Asthma
Asthma is a lung disease that can be treated. It is a chronic inflammatory disease of the respiratory system that results in relapsing symptoms. In simpler terms, asthma is the narrowing of the airways in the lungs that causes wheezing, coughing, and gasping for breath. It is a very unpredictable disease and can differ greatly from one person to the next. Some people have very mild symptoms every once and a while where as for others it is a daily struggle to breath. Asthma can occur at any age but most commonly begins with in the first five years of life. Approximately 7% of Americans suffer from asthma, which is roughly 18 million people, 4.8 million of which are children. Asthma is the leading cause for hospitalization among children and is the most common long-term childhood disease. "African-Americans are four times as likely as whites to be hospitalized and three times as likely to die from asthma (5)." This is partially because asthma is more sever in urban inner cities. Although many cases of asthma have been identified in the United States, many cases are likely to go undiagnosed. There are eight main signs or symptoms that help identify asthma trouble. The four most common are recurrent wheezing, s
"Asthma is classified into a number of categories based on severity of symptoms: intermittent, mild persistent, moderate persistent, and severe persistent (4)." These classifications help doctors determine which treatments to prescribe. Patients with intermittent or situational asthma only have symptoms present when they are exposed to certain triggers. You can avoid an asthma attack by simply avoiding those triggers that cause your symptoms. People with intermittent asthma usually do not need long-term medication. Patients with mild persistent asthma have symptoms more than twice a week but less than every day of the week. If you have this type of asthma, you need long-term preventive medication. The third type of asthma is moderate persistent asthma. Patients who suffer from moderate persistent asthma have daily symptoms and need long-term preventive medication. However, they will need to use it more frequently than someone with mild persistent asthma. The final type of asthma is the hardest to control. It is severe persistent asthma. Symptoms occur on a continual basis and require the use of long-term controller medications multiple times a day. When prevention is not enough to keep your allergies from triggering your asthma, medications to help manage your asthmatic episodes may be necessary. There are two main types of medications used to treat asthma: relievers and preventers. Bronchodilators, referred to as relievers, fight airway constriction. They relax the muscles that surround the air tubes and allow you to breath more easily. They work so fast that you notice the effect almost immediately. "However, physicians realize that bronchodilators do only half the job (4)." They do little to treat the underlying inflammation. Anti-inflammatory agents, or preventers work to prevent and reverse airway inflammation and they reduce airway sensitivity. This helps keep the airway from becoming constricted. However, they work much slower than relievers and must be taken regularly if they are going to be effective. When used on a regular basis they help to control the symptoms of asthma. These medications come in one of two forms, inhalers and tablets. "The most commonly used asthma inhaler is the aerosol spray inhaler. But there are dozens of other types of inhalers available (6)." If you do not want the hassle of dealing with an inhaler, you can choose to take a tablet. People with very severe asthma can choose to take a steroid tablet. However, they often h
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1690
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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