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Asthma is an illness that effects around 5 million people in the United Kingdom, this figure includes both adults and children, around 1 in 5 homes in the U.K is occupied by an Asthma sufferer,however no one is quite sure what exactly causes Asthma, there are a certain amount of contributing factors that will determine whether or not a person is likely to suffer from Asthma or not.

Basically you will be more likely to suffer with Asthma if you have a family history of Asthma or allergies, also environmental factors such as air pollution can play apart in the development of Asthma.

Some of the symptoms of Asthma are coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, tight chest and a sore stomach/chest, although these symptoms will not necessarily occur all the time for some, for others they could occur all the time.

Asthma suffers usually have certain triggers that could induce an Asthma attack, some of the triggers could be cigarette smoke, dust, change of weather, sport, paint fumes and cleaning sprays, however different people will have different triggers depending on their Asthma. When an Asthma suffer comes into contact with one of their triggers, what happens is the muscles around the airways start to tighten making it difficult for them to breath, however there may be times that you have taken all your medication and avoided the triggers but you still take an Asthma attack.

There is no cure for Asthma, however Asthma can be controlled using prescribed medication, such as inhalers and tablets, there are other forms of medication that can be used in treating Asthma such as nebulizers, again this depends on your Asthma and how severe it is.

The inhalers that are usually used in the treatment of Asthma are the reliever (blue inhaler) and the preventor (brown, red,orange). Sometimes a steriod tablet will be prescribed on a long and short term basis depending on the severity of your Asthma.

The blue inhaler - (Reliever), This inhaler will help to relieve Asthma symptoms imediately, it helps to open the muscles around the airways which will therefore make breathing easier. If the Reliever is required 3 to 4 times per week, then it would be a good idea to visit your doctor or Asthma clinic as your Asthma is not being controlled.

The brown inhaler - (Preventor) This inhaler controls the inflammation in the airways, it reduces the risk of a severe Asthma attack, the preventor should be taken on a daily basis as the preventor is to help in the long term and it does not give immediate relief.

Steriod tablets - Sometimes Asthma cannot be controlled with just inhalers alone and thats when these tablets will be prescribed, it could be for a short period or long term, When a person has been on these tablets long term and has to come off them, they would have to reduce their intake slowly over a matter of weeks or months, the reason for this is because a person taking these tablets on a long term basis would have less ability to deal with infections as the adrenal gland becomes lazy.

Learn more about this author, Jennifer Kennedy.
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