Imagine all of the sudden you are walking to class and it hits you, like having all the air knocked out of you then trying to breathe with saran-wrap over your mouth. It’s an asthma attack, a serious problem becoming more common in kids today. What could be causing this epidemic you think? We are, society the cars we drive and the things we use that pollute our environment. Again technology has found an answer along with better understanding of what asthma is really like you can help stop the spread of this disease.
Asthma attacks can happen any time or place but usually happen during exercise, or when you have a cold. When you breathe in lung irritants like smoke and dust it can also cause an attack. During an asthma attack sticky mucus in your air tubes clogs them up and the muscles in your air tubes swell up and make airways very small. These attacks can be very minor but at worst they can be deadly. Asthmatics take in less air than a non-asthmatic breathing normally, but during an attack this is worsened.
Now imagine this, you are having that breathing-through-saran-wrap feeling when you quickly inhale two puffs of medicine and in a few minutes the feeling and the attack are gone. The “puffs of medicine” are a form of technology called bronchilators, medicines that stop an asthma attack after it starts. What if you could prevent that asthma attack from even starting? You can, anti-inflammatories are med’s that prevent lungs from ever tightening up in the first place. Think of going to the emergency room for these asthma attacks. The heated scope can reduce these visits, by killing muscles in the lungs without damaging the sensitive tissue underneath. This treatment stops lung muscles from tightening up and closing the airways.
What causes an up rise in this startling disease? Society does, mainly by smoking and air pollution. Parents who smoke, especially pregnant mothers put their own children at risk without even knowing it. Air pollution worsens the affects of asthma, like breathing with two pieces of saran-wrap over your mouth. |
