by Renee Dawson

Created on: January 27, 2008

"When you can't breathe, nothing else matters..." -American Lung Association

The treatment of asthma differs from person to person depending on how bad their asthma really is. In order to treat Asthma, one must understand what asthma is, how it effects the airways, and what exactly can we do to make breathing easy again. Education is the key to treating Asthma.

Asthma is a disease of the airways in the lungs. It can make breathing very difficult in three different ways. First of all, the airways seem to tighten up. I have had many a patient say that "my lungs are tight", or "my chest feels tight". When listening to their breath sounds, one can hear wheezing or little air movement. Secondly, there is inflammation in the airways. This makes it very hard to exhale and again the sound that one hears is wheezing. The third way that asthma affects ones breathing is sensitive or over active airways. Things that do not affect people without asthma, can throw an asthmatic into a full blown asthma attack.

There he was, swimming in Lake Michigan in Michigan City, IN. He began to feel that all too familiar tightness with his breathing. He got himself to the nearest sandbar to try and get his breathing under control. Like any good asthmatic, he carried his inhaler with him. He pulled it out of his trunks and took a couple of puffs. He had grabbed the wrong inhaler. He grabbed the long lasting one, not the rescue inhaler. When he arrived in our ER, he was in full respiratory arrest. That teenager died from an asthma attack. This is a true story.

Millions of people in the United States alone have asthma. The causes of asthma vary from it being heredity to secondhand smoke, to environment, to etiology unknown. We do know that asthma is on the rise in the United States especially in the cities. It has also been studied that children who have a parent or parents that smoke, tend to have hyperactive airways, or reactive airway disease.

Options for over the counter asthma medications should never ever be used without first seeing a Pulmonologist. Asthma can be a situation of life or death. Before a person goes to the pharmacy to see what is in the aisle to help with congestion, shortness of breath, or any other symptom of their asthma, it is imparative that a person know the serious of their asthma. Over the counter drugs may not be the help that they need and by the time they finally reach the ER, it can be too late.

Inhalers have come out, such as Primatine Mist, which is a dose of

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