Asthma is a chronic inflammatory lung disease that impedes the body’s ability to intake oxygen into the lungs by the narrowing of bronchial airways. Inflamed bronchioles are the cause for tissue sensitivity to “triggers” such as cold weather, dust, smoke, and chemicals resulting in asthma attack. Asthma is characterized by airway inflammation as well as pathophysiological changes such as smooth muscle mass increase, subepithelial fibrosis, goblet cell hyperplasia, and more causing that airway to constrict and close. Commonly referred to as airway remodeling. Smooth muscle cells represent themselves as the major structure cell in the bronchiole airway, considered one of the major players in airway remodeling. Furthermore airway smooth muscle
Ibe, B. O., Portugal, A. M., & Raj, J. U. (2006). Levalbuterol inhibits human airway smooth muscle cell proliferation: Therapeutic implications in the management of asthma. International Archives of Allergy and Immunology , 225-236.
asthma and lung cancer, the study of its effects on lung development are quite limited; consequently, there
Emphysema’s target is the lungs. The inflammation caused by emphysema damages the alveoli, or air sacs. Over time, the air sacs lose their elasticity, no longer able to expand and detract like your favorite Thanksgiving elastic waist band pants. After so many Thanksgiving dinners, the elastic fibers break, and fai...
Ali Z, Norsk P, Ulrik C. Mechanisms and Management of Exercise-Induced Asthma in Elite Athletes. Journal Of Asthma. June 2012;49(5):480-486.
Imagine a young child competing with his or her fellow classmates during recess and immediately losing the ability to breathe normally. He or she stops in the middle of the competition and falls to the ground while holding his or her chest trying to find air. When you are young, being able to keep up with your peers during recess and sporting events is very important, however, having asthma restricts this. Asthma has a significant impact on childhood development and the diagnosis of asthma for children 18 years and younger has dramatically increased over the years. Asthma is known as a “chronic inflammation of the small and large airways” with “evident bronchial hyper-responsiveness, airflow obstruction, and in some patients, sub-basement fibrosis and over-secretion of mucus” (Toole, 2013). The constant recreation of the lung walls can even occur in young children and “lead to permanent lung damages and reduced lung function” (Toole, 2013). While one of the factors is genetics, many of the following can be prevented or managed. Obesity, exposure to secondhand smoke, and hospitalization with pneumonia in the early years of life have all been suggested to increase children’s risk of developing asthma.
"Asthma is a pulmonary disease with the following characteristics: 1) airway obstruction that is reversible in most patients either spontaneously or with treatment; 2) airway inflammation; and 3) increased airway responsiveness to a variety of stimuli" (Enright, 1996, p. 375). There presently exist many varieties of asthma that differ in the severity, means of induction, and methods of treatment. One type is exercise-induced asthma. "Exercise-induced asthma (EIA) is a temporary increase in airway resistance and acute narrowing of the airway that occurs after several minutes of strenuous exercise, usually after the exercise had ceased" (Spector, 1993, p. 571). Perfectly healthy individuals with no history of asthma or allergies can experience EIA. EIA can be found in 5.6%-25% of the general population and in 40%-90% of asthmatics (Randolph, 1997). EIA has been recognized for over 300 years, but only recently have it's pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment been studied in detail.
The severity of an indivual’s asthma is based on many factors, including the prescence and epistatic interactions of the asthma susceptibility genes; even if the genes are present, if the complementary miRNA strand is actively synthesized, the genes won’t cause asthma. Genetic and miRNA expression can then be altered by environmental exposures through methylation and acetylation. The genetic and environmental contributions discussed here to the expression of asthma are a small fraction of the known factors. Due to the complicated intertwined relationship of the abundant factors contributing toward asthmatic phenotypes that have been discovered in approximately the last twenty years, the currently known complexity of asthma could very well be simple in relation to the verity of asthma’s genetic and environmental labyrinthe.
It has been estimated that up to 90% of all asthmatics are hyperresponsive to exercise. In addition, high-intensity exercise contributes to the development of asthma and is the most common trigger of an acute asthma attack. Consequently, exercise-induced asthma in athletes most likely develops during an active sports career. Likewise, exercise-induced asthma seems to slow...
