Strategies for Reducing Asthma Attacks

Strategies for Reducing Asthma Attacks
Causes of Asthma
Asthma is a condition that causes the patient's airways to swell and narrow making breathing difficult triggering coughing (Shaheen, 2019). The patient might have a whistling sound when they breathe due to shortness of breath. Some people will only get a minor nuisance from asthma. However, for others, it will be a major issue, which interferes with their daily activities. It could also lead to a life-threatening asthma attack. The causes of asthma are not well known. Asthma is a condition that has puzzled many health professionals, but most of them have noted genetic and environmental factors do play a huge role (Shaheen, 2019). When a person has asthma, they will react to things in the world around them, and this reaction is referred to as asthma triggers. Exposure to certain substances and irritants that trigger allergies will result in signs and symptoms of asthma. These triggers vary between individuals and while a person's asthma might be triggered by one allergen others might not be triggered. The common asthma triggers are allergens like pollen, mold, pet dander, dust mites, tobacco smoke, respiratory infections, cold air, physical activity, medications like aspirins, sulfites, and preservatives, and Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
Symptoms of Asthma
A patient having an asthma attack will have these symptoms:
· Coughing,
· Shortness of breath,
· Wheezing, pain, tightness or pressure in their chest,
· Trouble sleeping.
Signs of a severe asthma attack include:
· Breathing faster,
· Too breathless to speak, eat, or sleep,
· Fast heartbeat,
· Fainting,
· Wheezing, chest tightness and coughing becoming severe,
· Orthopnea,
· Blue lips.
The symptoms of asthma will vary from patient to patient. However, the most common symptoms are the ones mentioned, and the patient does not have to show all the symptoms at the same time. Sometimes a patient can have symptoms only at certain times like when they are exercising, or for other patients, they might have them all the time.
Management of Asthma
Currently, there is no cure for asthma, but there are treatments that can assist in controlling the symptoms to allow the patient to live a normal life (McCracken, Veeranki, Ameredes, & Calhoun, 2017). The number one treatment is the use of inhalers, which are devices that let the patient breathe in the medicine. Inhalers will assist in relieving the symptoms when they occur and stop the symptoms from developing. The patient should also be advised to avoid their triggers. Environmental control, desensitization, preventive therapy and taking steps to avoid triggers, and monitoring breathing are some of the steps a patient can be advised to do to keep their symptoms under control as they are still taking their daily asthma medications (Gautier & Charpin, 2017). Identifying the outdoor triggers might take a while, but if done correctly the patient will manage to avoid the outdoor triggers, and this will be beneficial for their asthma management. Teaching a patient to recognize when they are about to have an attack. Recognizing the warning signs like slight coughing, shortness of breath, or wheezing can assist a patient to take corrective action early. Acting early will allow the patient to avoid a severe attack.
Medications can also be used for the management of asthma. Some of the medications are inhaled corticosteroids, leukotriene modifiers, combination inhaler, long-acting beta-agonists, theophylline, and anticholinergics (McCracken et al., 2017). These medications will assist in relaxing the airways, blocking the asthma triggers in the patient's body, and keep the patient's asthma under control. These are long-term medications recommended to be taken daily. However, the doctor will prescribe the best medication for the patient. When a patient has a bad asthma attack, they are likely to be injected with steroids directly into a vein to get the medication quickly into the patient's system.
Do you have any concerns with the numbers above?
The levels presented by the patient are abnormal. The patient's PaO2 level is putting pressure on his organs, and there is a risk of hypoxia. Considering the patient is continuing to narrow his bronchi and if the narrowing is intense, there is a likelihood of severe hypoxemia.
Identify what may be causing J.S. to have an exacerbation of asthma
The patient might be having a mild asthma attack that is caused by pollen and dust. However, the exacerbation of his asthma could be due to the patient panicking, which is making the attack worse. When one is panicking several physical reactions take place in the body. The patient has difficulty in breathing due to the asthma attack, but it is being made worse due to him panicking, which also causes breathing difficulties.
References
Gautier, C., & Charpin, D. (2017). Environmental triggers and avoidance in the management of asthma. Journal of asthma and allergy, 10, 47.
McCracken, J. L., Veeranki, S. P., Ameredes, B. T., & Calhoun, W. J. (2017). Diagnosis and management of asthma in adults: a review. JAMA, 318(3), 279-290.
Shaheen, S. (2019). Elucidating the causes of asthma: how can we do better? The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 7(8), e25.