Essay Example on Asthma: Airway Inflammation, Swelling, and Difficulty Breathing

Introduction

Asthma is a disease that involves the airways in the lungs by blocking air to come in and out of the lungs through the bronchial tubes. If an individual develops Asthma, their airways are always inflamed, swollen, and the muscles around the lungs tighten thus making it challenging to breathe mainly when the signs are triggered (Weinberger, 2016). In most circumstances, symptoms such as chest tightness, shortness of breath, wheezing and coughing develops. Most people that have asthma develop symptoms related to their physical activities.

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This means that asthma develops when they are exercising, and this type of condition is known as exercise-induced asthma or exercise-induced bronchoconstriction. However, his does not mean that they should not apply because it is healthy for the human body. In most circumstance, the physician plays a vital role to help the patient keep the symptoms under control either after or during physical activities (Weinberger, 2016). Research has shown that people that come from families that either has asthma or allergies are prone to getting the disease, and that is why most of them develop allergic asthma.

Understanding the pathophysiology of Asthma is vital because it assists one to understand the condition both in treatment and diagnosis. For the last 25 years, the knowledge of asthma has changed, and many researchers have discovered various asthma phenotypes (Boulet, 2017). This means that the disease has pathophysiological factors that involve bronchiolar inflammation with airway resistance and constriction that generates episodes of wheezing, shortness of breath and coughing. In many cases, inflammation takes place even if the signs and symptoms have not occurred.

Usually, edema, epithelial, excessive mucus, and bronchospasm usually develop with bronchoconstriction with bronchospasm. This is a condition that comes with sharp constrictions of bronchospasm, and bronchial smooth muscle that makes the airways to narrow and the edema to have leakage from the microvascular that contributing to airway closing (Boulet, 2017). Also, the capillaries leak, dilate and increase the secretions which later impairs mucus clearance and edema.

The cause of asthma is still unknown, but various factors known to develop it are a combination of environmental exposure with genetic predisposition if the particles and substances are inhaled because it provokes allergic irritation or reaction to the airways. Such factors include indoor allergens such as pet dander, pollution, stuffed furniture and carpets and house dust mites found in beds (Ramonell, 2019). Other factors include tobacco smoke, chemical irritants found in workplaces, and outdoor allergens like molds and pollens.

Other factors that trigger asthma include extreme emotional rouses like fear or anger, physical exercise, and cold air. Certain medications that are known to trigger asthma include the non-steroid inflammatory drugs, aspirin, and beta blockers primarily if they are used to treat migraines, heart conditions and high blood pressure (Ramonell, 2019). Urbanization is also another factor that knows to be associated with asthma if nature is unclear.

EBP Guidelines of Asthma

The EPR-3 states that it is vital to control asthma by focusing on future risk and the current impairment if they asses the severity of asthma, and how the disease is controlled (Becker & Abrams, 2017). The guidelines also include an expansion on childhood asthma section, new recommendations, new guidance on medication both on patients and the physician's office to control the environmental exposures that cause Asthma.

Scientifically it has been proven that people that have asthma can control the disease when they follow the clinical practice guidelines. When they are appropriately taken care of, they sleep throughout the night, stay active and always stay undisrupted without getting asthmatic attacks (Becker & Abrams, 2017). As a general rule, all patients that have the disease must have any or few asthma symptoms, still wake up at night due to the symptoms, have no or few limits while participating in any physical activity, and have no emergency.

The strategies as proposed by the guidelines are based on the immunological and pathophysiological mechanism of asthma. Various developments and approaches such as specific cytokine and immunotherapy, adhesion or chemokine molecule antagonists are reviewed as part of the treatment of asthma (Becker & Abrams, 2017). The treatment of asthma varies from country to country, and each method is taken into account for the convenience of the patient as well as to prevent the side-effects.

It is evident that even if the effort is applied to develop new ways for treating asthma, drugs such as adrenoceptor agonist and inhaled corticosteroids remain the only recommended medication by the guidelines. It's clear that the combination of medicines used today to relieve the airway smooth muscles thus making the individual have control, and this makes treatment in the future effective.

Summary

In general, asthma is a disease that uses medicines that are divided by two: The adrenoceptor agonists which relieve the acute symptoms and bronchoconstriction of asthma such as chest tightness, wheezing, and cough. The drug is also used as rescue medication. The second one is corticosteroids which are long-term basis medicines taken daily to keep persistent asthma from occurring. The non-pharmacological approaches are therefore vital when it comes to managing asthma. Such strategies are practical when combined with other medicines. The lessons learned on this topic is that Asthma is a disease that can become chronic if someone is not keen. Even though its cause is unknown, the best way is to live a healthy life to control not only asthma but other diseases.

References

Becker, A. B., & Abrams, E. M. (2017). Asthma guidelines. Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical Immunology,17(2), 99-103. doi:10.1097/aci.0000000000000346

Boulet, L. (2017). Pathophysiology of asthma. Applied Respiratory Pathophysiology, 67-96. doi:10.1201/9781315177052-5

Ramonell, R. P., Kuruvilla, M., Sica, G., Bag, R., & Lee, F. E. (2019). An external cause of asthma. Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, 122(4), 420-422. doi: 10.1016/j.anai.2019.01.009

Weinberger, M. (2016). Asthma and Pseudo-Asthma. Allergy and Asthma, 293-309. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-30835-7_19