Practical Measures to Prevent and Treat Allergy and Asthma

By allergy the immune system reacts against a substance that it is not supposed to react against, and the reaction is often exaggerated. Objects containing substances that commonly cause allergy are domestic dust, animal hair, household chemicals, chlorine, microorganisms, pollen, nuts, citrus fruits and seafood. Also bacteria and parasites can cause inappropriately strong immune reactions.

THE MECHANISMS OF ALLERGY

The total set of reactions occurring by allergy is very complicated. Many of these are the same as by normal immune reaction, even though they occur when they should not take place. Here are listed some of these reactions:

By exposure to a new substance, cells in the immune system learn to recognize that substance (allergen), and it learns to produce anti-bodies towards the substance, and a certain amount of antibodies is produced. The type of anti-bodies called IgE is the most important by allergic reactions.

IgE will glue itself to some cells in the blood called mast-cells, and stick out from the surface of these cells. By following exposures to antigens, these will attach themselves to the IgE-ends sticking out from the mast-cells. This will trigger the mast-cells to produce histamine and other signal substances. These signal substances will then spread through the surrounding tissues.

The signal substances will then trigger the walls of small blood vessels to leak fluid into the tissues and accumulate in the tissues. This will cause tissue swelling. They also will cause blood vessels to widen and thus increase the blood stream in the tissues. The consequence of this will be swelling and redness in the affected body parts. The signal substances will also make glands in the tissue produce more mucus, making symptoms like running nose and tight throat.

The new exposures to the antigens will also provoke even more anti-body production. The antibodies will also glue allergens together to bigger complexes. These complexes can clog small blood vessels and in other ways disturb the function of the affected organ.

The allergen-antibody-complexes are then recognized by the cells and other mechanisms that the body uses to collect and eliminate garbage. Eater-cells gather and engulf the complexes.

The immune system also will make enzymes that attack the antigens to break them down. Also this production is stimulated when antigens attach themselves to anti-bodies at cell surfaces. But these enzymes are not entirely specific, and can also to some extend break down components of the body's own tissue, causing harm and disease symptoms.

WHAT CAUSES THE IMMUNE SYSTEM TO REACT WITH ALLERGY TO A SUBSTANCE

In the beginning of the life of a person, the immune system has the potency to react against most substances in the body itself and the surroundings. However, there are mechanisms that learn the immune system to recognize normal substances found in the daily life in the early infanthood, and suppress the reactions against these. If this learning mechanism is disturbed, allergy can develop.

Allergy can also develop if a small child is never exposed to substances that later will be a normal ingredient of his daily life. In this case the immune system will not get the chance to suppress the reaction against this substance. Letting a small child grow up in an exaggerated clean and sterile environment can therefore cause allergies.

On the other hand, certain elements not being a part of a normal environment can cause allergies by repeated and massive exposure. Examples of such substances are chlorine.

TYPES OF ALLERGIES

Allergy varies according to the compound that causes the immunological reaction. An allergic condition also often implies reaction against a combination of several substances. Common substances causing allergy are: Pollen, domestic dust, mites in domestic dust, moulds and mould spores, chlorine, chemicals in soaps and cosmetics, animal hair, seafood, strawberry, fish, parasites, medicines like anaesthetics and antibiotics

An allergic condition may periodically get better or worse according to the concentration of the allergen in the environment. A typical example is pollen allergy with peaks in the pollination season of grass or treas.

An allergic person will often get symptoms from several tissues in the body, but the symptoms are often most prominent at one body part and give very specific symptoms at that site. Examples of specific conditions often caused by allergy are eczema in the skin and asthma in the lungs and lower airpipe.

THE SYMPTOMS OF ALLERGY

Any organ can exhibit allergic reactions, but often the symptoms are confined mainly to one organ or organ system.

By allergic reactions in the respiratory system there will be symptoms like: Itching and soreness in the throat and nose cavities, swelling of the airway tissues, increased amount of secrets in the airway cavities and coughing. There may also be asthmatic symptoms or fully developed asthma. The main symptom of asthma is cramping that constricts the airways all the way down into the lungs (constriction of the trachea and tracholes).

By allergic reactions in the skin, there will be symptoms like: Redness, swelling, red spots, itching and soars.

HOW TO PREVENT ALLERGY

To prevent allergies in an individual the best way, one must begin in early childhood.

