Asthma is a chronic condition that affects as many as 5.4 million people in the UK. You can be diagnosed with asthma at any point in your life and there’s no cure for the condition. However, asthma can be treated and there’s nothing stopping you from living a full and healthy life alongside the condition. 

You can manage your asthma by working with a healthcare provider to create a plan to avoid certain triggers and use the array of available medication for sufferers in the most effective way. MedicAlert can store those medications on your online record, for use in emergency situations.

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Asthma is also an episodic disease, which means it can come and go depending on a range of factors. These factors typically involve anything that affects your breathing, from exercise to unclean air and everything in between.

But what actually is asthma? And how can sufferers continue to live active lives whilst managing their condition? Let’s take a look at how asthma works and how sufferers and their loved ones can help to limit the impact of the condition.

What is Asthma?

Asthma is a condition where your airways narrow and begin to swell up. This can cause your breathing to become difficult and cause you to start coughing, you may also notice that you’re wheezing as you breathe, which could cause you to make a whistling sound as you inhale. Asthma can also cause you to produce extra mucus.

For many sufferers, asthma usually manifests itself as a minor nuisance rather than a direct danger, but for others it can be a persistent and significant problem which interferes with daily activities and poses the threat of a life-threatening asthma attack.

(Image: South County Internal Medicine)

In the image above, we can see how asthma symptoms can narrow the airways to make the task of breathing much more difficult for sufferers.

Bronchodilators, more popularly known as inhalers, can help many sufferers by providing medication that’s breathed through the mouth to help the lungs relax these tightened muscles. The medicine gets to work within minutes and opens the airways to help you to catch your breath.

Although asthma can’t be cured, its symptoms can be controlled. Because asthma tends to change over time, it’s vital that you clearly communicate any changes to the frequency of your asthma to your doctor and to continually monitor the effectiveness of your treatment.

What are the Symptoms of Asthma?

Most children and adults with asthma experience difficulties in breathing over short periods of time. Some people who have severe asthma can struggle to breathe over significantly longer periods of time.

The most common symptoms that asthma sufferers experience are:

• Wheezing (a whistling sound whilst inhaling)
• Breathlessness
• Feeling of tightness in the chest
• Coughing.

These symptoms can be caused by many things, but they’re more likely to be triggered by asthma if they happen regularly and keep returning, if they’re worse at night and/or they seem to happen as a reaction to a trigger like hay fever or certain animals.

If your child or somebody you care for is experiencing these symptoms and you believe it may be asthma, it’s important to see a GP to look at how you can take your next steps. It’s also vital to go and see a doctor if you feel as though you have these recurring symptoms and they’re becoming difficult to control.

Sometimes your asthma can get progressively worse for a short period of time. This is known as an asthma attack, and they can either happen suddenly or develop over a few days.

You may be able to tell if you’re having an asthma attack due to the following symptoms:

• Persistent and severe wheezing, coughing and chest tightness
• Being too short of breath to speak, sleep or eat
• Faster breathing
• Higher heart rate
• Drowsiness, exhaustion, confusion or dizziness
• Blue lips or fingers
• Fainting.

Sometimes, Asthma symptoms can be mistaken for other conditions, such as COPD or even an anxiety attack. MedicAlert can help stop this from occurring by having Asthma engraved on the medical ID so that it is clear to medical professionals and they can then care for you in the right way.

Asthma Diagnosis

If you suspect that either yourself or a loved one may have asthma, the first thing you should do is book an appointment. Your GP or an asthma nurse can help to confirm or rule out an asthma diagnosis.

When talking to a professional, you can help to deliver a successful diagnosis by:

• Discussing your symptoms and what your triggers could be
• Checking whether any family members also have asthma
• Asking around your family to see if anyone suffers from allergies like hay fever
• Testing how your lungs are operating
• Listening out for wheezing sounds as you breathe in
• Using prescribed asthma treatments to see if your symptoms go away
• Checking whether you have other symptoms that may indicate you have something other than asthma

Taking an asthma test

To help confirm a diagnosis, you’ll need to take an asthma test to confirm or rule out the condition. Your GP is able to check on your lungs with the help of tests like peak flow, spirometry and FeNo (fractional exhaled nitric oxide).

Your GP will typically perform this test during the appointment, and you’ll be able to check the results immediately - however, due to asthma’s episodic nature, you may need to come in on a separate day and take the test again before your GP can confirm whether you have asthma.

