Justines Asthma pages
My own asthma experience
IN MY OPINION
People with severe asthma (in my opinion) are disabled as continuous breathing difficulty stops them working, going to work, always being off work and sometimes not being able to walk a few steps because this makes them severley short of breath. People with severe asthmas disability cannot be seen you see and I think they are classed as second citizens. (yip). There is not much help or information either, unless you are classed with COPD. Severe asthma cannot be cured and rarely treated (not like regular asthma) which I used to have many years ago. Also I think Doctors at hospital treat us wrong. When someone has a heart attack they are given the best treatment urgently, but with severe asthmatics it is a watch and wait approach to see if their condition gets better or worse with milder treatments before they decide to give you the better ones which is inhuman in my opinion. It should be treated immediately. Letting someone sit panicking and gasping for breath is not right. I feel as if I am putting it on or something (please docs take heed). I sit gasping in the house for days as I will not go to the hospital as I feel I can take my own nebulisers and things when I need them. This is dangerous but it is more than the hospital offers you sometimes and they leave you too long gasping anyway. I really think they should change their ways as attacks scar lungs and put strain on the heart and this could be stopped earlier by prompt treatment.
WHAT HAPPENS IN AN ASTHMA ATTACK.
Asthma is one of the most common chronic conditions in the western world. In the Uk 3.4 million people currently have asthma and 640,000 having severe or very severe asthma. Almost 100,000 people are admitted to hospital each year and half of these are children. Asthma has increased hugely in the last 2-3 decades. An asthma attack happens when the lining of the airways swell (due to allergies, colds or no apparent reason) up causing muscus to get caught there and bronchoconstriction which is the smooth muscle that line the airways to tighten up. The three changes together make it very difficult to breath air through (it can be like breathing through a pinched straw). This can cause coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, increased heart rate, sweating and shortness of breath. Symptoms can be mild to very severe. Treatment has not improved much in decades. Treatments for asthma are inhalers, nebulisers, steriods and oxygen. 
SEVERE ASTHMA AND SMOKING CAN LEAD TO COPD
COPD is a chronic, slowly progressive disorder caused by airway obstruction. The disease's in the COPD group are chronic bronchitis, emphysema and long standing asthma that is no longer responsive to treatments. Chronic bronchitis is a constant cough with sputum present for years. Emphysema is permanent damage to the aveoli and small airway tissues. These diseases often occur in the same person at once. The most important cause of COPD is cigarette smoking. Other causes are industrial city living, dusty workplaces, alpha-1 antitrypsin (a faulty gene), and having severe uncontrolled asthma. Severe COPD can lead to hypoxemia (respiritory distress) and cor pulmonale (right sided heart failure). Long term oxygen therapy may help. Symptoms such as breathlessness, wheeze and productive cough may occur slowly over a number of years. COPD is a common disease that causes considerable morbidity. Asthma treatments are used in this disease.
Weather and asthma
I dont know if weather has anything to do with asthma but personally I think there is a link. I find my asthma symptoms get worse at certain times of the year. I feel when I am exposed to cold dry air, it can quickly bring on asthma symptoms. Also windy weather can stir up pollen and take my breath away also. Hot humid air also triggers my symptoms as it is suffocating to normal people anyway so this would make sence. Wet damp weather encourages the growth of mould spores which are extremely bad for asthmatics, and getting wet also can cause colds and infections which trigger my asthma too, so personally weather effects me and my asthma a great deal. Check the weather often.
