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Asthma Management
Taking Control
Of Your Asthma With Three Lines Asthma Defense Strategy
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In the past, many asthma patients,
and parents who have asthmatic children seem to ’accept’ their
asthma condition. Wheezing at nights, or coughing in the middle
of activities is something common in their daily life. And all
their family or friends have been familiar with it. When
children with asthma go to school, they can only watch when
their friends were playing or having physical activities. Their
teachers and friends perhaps treat the asthmatic children in
over-caring ways, that makes these children felt lonely and
avoided by the community.
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This kind of child, or adult
usually do not have a potential performance at school or at work. They
grew up with a guilty feeling of having such a disease called asthma.
In the end of 1980s, an allergy
consultant namely Guillermo Mendoza, M.D. tried to break that
old concept. He insisted that asthma can be controlled. With the
right treatment, the frequency of hospitalizing for asthma
patient can be reduced. The key of asthma management is
the patient himself.
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People who suffer from asthma must
change their mastermind and understanding of the disease, and
the way to treat it. In the past, people saw asthma as a bunch
of symptoms. And when they got it worsen, they took asthma
medication to cure it. When the medication worked, and the
symptoms had gone, they will think that they have cured from
asthma and stopped the drugs. Just like treating other diseases
like influenza.
My mother used to tell me story
about my late aunty, who I have never seen in my life. She had
suffered from asthma since baby, and had already suffered a lot
of asthma attacks until she passed away on her 24th of age.
During her life, difficult breathing seemed to be one of her
daily routines. She couldn’t play with her friends, and she lost
the opportunity to enjoy her teenage life. By the time she
passed away, she nearly did not have any friends. ALL of that is
because people have not learned about the right asthma
management. Instead of curing the attacks and getting panic on
every crisis, we should find ways to prevent the asthma attack.
Dr. Harold J. Farber, M.D. offered
a new concept of asthma management. In this new concept, the
asthma patient himself has the strongest involvement in treating
and managing his asthma. The doctors will participate only as a
consultant.
What are the main
problems of asthma ?
Closest family member, parents,
and closest friends are those people that are mostly made
stressed over treating an asthma patient. Let’s break the
problems down...
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There are many kinds of asthma
medicines with difficult names to remember...
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Instructions of which
medicines must be taken in what condition, for how many
doses...
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Many allergen or asthma
trigger to be avoided...
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Family medical cost will get
higher...
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Physically and mentally
exhausted from emergency conditions...
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The house must be re-organized
to get a clean and dry environment...
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If the patient is a child, more things
must be arranged with the school...
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Many absence problems, with more in
performance decreasing....
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Etc...etc...
Thanks to Dr. Farber, we don’t have to get
more headache due to asthma, as he has guided us to a conclusion, that
the single key of the most effective asthma management is very simple:
It
is better to PREVENT all those problems asthma can cause NOW, than to
face it in the future!
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And the way to reach that goal is...
Three Lines Asthma Defense Strategy
#1 – Managing the
environment
The goal of managing environment is to
provide a defense system against irritant and allergen, which can
trigger reaction on the airways surface, that will lead to asthma.
Managing the environment is, in fact, the
most powerful and reasonable strategy in the efforts of controlling
asthma. By providing a clean and healthy environment for people with
asthma,
...They can have a natural-drug-free way
to treat your asthma,
...They won’t be bothered by any side
effects of conventional medicines,
...All the other members of the family can
also take advantage from the healthy home environment.
There are two big challenges to this
strategy, though...
First, how to persuade all members of the
family to change their lifestyle. The most common example is to totally
diminish cigarette smoke from the house. It can only happen if everybody
(including the guests) stop smoking in and around the house (yes, not
even on the porch or in the garden!). Another example is to clean up all
rooms in the house from piles of old newspapers, and fabric-covered
sofas.
Second, when you have committed to
implement a new healthier habits, you will still have to adapt to this
new lifestyle. And that takes time!
Those might seem hard to take, however if
you do love and care for your family who has asthma, your commitment and
efforts will give them a huge help to finally have a better life. If you
still feel it’s nearly impossible to do, these books will give you
guidance and tips for managing a good environment for asthma patients. |
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Resources to help you managing
your environment
My House Is Killing Me!: The Home Guide For Families With Allergies And Asthma
By: Jeffrey C. May
My Office Is Killing Me!: The Sick Building Survival Guide
By: Jeffrey C. May
Starting Points Of A Healthy Habitat
By: Carl E. Grimes
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#2 - Managing the
airways
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The second defense strategy in
asthma management is managing the airways to make it less
sensitive. In asthma
medication, you can find a large choice of
anti-inflammatory drugs category. These medicines blockage
inflammatory in the airways, which trigger
asthma attack. Functioning as an
asthma preventer or a long acting controller, anti-inflammatory
drugs are created for daily use, to maintain airways always in
normal condition.
However, many asthma patient think that these anti-inflammatory
drugs can work as fast as reliever drugs. Wrong! Most
anti-inflammatory drugs need 1 to 2 weeks before we can see the
improvement, and will show the optimum results after 1 to 2
months. Meaning that only after that period of time, the airways
will be back in normal condition, just like before asthma
attack.
The biggest challenge in managing
the airways strategy, is to persuade asthma patient to
consistently use their anti-inflammatory drugs, and put the
drugs in their asthma diary. |
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Why is that difficult?
Because when these drugs works, patient do
not feel any change or effect in their condition. They feel as normal
and as healthy as anybody else. This is where the problem will arise.
They will feel comfortable enough to start ignoring their attention to
their own disease. Most of the patients, either feeling sick of taking
drugs, or forgetting more and more to finally stop the medication. It
continuously happen until...they get another asthma attack.
This is where family support helps a lot.
But to get there, the asthma patients, as well as their family should
learn well about asthma.
If you do not prefer having clinical
medication, you can try natural
remedies for managing your airways.
#3 – Managing the
Flares-Up
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The third and final defense
strategy of asthma management is noticing the asthma flares up as early as possible, and
taking the aggressive action to prevent asthma from getting worsen.
Every asthma patient and their family must
learn how to use asthma action plan,
to help them keeping record of asthma
diagnosis such as peak flow meter. This strategy needs your intense
observation of the earliest signs of asthma such as coughing, itchy
throat or difficult breathing. By managing it, the flares-up can be
controlled, and asthma reliever could work more effectively if taken
earlier.
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And at the end, implementing three lines
of asthma defense strategy in the asthma management will help asthma patient to have a normal and
better life.
Find many reference about asthma and asthma management at my online
1st Asthma Store!
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Asthma Natural Cure
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