A child must be allowed to get in contact with natural elements like earth, dirt, animals, plants, physical contact with other humans, and the like. This exposure to natural elements must occur before an allergy has developed. In this way the immune system will learn to recognize common and harmless elements, and not overreact against this later in life.

Research projects have found out that children having much and early contact with pet animals like cats and dogs have a less chance of getting allergic problems later than children not having contact with pets. This is contrary to what many people believe.

On the other hands, every person should be protected from early childhood from certain elements normally not found in a natural environment, for example chlorine, soaps and cosmetics with artificial substances, and food containing unnatural additives.

METHODS TO TREAT ALLERGY

The first approach in the treatment of manifest allergy is avoiding exposure to substances causing the allergic reactions. Even though exposure to natural substances can prevent allergy, exposure to an allergen should be avoided when an allergy already has developed. Ways of doing this is:

- Avoiding food one reacts against

- Avoiding contact with animals one have an allergic reaction towards

- Keeping rooms, clothes beds and furniture well cleaned

- Avoiding use of cleaners, soaps and cosmetics with unnatural additives

- Avoiding foods, drinks and snacks with unnatural additives

- Avoiding daily exposure to chlorine and other chemicals

- In cooperation with your doctor change medicines you use that may cause allergy with others

- Avoiding growth of moulds in the environment. This is done by well cleaning and keeping the environment dry.

Children are often exposed to allergens at school, and adults are often exposed at work. Parents with allergic children must inspect the school environment and require from the school administration and teachers that practically possible environmental measures are provided to keep the school free from allergens. An employee should require the same from his employer.

If you do not know exactly everything you react against, you can try to stop exposure to one factor after another, until you feel that the allergy alleviates, and then keep this factor out of your daily life for the future.

Sometimes avoiding allergens is difficult to accomplish, or make the lifestyle to restricted to be acceptable. Then one must apply medical treatment that alleviates the allergy.

A common way of treating allergy is applying medication that block the effect of the substance histamine, and thereby alleviate or prevent the symptoms occurring when the antigen get into the body.

Another way is desensitisation treatment. By this treatment one let the body get a controlled and gradually increasing exposure to the allergens over a time period, and when this period is over, one let the body get recurrent exposure to a controlled dose at regular time intervals. By this treatment the response from the immune system from the allergens gradually decrease, partly because the immune system thereby learns to recognize the allergens as harmless, and partly because the antibodies against the allergens are used up.

There are also natural products on the marked that contain ingredients that help the immune system to react more appropriately. Important effects of these products are reduced histamine secretion and increased histamine metabolism. Examples of ingredients in such medicines are: Methylsulfonyl methane, vitamin C, vitamin E, Echinacea purpurea, Quercetin, grape Seed, Stinging nettle, Coleus Forskolin.

by: Knut Holt

Heavy Breathing

It used to be that children diagnosed as asthma sufferers were cosseted and kept inside to play quietly. These individuals, in turn, grew up into inactive adults, which unfortunately was only likely to exacerbate their condition.

Classic symptoms and signs of asthma are cough, wheeze (the cardinal sign), shortness of breath and tightness of the chest. Symptoms and signs may vary between day and night, from day to day, or be seasonal. Many sufferers' symptoms are precipitated by factors like environmental allergens (house dust mites, grass pollens, animal dander, occupational materials); non-specific irritants (smoke, dust, fumes); cold weather and exercise.

Hungry

Traditionally it was thought that asthmatics should avoid certain foods (particularly difficult for a hungry, active athlete). This is no longer agreed to be the case - aside from individuals with a sulphite sensitivity, meaning that foods containing these preservatives should be avoided. Sulfites occur naturally in fermented beverages and wines and are often used as preservatives in dried fruits and dried potato products.

For runners and sports people, asthma symptoms are likely to be experienced as both unfair and a huge irritation. What can you do to gain excellent control over your symptoms so that you are in a position to enjoy your next race or club run?

When starting off as a runner, you work together with a doctor and/or a biokineticist to achieve good control over your asthma symptoms. Exercise-induced symptoms mean only one thing - asthma is not well controlled. Some asthmatics may require a puff or two of reliever meds before or even during a race, but if this becomes a problem for them, i.e. if they need a reliever more than three times per week or every time they exercise, their controller meds should be adjusted. Alternately, they should speak to their doctor about switching to the new SMART asthma treatment.

