What Is Asthma?
Asthma is a chronic lung disease that affects people of all ages, majority of them affected during from their childhood. Asthma causes recurring periods of wheezing, chest constrictions, shortness of breath, and coughing. These episodes are normally reported late in the evening or early morning.
In the US alone more than 25 million people suffer from this debilitating disease, of which around 1/3rd are children.
What is an Asthma Attack?
Airways are tubes that carry air into and out of your lungs and asthma patients have airways that are swollen/inflamed and very sensitive. These airways react strongly and violently to certain inhaled substances. A typical attack triggers the following chain reaction:
- The muscles around your airways swell and tighten up, narrowing the airway.
- Less air is able to flow through the airway.
- Inflammation of the airways increases, further narrowing the airway.
- More mucus is produced in the airway cells, undermining the flow of air even more.
Most asthma attacks are mild and can be treated with asthma medicine, inhalers or nebulization. But when symptoms get more intense triggering other symptoms, it can turn fatal and medical assistance should be sought immediately.
Is there a Cure?
Asthma has no cure and even when the patient seems normal, attacks can manifest anytime. The only way to work around the disease is to stay away from the triggers and to decipher symptoms early and take medications or seek medical attention.
But there are natural ways in which you can strengthen your resistance to Asthma attacks and prepare your body to better defend or fight back the episodes. Alternative remedies like Yoga, Homeopathy and Ayurveda have shown good prognosis against the disease.
Here’s a small video on some natural ways to help control and reduce the impact of Asthma attacks:
