is only audible at a distance when the problem is more severe. If you can barely listen to him wheezing, use a rescue medication and see what happens next.
No response to quick-relief inhalers: Quick-relief inhalers are recommended for patients with asthma as a rescue measure to improve their symptoms. In most cases, they will solve the symptoms by relieving the bronchospasms. Still, if they do not work after a while, this is probably a more severe exacerbation and needs immediate medical attention.
Pale skin and cyanosis: This is probably the most critical symptom because it is a clear and alarming sign that oxygen levels are deficient. When the skin turns blueish, violet, or pale, it is time to use the rescue medicine while heading straight to the emergency room.

Home remedies and solutions

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But what if you have everything under control and only need a little something to improve your asthma? These natural remedies can work as home solutions to reduce the severity and frequency of flare-ups:

Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables: This contributes to a healthy weight, which may improve your symptoms if you’re overweight. Fruits and vegetables also have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant substances that may contribute to reducing the changes in the airways described above.
Curcumin and turmeric: These ingredients have a potent anti-inflammatory effect that works as a therapy for asthma.
Omega 3 fatty acids: Similar to curcumin and turmeric, Omega-3 has a robust anti-inflammatory potential.
Honey: It is beneficial for night cough if you take one or two tablespoons.
Ginger: You can also combine honey and ginger, which prompts bronchial relaxation and reduces tightening sensations in the chest.