Understanding the pathogenesis of asthma is a solution to creating treatments that are more effective. “For more than two decades now, asthma has been recognized as a chronic inflammatory disease involving inflammation of both the central and peripheral airways” (Tulic 71). This chronic inflammation results in structural changes in the airways of the asthmatic patient, referred to as airway remodeling. Airway remodeling is the cause of the symptoms seen in asthmatics during an attack like severe dyspnea, wheezing or difficulty in expiration (Kumar and Robbins 492). There are five major aspects of the body affected by asthma, mostly due to chronic infl...
Asthma is a condition of the bronchial tubes characterized by episodes of constriction and increased mucous production. A person with asthma has bronchial tubes that are super sensitive to various stimuli, or triggers, that can produce asthma symptom.In other words, asthmatics have special sensitivity that causes their lung tissue to react far more than is should to various stimulating factors or triggers. For this reason, people with asthma are said to have "twitchy airways."Some symptoms that people with asthma commonly experience are chest tightenings, difficulty inhaling and exhaling, wheezing, production of large amounts of mucous in their windpipes and coughing.Coughing can be frequent or intermittent, and can be loose-reflecting extra mucous secretion in the airways or dry and deep-reflecting tight bronchospasms. Not all these symptoms occur in every case of asthma.Sometimes people may have coughing without and symptoms for months or even years before it's realized that they are asthmatic. Interestingly enough, asthma symptoms are most severe at night, while we're lying down our airways narrow as a result of gravity changes. Also our lungs do not clear secretions as well at night, which leads to mucous retention, and that can increase the obstruction to air flow.
Asthma is chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways characterized by recurring episodes of wheeling and breathlessness. It often exists with allergies and can be worsened through exposure to allergens. In fact, asthma is complicated syndromes that have neither single definition nor complete explanation to the point. In light of its treatment, it is worthwhile to notice that asthma cannot be cured, instead can be only managed by avoiding exposure to allergens and/or by using medications regularly.
Asthma is a disorder of the respiratory system in which the passages that enable air to pass into and out of the lungs periodically narrow, causing coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. This narrowing is typically temporary and reversible, but in severe attacks, asthma may result in death. Asthma most commonly refers to bronchial asthma, an inflammation of the airways, but the term is also used to refer to cardiac asthma, which develops when fluid builds up in the lungs as a complication of heart failure. This article focuses on bronchial asthma.
Asthma is a serious ongoing disease that affects the airways of both adults and children.5 It is a type of inflammatory disease in your lungs with multiple triggers which may include the flu, indoor allergies, pets, dust mites, exercise, and tobacco smoke. Asthma has been recognized since ancient Egyptian times. Researchers found prescriptions written in hieroglyphics. Aretaus of Cappadonia an ancient Greek master clinician wrote the initial clinical description of asthma. Aaezein is the Greek word from which the current medical term Asthma come. The original Greek term mean ' sharp breath'. There are many people who have this chronic disease. Approximately 7.1 million children are diagnosed, and 18.9 million adults; 8.2 percent of the population of the United States.
Acute asthma exacerbation occurs when individuals are exposed to an environmental trigger. The disease of chronic asthma creates a medium for hyperresponsiveness. The bronchial environment comprises of inflammation and inflammatory mediators. Consequently, when exposed to an antigen, “increased cellular permeability, smooth muscle contraction, and increased mucus production” occur (Huether & McCance, 2012, p. 689). The ...
Most of you may not think of asthma as a killer disease, yet more that 5,000 Americans die of asthma each year. According to the Mayo Clinic web page, asthma also accounts for more that 400,000 hospital discharges annually. As the number of people with asthma increases, the more likely you are to come in contact with a person who has the disease. As far as I can remember, I have had asthma my whole life. My mother and one of my sisters also have asthma, so I have a first hand experience with it. This morning, I will discuss some interesting facts about asthma, I will specifically focus on what it is, warning signs, symptoms, causes, and the treatments that are used.