The majority of asthma cases do have an exercise component, where exercise can be a trigger, especially if the asthma is not under control through proper medicine. When you exercise you breathe in three to four times more air through the nose and lungs, plus more rapidly, more frequently and in deeper breaths. The problem with the conventional treatment is that it can be complicated to treat someone properly with an inhaler.

It's not like swallowing a pill - it is technology-driven and requires co-ordination. And mostly, if you do not have the benefit of the latest combined treatments - you have to remember how and when to take two different inhalers. You have to remember to use it and you have to take it even on those days that you don't feel bad. The net result is that people don't take their medication; and this is as harmful as not being treated at all.

Asthma is a chronic disorder and if you don't treat it constantly, your airways can become scarred. Asthma has two components to it - inflammation and bronchospasm. If the inflammation is not under control, the bronchospasm worsens. Newer therapies, such as the SMART asthma treatment, where the co-ordination problem is eliminated - and the controller and reliever dose is provided in one medication - should be explored.

A combination of an inhaled long-acting beta-agonist, which opens the airways by relaxing the muscles at play there, (such as formoterol) and an inhaled steroid anti-inflammatory medication (such as budesonide). Recently, these drugs have been combined to deliver simultaneous doses of both drugs (a drug on the shelves available by prescription only and referred to as SMART - Symbicort Maintenance and Reliever Treatment), which allows sufferers to receive regular controller and reliever treatment - at an adequate dosage level.

A short-acting beta-agonist (a separate reliever inhaler) does not have to be used when this therapy is prescribed, as the long-acting beta-agonist (formoterol) in the treatment works quickly - and should be used to relieve the bronchospasm when a patient is particularly symptomatic.

Asthmatics should therefore not need to seek out an air-conditioned gym for the months when their allergies tend to be worst, instead of training outdoors. Asthmatics should be able to live a normal life.

by: Sandra Prior

Bronchial Asthma Symptoms

As the world moves advance and globalizes, with more than 15 million people suffering from asthma, this sickness can be a very serious and debilitating affliction. Asthma has a variety of different causes, one of them being bronchitis.

Bronchial asthma symptoms affects numerous men and women every day and, if you are one of them, there is hope for a remedy. Because the asthma is triggered by the bronchitis it makes finding a treatment for it greatly easier.

Asthma is a condition that occurs because of an inflammation of the air passages going to the lungs. Irritation in the airway causes it to become highly sensitive, causing the lining of the path to swell up, which blocks the air going to the lungs. The severity of the disease varies from person to person.

If any of these symptoms seems to be coming up on a regular basis try to remember what some of the triggers may have been so that you can avoid them inn the future and so that you will be able to give your doctor a clear explanation as to what has been triggering these Asthma Symptoms.

Some triggers that you should look out for are:

-Tobacco Smoke
-Cold or Flu
-Any Allergens you may have toward: pollen, food, animals, mold, dust mites etc.

Some of the symptoms of bronchial asthma are wheezing, shortness or breath, tightening of the chest, and coughing. There are medications that can be taken to help clear the airways such as inhalers, and nebulizing machines used with medicine to breathe over. Both of these can open up the airways. You may have to watch your diet as allergies to foods can also cause some of these bronchial asthma symptoms.

If their peak flow measurement is 50%-80% lesser than their baseline peak flow measurement, it may indicate they are at risk of an acute asthma attack if they do not take immediate action. If the peak flow reading is lesser than 50% of their normal reading it is time they sought medical intervention as a severe attack can become life threatening in some cases.

Cats that demonstrate these symptoms are generally diagnosed as having either chronic bronchitis or what is referred to a feline asthma. However, most experts will agree that it is very difficult to distinguish the two from each other.

What is agreed upon, is that both symptoms can, if not properly treated, become life threatening to you cat as it affects their breathing and lung capacity.

Because symptoms vary from person to person, you should at least be familiar with the most common symptoms. Coughing is usually one. Do you have a cough that is worse in the early morning or at night? Do you wheeze a lot? A tight feeling in your chest, panting or shortness of breath may also point to asthma. Watch out for frequent allergies as well.

Inflammation in the airway that is developed from the involvement of these allergy producing and inflammatory cells are contributors to hyperresponsiveness in the airway, chronic disease, airflow limitation and symptoms associated with the respiration.

Apparently, there are specific bronchial asthma treatments that may always depend on the severity of the asthma condition present on the person. The frequency of the asthma signs and symptoms are always considered.

by: MichaelWilliam