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Living with Adult Asthma: Taking Control of Your Breathing

If you were diagnosed with asthma as a child, your parent or guardian always kept an eye on your condition for you. As an adult living with asthma, you need to take responsibility for your ailment. Adult asthma can get in the way of everyday living but it doesn’t have to.

Here are some facts and tips about adult asthma and how to take better care of your breathing that will assist you in assuring a good quality of life:

Basics

Adult asthma, as well as any other form of asthma is a constriction of the muscle lining in one’s bronchial tubes. As the muscles tighten, it can make it difficult for air to make its way into the lungs (and thus leads to the wheezing that occurs when trying to breathe during an attack) and causes in increase in mucus secretion. Doctors are unsure as to what exactly causes asthma, but they believe it can be combination of environmental factors, allergies and genetics.

Treatment

Although still no cure for adult asthma, there are numerous ways to treat your asthma. One way is through the use of inhalers. Bronchodilators relax the bronchial muscles during an attack, causing them to open up and making it easier to breathe. Corticosteroids are more long-term and are preventative inhalers. People with severe asthma are required to take both inhalers at least twice daily. There are also types of medication in pill form, such as Singular, to help control your body’s reaction to asthma triggers.

Living with Asthma

Almost half of adult asthma sufferers say that having asthma limits them from participating in physical activities. But since the mortality rate of death from asthma has steadily dropped over the years, and with advances in medicine to treat and control asthma, it is possible to be just as active as anyone with the disease. Doctors suggest that you stay active, as it will help keep your body healthy enough to tolerate your asthma. Eat healthy, be active and take your medicine as prescribed.

When you think of asthma, it’s easy to imagine not having control of your own breathing. It can be frustrating to not be as active as you want, or be around a certain type of flower or animal without wheezing. Your asthma may never go away, but you can learn to fight it enough to where you are living a healthy lifestyle.