Bronchial Asthma

Good evening friends,

I am Dr. Piyush Goel, I am a pulmonologist and critical care specialist in Columbia Asia Hospital, Behar, Gurgaon.

Today I throw light on the most important lung disease which we call as Bronchial Asthma. There is lot of stigma associated with Bronchial Asthma and there are, people need lot of clarification in view of asthma. How we can control this disease? How we can cure this disease and how we can prevent this disease and in today I will explain regarding this disease in a layman language so you can understand this disease well and I just want to remove some stigma associated with this disease also. This is my sincere effort. Right, so asthma is basically a part and parcel of allergic disorders. Most of the patients, most of the people in all over world are allergic to many things. The people can be allergic to dust, people can be allergic to smoke, people can be allergic to perfumes and other odors, people can be allergic to humidity, people can be allergic to temperature change and all these people who are allergic can get asthma. Right, so what do you mean by asthma? Asthma is basically lung allergy. If you are getting symptoms associated with lungs and the reason behind this is allergy then we call it as a, we scientifically we have given name to this thing, we call it Bronchial Asthma, so it is a part and parcel for allergy. Right, so you can get allergy of skin in scientific, in medical language we call it as dermatitis, allergic dermatitis. If you get allergy of a nose we call it as allergic rhinitis. If you get allergy of the throat we call it as allergic pharyngitis, and if you get allergy of the lungs, this means you are suffering from Bronchial Asthma. Right, so basically what is allergy, now you will ask me the question, what is allergy? Allergy is basically abnormal response of your body to some foreign substances of foreign stimulants. Right, like if the person is not allergic and he had a test exposure, right. The body of that person in subconscious way will tell that don’t worry. It will not do any harm, so don’t do any reflux things and don’t take any reflux actions, right so normal persons who are not allergic are absolutely fine if they have exposure to test. So the normal person will continue and there will be no symptoms in a normal person. If a person is not allergic. Now, if the person is allergic, suppose the person is allergic to dust then his body in a subconscious way will tell that we have to get rid of this dust particle and how this body can get rid of this dust particle? You start having sneezing, you start having rhinitis, that is watering of the nose, you start having coughing when this dust particle goes into throat and you can have a narrowing of your airways, right when it, this dust particle goes into the lungs and you feel difficulty in breathing and you see some vising sounds coming from your lungs, which we call it is as, which we call it as a lung allergy, that is Bronchial Asthma. So this is about basically a Bronchial Asthma. Bronchial Asthma is nothing, nothing beyond that. Right, so if you are allergic then how can you control this thing, how can you control this thing, right, first of all, first and the most important, the symptoms. As I discussed the physiology of the disease the symptoms are rhinitis, sneezing, sore throat, coughing, breathing problems and wheezing coming from the chest, so these are the symptoms of asthma. So how can you control it? You can’t avoid the exposures sometimes you are in a market and there is a dust going on, there is a dusty environment then you can stop taking breath at that time, you have to take a breath, and if you take the breath you can get an allergic symptoms or symptoms of asthma. So for you to controlling this first and foremost is to avoid the things, but you can avoid sometimes, so control these things you have to take some medications which includes anti allergic and bronchodilators which will open your airways when aver these is allergic manifestation. So most important thing in asthma is to control your symptoms. Right, treatment is something which we have to give every time, but in background you have to control the symptoms then you will remain disease and center free. Right, so to control you have to take the anti-allergic and the bronchodilators. Now a days bronchodilators we are using  an inhaler form that goes directly into the lungs and which will open the airways because, and this will, you will get rid of the symptoms at that tie only. Right, so bronchodilators, they are, there is some stigma associated with the bronchodilators, that the patient will become habitual after taking the bronco inhaler from inhaled bronchodilators, but I will say that you will not become habitual because if these inhalers. You will become good that is why you want to take inhaler again and again. You will feel much better. You confidence will be much better, your concentration will be much better, you will progress more in life if your asthma symptoms will get controlled with one single inhaler in a day, right, and that is for sure.  Right, there are no side effects. There are more side effects are analgesic, the tablet you are taking for headache. Right, because it goes into your stomach and from stomach it goes into your blood and from blood it goes into all parts of your body weather you have a headache, weather you have a leg pain, weather you have a hand pain. So there are more side effect of these drugs as compared to inhaler because inhaler goes directly into the lungs, where the problem is. Right, so it will produce only good effects not the bad effects. But somehow, there are some very subtle side effects of these medications. Every medication has their side effect. But in view of, if you see the pros and cons of each and everything and if you see the cost effective analysis, if you do the cost effective analysis of these medications you will see that you will become much better. Your symptoms will be much controlled. Your visits to hospital will be much reduced after taking inhalers. Right, so you have to take inhalers and anti-allergens also to get rid of these nasal and the throat symptoms of allergy.

Thank you.