It’s also possible that you’ll be handed a peak flow meter to use at home over a period of a couple of weeks. This apparatus can help you to record your peak flow scores in a diary.

When you take your peak flow meter back to your appointment, a GP or asthma nurse will then be able to check your scores and see whether they indicate that you have asthma.

How to Help Someone with Asthma

Whether you have a friend or family member with both mild or severe asthma, there are plenty of things that you can do to help them with their condition.

Firstly, it’s vital that you educate yourself on the condition and talk to your loved one about their triggers. Something as simple as regularly vacuuming the house or encouraging your loved one to maintain a healthy lifestyle can work wonders in improving their breathing and limiting the effect of their triggers.

One of the most effective ways to help a loved one with asthma is to learn what to do if they suffer an attack in your presence. Being able to check their sitting position and knowing where to find their inhaler could make a big difference to quickly stopping an attack in its tracks.

How to deal with it yourself

If you’ve been diagnosed with asthma, the chances are that you’ll already have a personal plan devised by your GP to help combat the condition.

Knowing how to use your inhaler correctly is essential in living with asthma, and there’s plenty of guidance on Asthma UK if you’re unsure whether you’re feeling better after using your inhaler. Likewise, if you’ve been prescribed a preventer inhaler or tablets, remember to take them every day - or as frequently as your GP advises. Be sure to check before taking other medicines that they’re suitable for someone with asthma. It may be worth learning to check with pharmacists before accepting treatments for other conditions.

Although inhalers can help to combat asthma attacks, sometimes they are inaccessible. If yourself or a loved one is experiencing an asthma attack and there’s no inhaler available, dial 999 and ask for an ambulance.

It’s also difficult for medical professionals to know if you are carrying an inhaler. With MedicAlert you can make this obvious by engraving your inhaler details on your ID, that way the paramedics can find your inhaler and give it to you, or give you the medication if you do not have it with you.

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The best way of limiting the impact of asthma is to live a healthy lifestyle. Stopping smoking, for instance, can significantly lower the severity and frequency of asthma symptoms.

Although exercise can trigger asthma, your treatment should be able to make it possible to work up a sweat without impacting your breathing.

It may also be a good idea to book your annual flu jabs and a single pneumococcal vaccination to help lower the ramifications of flu on your life with asthma.

Tips to help

Whether yourself or a loved one suffers from mild or severe asthma, there are plenty of tips available to help. As a common condition, there’s a wide range of people out there able to share the things that work for them and what should be avoided in preventing attacks from occurring.

Firstly, you need to learn and avoid your triggers. Don’t worry if you haven’t yet worked out what causes your asthma to flare up, this process can take time and once you notice trends you can take action to protect your airways.

It’s also vital to avoid both smoking and inhaling second hand smoke. This means that if you’re caring for a loved one with asthma and smoke indoors, it’s worth adapting to smoke outside of the house, or to consider quitting altogether.

Create yourself an asthma action plan. Because symptoms can vary, it means they can get worse or better depending on lots of factors. You need to know how to adjust your medicines depending on symptoms and when to call for medical help. Your action plan can be formulated with your healthcare provider.

Also, try to make sure you get plenty of sleep. Although it’s hard to avoid catching the cold or flu, they can trigger asthma symptoms. However, a good night’s sleep helps to prevent you from displaying symptoms of a virus.

How MedicAlert can help

Conditions like asthma should never come between you and doing the things you love, but sometimes severe cases of asthma can make sufferers fearful of what may happen if they’re alone when symptoms begin to emerge.

MedicAlert strives to give individuals the peace of mind they deserve without impacting their daily lives. Our medical ID jewellery helps those suffering from an asthma attack to get the right care from medical professionals quickly and efficiently.

Our MedicAlert members wear medical jewellery like necklaces and bracelets that are engraved with their most vital medical information, our 24/7 emergency helpline and their unique membership number - meaning that it’s possible to get the help needed even if a patient is unable to communicate at the time.

MedicAlert is the only UK charity that provides medical ID services, and we’ve helped our members to live full and enjoyable lives despite living with severe allergies, heart conditions, lung conditions, epilepsy, diabetes, dementia and other impactful ailments.

You should never feel forced to stop doing the things you love because of asthma, and MedicAlert intends to ensure that you can live the life you deserve without having to worry about what could happen.

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