Don’t underestimate asthma. Because the resulting shortness of breath can also cause death!
Asthma is one of the most common shortness of breath. This lung disease usually appears with a distinctive sound when the sufferer breathes. Because asthma knows no age, you need to be aware of this health disorder. Moreover, this disease is also said to be prone to causing death.
Get to know asthma more
Keep in mind, asthma is usually caused by narrowing and inflammation of the airways. Thus, the patient will have difficulty breathing. When you have a cough or a respiratory infection, asthma will usually recur.
In addition, asthma can also be triggered by other things such as smoke, chemicals, animal dander, cold air, emotions, to a family history of the same disease. People who have asthma are usually also more sensitive than normal people, so they often suffer from atopy or allergic rhinitis.
Asthma itself is usually suffered from childhood. However, it is possible for new asthma to appear in adulthood. Uniquely, asthma can disappear as a teenager and reappear as an adult.
Well, because it cannot be cured or eliminated, asthma treatment only plays a role in preventing recurrence and controlling the disease. With proper prevention and treatment, people with asthma can live like normal people.
Not only shortness of breath, the following are problems that can be caused by asthma when you experience it:
- Tired easily
- Psychiatric problems such as depression
- Growth disorders in children
- Breathing failure
- Lung damage
However, asthmatics can live life like normal people with the following tips:
- Recognizing and avoiding asthma triggers
- Recognize the types of asthma attacks and their treatment
- Regular use of anti-asthma medications
- Pay attention to respiratory health
Basically, mild asthma attacks can be treated with oral or inhaled drugs and can be managed at home. Then, moderate and severe asthma attacks require immediate medical attention, may even have to be treated intensively in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Risk of death from asthma
Now the death rate due to asthma has decreased greatly due to proper treatment. However, this disease is still at risk of causing death.
Of the total asthma sufferers who died, only a third died in hospital. Most people with asthma are thought to have died because they did not seek medical attention or were not hospitalized due to their asthma. As a result, death from asthma can also occur in moderate asthma attacks.
The following are risk factors for death in asthmatics:
- Have had severe, life-threatening asthma.
- Experiencing uncontrolled asthma with symptoms of shortness of breath become more severe and frequent awakening at night.
- Having a severe asthma attack in which the patient is intubated (using a breathing machine) or admitted to the ICU.
- Being treated for asthma two or more times and to the emergency department (ER) three or more times for asthma.
- Sufferers find it difficult to know what causes asthma attacks to recur or worsen.
- Using two or more tubes of short-acting inhaled medication in one month.
- Prohibited substance users.
- Have a mental illness.
- Experiencing other medical illnesses such as heart attacks and other lung diseases.
If you have risk factors for death as above, never underestimate an asthma attack. Be careful, death from asthma can occur within minutes to hours. Therefore, if you experience an asthma attack, immediately go to the emergency department to seek medical attention.