A bronchial asthma attack can strike at any time. The constant threat of such an attack means that your life must always be shaped around your asthma. A bronchial asthma attack takes place when for some reason your airways close down or become obstructed, making it difficult to get adequate oxygen into your lungs. You may feel like you are suffocating and begin to panic, which only makes the situation worse.
One of the more frustrating aspects of asthma is that there are so many triggers for it. But for most people, regardless of trigger, the asthma will follow the same pattern every time. First you will feel it getting difficult to get air into your lungs. It may feel like your chest is tight and you can’t gasp enough to get air.
A part of the tightness may involve muscle spasms and increased fluid in the area. In fact, one of the processes that is common in bronchial asthma attacks is an increase in mucous. At the same time, the area blood vessels fill up as the area becomes inflamed. Not only do these things occur during an asthma attack, but they can be contributing factors for, or even the causes of, an asthma attack. As you would expect, measures to fight off a bronchial asthma attack must counter these factors.
Typically a nebulizer and corticosteroids are used to bring the local inflammatory process under control. Typically, you can overcome an asthma attack without fighting the root cause, if you get quick treatment with these products. Again, one of the first symptoms of a bronchial asthma attack is a tightening of the chest. But other things can cause this feeling. When wheezing or a coughing spell accompany tightness of the chest, an asthmatic can be pretty sure that an attack is in the early stages.
What Causes Asthma?
Again, there are many triggers for asthma attacks. Allergies are one of the most common causes. For example, milk consumption has been associated with a large percentage of asthma attacks. Allergies involve inflammatory processes, so those with asthma and allergies tend to have a lot of attacks. Pollutants in the air can cause inflammation in the airways and lungs, so these can trigger attacks. Even emotional states of mind, such as high stress situations, can lead to muscle constriction that can trigger asthma attacks.
In terms of the larger picture, asthma has been associated with a lot of environmental and hereditary factors, making it difficult to name a singular cause. It is known that areas with a lot of pollution, particularly diesel fumes, tend to have higher rates of asthma. Heredity may be a factor, but it isn’t necessarily a cause. In fact, like allergies, the percentage of the population with asthma continues to rise at alarming rates. So a lot of research remains to be done in determining what specifically is creating more asthmatics.
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