Research Paper On Asthma

Asthma is a disease that affects an individual’s respiratory system. According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (2014), “it is a chronic lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways, causing reoccurring periods of wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and coughing”. It can happen to anyone, but it mostly affects children starting from a very young age. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of 2009, one in twelve people are diagnosed with asthma in the United States, that is equivalent to about 25 million people. This number still continues to grow over the years. More than half of this number has had an asthma attack, although it has happened more to children than to adults. I

The CDC (2017) states that an asthma attack, “ may include coughing, chest tightness, wheezing and trouble breathing… the attack happens in your body’s airways…”. In order to control your asthma and avoid an attack I learned that there are certain triggers that need to be avoided. These are called “asthma triggers” and can vary in every individual who suffers with asthma. The most common are tobacco smoke, dust mites, and air pollution. It’s highly important for people with asthma to learn how to avoid those triggers. People with asthma are more likely to have problems sleeping, miss school or work, have problems during physical activity, and go to the hospital. There are many ways it can be controlled and

She was diagnosed at a young age in elementary school. We both went to the same elementary school together and we had physical education every week. Some days we would run the perimeter of the school and other days we played soccer against other classes. I do remember our teachers keeping us very active almost every day. That’s when my friend says she started noticing something wasn’t right. After any physical activity, she had breathing problems that did not seem normal. She explained to me that it felt as if she was “drowning in a pool”. I asked her what were her first reactions after finding out she actually had asthma. She responded by saying she didn’t think too much of it at first, she didn’t really understand what it was, obviously she only knew that she felt horrible when she felt she couldn’t breathe. I think that because she was diagnosed at a young age that is the reason in which why she did not have such a big reaction. She told me that overtime she did start learning more about her illness and that also helped her cope with it. Growing up she started to understand why she had breathing problems compared to all the other kids at school. She asked a lot of questions, researched in the computer, and gained a lot of knowledge about asthma. As she learned more about her illness, she mentioned how it actually helped her create her asthma action plan. She uses an inhaler for