Stay Healthy With Asthma Education
Asthma Education – Asthma is known as a chronic, lifelong ailment that creates swelling, inflammation, and an over-production of mucus in the airways. It also can be a life threatening illness if it is not treated and controlled the right way. Asthma is also recognized as the most common chronic disease in children. Asthma education can play a significant role in helping you cope with both the condition and its effects. Although this is an illness which requires constant attention from medical professionals, there is no doubt that self help and self treatment can play a vitally important part in helping the prescribed medicines take effect. There is much which you can do for yourself, both in terms of avoiding possible trigger factors and in keeping the body in a relaxed and calm condition.
Asthma episodes often start when you come into contact with a trigger. There are two main types of triggers: irritants and allergens. Irritants are things that bother your airways, and allergens are things that cause an allergic reaction. Not all children who have asthma have the same triggers, which is why it is so important for teachers, parents and children to know what their triggers are and how to avoid them.
No amount of education about asthma can give you the complete picture, as there is no definitive answer as to what exactly causes asthma. Probabilities can be assessed based on the facts which we do know, but nothing is certain. There is a possibility that genetics plays a part, as being part of a family in which there is a history of asthma does increase the probability of contracting it yourself. Most of the cause, though, is certain to be environmental as there are clear statistical patterns which demonstrate that a significantly altered environment greatly increases the risk of developing asthma. The dramatic growth in the numbers of cases reported in the past thirty years combined with the fact that developed countries have by far the highest rates of incidence leaves no-one in any doubt that the cause can be found within Western technology.
We know something of both the causes of asthma, and the factors which can make it worse. Dust mites are one factor which has now been proven to have an effect, demonstrating once again that the altered environment in which modern people live has a lot to answer for. Tests have now been carried out which have demonstrated conclusively that children who are exposed to dust mites in the first year of their lives are far more likely to develop asthma than those who are not.
As asthma education and knowledge improve, we are beginning to realize that the over-cleanliness of some modern environments may in fact do more harm than good. If a young child is exposed to a foreign body at an early age, the immune system can develop a resistance to it. If not, there remains the possibility of that unwanted intruder doing far more damage in the future. A classic example with asthma is cat and dog allergens, where the exposure early on in childhood actually decreases the chance of asthma developing.
Having a better education into the causes and aggravating factors of asthma helps you to manage the condition better. While a physician can prescribe a necessary corticosteroid drug to be taken in through an inhaler every time you suffer an attack, they cannot help you to avoid the conditions which may trigger one in the first place. You can play your part by watching when attacks develop and trying to find any common factors which may apply. If you notice, for example, that you suffer most attacks while you are at home relaxing, there is a good chance that dust mites are causing the attacks. Change your furniture or make sure the room is cleaner.
Giving yourself the right asthma education can also help you to avoid wasting money on alleged remedies which have no effect. There have been many natural substances which have been touted as having a positive effect on an asthmatic body, but few have stood up to scrutiny by the scientific establishment. That is not to say that living a healthy life and eating more naturally will not help, it may well do because it will lessen the need to burn off calories strenuously and will keep your body calmer. Just don’t believe everything you read as you build up your asthma education.
Asthma Education- Health Plus Video
Health Plus/ NYC Department of Education:
Asthma Educational video, starring Olympic Gold Medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee. The Video shot on location in NYC and St. Louis, was created to educate New York City public school teachers and staff about recognition, prevention, and procedures when dealing with students with Asthma. An interactive DVD was produced from the 18 minute video as well. For more information go to dmjdigital.com
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