Asthma is one of the main non-communicable diseases affecting children and adults, affecting more than 260 million people in recent years, according to the World Health Organization. The airways that conduct air to the lungs, the bronchial tubes, narrow due to inflammation and compression of the muscles that surround them, causing the characteristic symptoms of this disease. In this opportunity, Dr. Fatima Ortega, pulmonologist of Clinica Ricardo Palma, gives us more information on the subject.

Symptoms

Symptoms of asthma can vary from person to person. These may include:

• Persistent coughing, mostly at night or early in the day
• Wheezing or snoring in the chest
• Shortness of breath
• Chest tightness.

These symptoms are intermittent and are usually aggravated at night or during exercise.

Causes and risk factors

Multiple causes of asthma have been linked, including hereditary, environmental, and occupational factors.

• Hereditary factors: If a direct relative has asthma, you are more likely to have asthma. Atopy”, the genetic tendency to present an allergic disease, may play a significant role in the appearance of allergic asthma.
• Environmental factors: Being exposed to elements in the environment, such as mold, moisture, dust mites, and secondhand tobacco smoke, has been linked to the onset of asthma. Air pollution and viral infection of the lungs can also cause asthma.
• Occupational factors: Occupational asthma occurs when someone who has never had asthma develops it because they are exposed at work to substances that can be triggering, such as mold, sawdust, or chemicals, over and over again at lower levels, or only once at higher levels.

Treatment

Asthma is a disease that cannot be cured, it can be controlled. To establish the ideal treatment for an asthmatic patient, an interrogation, clinical evaluation and a spirometry (pulmonary function test) must be performed, which will allow us to see the stage of the disease. The mainstay of treatment for asthmatic patients is inhalers, which will help to reduce inflammation of the bronchi, prevent airway narrowing, control symptoms and prevent crises.

Dr. Fatima Ortega
Pulmonologist of Clinica Ricardo Palma