Living with Asthma

Asthma can be caused by allergies or exercise. You can get symptoms while working, exercising, and sleeping. There are several different kinds of asthma, some of which are:

• Cough Variant Asthma- the only symptom of this kind of asthma is coughing without actually having anything to cough out. This kind of asthma is rare.
• Allergeic Asthma- some kind of allergen causes you to have respiratory problems.
• Occupational Asthma- this asthma is caused by the environment where you work. You may be a baker or a woodworker. Basically something in the air gives you the asthma from which you suffer.
• Exercise-induced Asthma- this is the kind of asthma which is triggered by exercise. Asthmatics should avoid breathing in cold, dry air when afflicted by this kind of asthma.
• Nocturnal Asthma- this is the asthma in which sleeping causes the lung function to decrease. A good way to deal with this kind of asthma is to take medication for the express purpose of alleviating this problem, as most asthmatics with nocturnal asthma find that they are moderate or severe in degree of illness.
• Pediatric Asthma- this kind can be caused by allergens, toxins, changes in the weather, obesity, and even viruses.

Asthma can restrict the kinds of things you do in your life (for example, you may no longer be able to clean that dog grooming place where you have been moonlighting), but it need not reduce the quality of your life. There are a lot of medications out there that can help your situation. They come in the form of pills or inhalants. Some can be fast-acting and some can provide longer-term relief. The ones that act quickly are best for actual asthma attacks, but the ones that are slower to act can help control your symptoms so that you might not need the quick kind of medication as much. Because there are so many different medications, it will be up to you and your doctor to find the one (or ones) that works best for you. You will need to be patient, too, since sometimes you will find that it takes awhile to get used to the medication and see if it helps you or not.