Symptoms and Triggers of Asthma
Symptoms and Triggers of AsthmaIf you have asthma, you need to understand what causes, or triggers your asthma symptoms and makesbreathing more difficult. This helps you avoid or minimize your exposure to those triggers.“Asthma triggers are things that specifically cause a worsening in the breathing symptoms or the lungfunctions.”Triggers are different for everyone. They can be found in everything from the air you breathe, to conditionsinside your home to something as simple as a common cold.“Allergic examples would be cat dander, or other pet danders, pollens outside, dust mites, mold. Somenon- allergic triggers would be tobacco smoke even a viral upper respiratory infection.”Individual triggers can be hard for doctors to pinpoint right away.“What takes a long time is just paying good attention to what causes those symptoms or what they’venoticed for triggers. Some of those things we can test for with some things like allergy testing but manyof those things we can’t.”If you come into contact with a trigger, you might start to feel the symptoms of an asthma flare-up. Just liketriggers, symptoms are different for everyone.“The most common symptoms of asthma are coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and chesttightness. A person could have any one of those symptoms or even just a couple.”Consider what your life would be like if anything, at any moment, could make it hard for you to breathe. SarahBrundidge knows firsthand. She was diagnosed with asthma 15 years ago. Her triggers are strong smells.“For me, because I can’t control some of the strong smells out there, or if people wear perfume orcologne, I always have my inhaler on me.”Sarah knows all too well the symptoms of an asthma flare-up…“I start to feel a heaviness in my chest and I might start to get a dry cough. My last asthma attack Iwas in a gym and a gentleman had a lot of cologne on. That strong smell just triggered it. Instantly itfelt like my throat tightened up and then I couldn’t breathe.”Some triggers you can control. For example, making a few simple changes at home can help keep thoseasthma flare-ups away.“If they’re allergic to things like dust mites or some household allergens, keeping the house very clean,doing a lot of vacuuming, getting covers for the beds or linens and the pillows, that can often help todecrease that sort of stuff.”Understanding how to avoid things that can trigger your asthma will help you stay healthy.This program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness,or suitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthcare provider.HCPD1007298 EN SymptomsAndTriggersOfAsthma.pdf© The Wellness NetworkPage 1 of 2Symptoms and Triggers of Asthma“There is no cure for asthma. What we do in the meantime is control symptoms so they don’t inhibityour quality of life so that people with asthma can have full lives. They can feel uninhibited by theirasthma and not restricted.”This program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness,or suitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthcare provider.HCPD1007298 EN SymptomsAndTriggersOfAsthma.pdf© The Wellness NetworkPage 2 of 2
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