Asthma Treatment in Annapolis, MD
What is Asthma?
Asthma affects nearly 26 million Americans or roughly 1 in 14 people. Asthma is a chronic lung disease. It causes difficulty while trying to draw air through your lungs. It can start at any age and nearly 26 million Americans have asthma, 7 million of them being children. Unfortunately, there is no cure for asthma. However, with proper management, people living with asthma can live completely normal and healthy lives without asthma.
What Causes Asthma?
The swollen airways in the lungs become sensitive to certain triggers, and when those triggers enter the body, those airways create extra mucus making it difficult to breathe which leads to asthma attacks, complications and sometimes death.
The key is to understand the triggers that cause asthma. Sometimes, you may not even know you have it until you’re exposed to those triggers. This means the environment you live in is a huge cause and risk factor for asthma. Additionally, genetics is a risk factor for asthma.
Read more about Asthma in our Patient Library
Asthma Attacks
Some people may have minor asthma and never receive treatment for it, and when they relocate to an area with more of their asthma triggers – they finally experience the symptoms of asthma or endure an asthma attack. Asthma attacks usually present themselves in the following forms:
- Tight feeling in the chest
- Rapid, short inhalation
- Shortness of breath
- Heavy Coughing
- Heavy Wheezing
However, it is possible that a variety of other conditions are causing these symptoms, such as different allergies, different ages, smoking habits, and more.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Your pediatrician will need to conduct tests to diagnose your child. First, they will ask symptoms, medical history, experiences, etc. to get a good sense if asthma is a possibility. After that, the most common test is called a Spirometry, in which the pediatrician will use a device to measure the air flow of the lungs.
Typically, if your child has the above symptoms, has a parent with asthma and also has allergies (including skin allergies), a Pulmonologist will conduct lung functioning test. After that, usually, a trial period of asthma medication will be given, depending on the results, with a follow-up appointment to monitor the outcome.
If you think you or your child has asthma, call Annapolis Asthma, Pulmonary & Sleep Specialists at (410) 266-1644 directly to set up an appointment.
