Asthma and Lung Allergies
Asthma is a common disease in the young and old, yet most people don’t know that asthma is usually due to allergies in the lungs. This discussion focuses on the allergic causes and triggers of asthma so that patients can better understand how to control their disease. Many other forms of lung allergies are covered, including hypersensitivity pneumonitis and allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, which can mimic severe forms of asthma. COPD and emphysema, which can be confused with asthma, and chronic cough
from various causes, are discussed by Daniel More, MD, a board-certified allergist.
If you have a runny or stuffy nose much of the time it may be nasal allergy or allergic rhinitis. Nasal allergy occurs when your immune system overreacts to particles in the air that you breathe. Your immune system attacks these particles in your body and this may cause you to have a runny nose If you sneeze and have a runny or stuffy nose during the spring, summer or fall you may have seasonal allergic rhinitis or hay fever.
A survey of 1600 top athletes in Norway showed that no fewer than one in every 10 suffers from asthma or wheeze;
* In a questionnaire survey carried out after the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, 16% of 700 athletes reported suffering from asthma.
Worst affected were the cyclists, where the proportion rose to 50%;
Symptoms
An asthma attack makes breathing in or out very difficult. This is why the classic symptoms of an attack are wheezing, coughing, and shortness of breath. If airway obstruction is severe, an attack may prevent any physical exertion or may even lead to a breathing emergency. People with controlled asthma often have normal or close to normal lung function between attacks, with essentially normal breathing and no shortness of breath.
What do the lungs do?
To understand asthma you need to know what the lungs do. When we breathe in, air moves into the lungs, getting oxygen into the bloodstream. Our blood circulates round our bodies, delivering oxygen to where it’s needed.
At the same time, our blood collects the waste product carbon dioxide and takes it back to the lungs. The lungs get rid of carbon dioxide by mixing it with the air we breathe out. Air gets in and out of the lungs through a series of tubes, which are often called the airways.
Lung cancer. Lung cancer, which is most often caused by cigarette smoking, is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States.
