Asthma and common asthma triggers
Asthma is a non-communicable chronic inflammatory disease of the airways affecting people of all ages. Asthma could be diagnosed at either younger or older age.
Asthma is one of the world’s most common long-term conditions and currently affects over 300 million people worldwide with a projection to increase by another 100 million people by the year 2025.
As a non-curable disease, management strategies are geared towards controlling the disease to reduce the associated morbidity and mortality. With a prevalence rate of 5-18 percent in Nigeria, asthma costs United States of America (USA) economy over $80 billion annually.
Reducing exposure to environmental factors, such as indoor and outdoor asthma triggers is important for asthma management. This is more important in Nigeria given the inadequate facilities and other resources for asthma management.
In a review of 68 tertiary hospitals in Nigeria in 2011, it was found out that only twenty (26) hospitals representing 38.20 percent of the reviewed hospitals had peak expiratory flow rate meter (PEFR) in the emergency rooms, while twenty (20) hospitals representing 29.40 percent had spirometer and ten (10) representing 14.70 percent had skin allergy test facilities.
In addition to lack/inadequate facilities and equipment’s, there is inadequate expertise to manage asthma in Nigeria. In a recent study carried out in 2015, only 34 percent of the respondents could perform full spirometry on patients, and none had the capacity for performing a methacholine challenge test.
Asthma can be triggered by certain factors or objects and these triggers vary from person to person. While some persons may react to few of these triggers, others may react to many.
To effectively manage your asthma, it is important to keep track of the causes or triggers that you know provoke your asthma and avoid them as much as possible.
Some of the common asthma triggers include the allergens, irritants in the air, respiratory illness/infections, exercise, weather, medicines, stress, feelings and strong emotions amongst others.
Allergies (Allergic Asthma)
Common allergens that cause allergic asthma include dust mites, cockroach, pollens, moulds, pet dander, rodents and others.
Irritants in the Air
Irritants in the environment can bother inflamed and sensitive airways; hence, lead to asthma exacerbation. Irritants in the air are mainly second hand smoke and include the smoke from cigarettes, wood fires, charcoal grills, strong fumes, vapours, or odours (such as paint, gasoline, perfumes and scented soaps), dusts and particles in the air, chemicals and air pollution such as smog, ozone, and others.
Respiratory Illness
Respiratory infections are the most common asthma trigger in children and include such infections as colds, flu (influenza), sore throats, sinus infections, pneumonia and others.
Exercise
Exercise may trigger asthma; especially in cold air. In some cases, the symptoms may not appear until after several minutes of sustained exercise. However, with proper treatment, physical activity may not need to be limited.
Weather
Changes in weather, dry wind and cold air can bring on asthma episodes.
Feeling and Expressing Strong Emotions: Strong emotions such as anger, stress, fear, excitement, laughter, yelling, crying, etc have been identified as one of the triggers of asthma because during such period, breathing changes.
Medicines
Some medicines can also trigger asthma. This occurs in those who are sensitive to medications such as aspirin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and other medications known as beta blockers.
In addition to medicines, hormonal changes during menstrual cycle, sulphites in food (including milk, eggs, nuts, shellfish) and other medical problems like reflux may be an asthma trigger.
Chiwuike Uba, is the founder of Amaka Chiwuike-Uba Foundation (ACUF)