It might seem strange to dedicate a day to a disease. In fact it might seem even stranger to dedicate an entire month to a disease. Yet, celebrating public awareness in such campaigns can result in better research, advocacy, legislation and funding!

Asthma Day? What’s It All About?

The Florida Lung, Asthma & Sleep Specialists join with other health organization world-wide to recognize World Asthma Day, May 6, 2014.
In fact, we will be celebrating asthma awareness for the entire month of May! The designation of the specific day is the brainchild of the Global Initiative for Asthma or GINA.

We join them in their mission to alert the public about this disease. We applaud them for their global initiative with health care professionals and civic health officials. We are proud to be part of the mission to “decrease asthma incidence, morbidity, and deaths.” Other participants include World Health Organization and US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

The 2014 theme for May and especially for May 6, is “You Can Control Your Asthma.”

In The Spirit Of Awareness: Key Asthma Facts

By definition, “Asthma is a persistent illness, categorized by recurring attacks of breathlessness and wheezing, which differ in sternness and rate of recurrence from person to person.”

It is true that some patients endure asthma attacks several times a day or week. For others, the “attacks” are only occasional.

1. The World Health Organization has stated that there are at least 300 million people in the world who suffer some degree of asthma, and 255,000 of them die because of it.

2. Asthma Does Not Respect Age:  Did you know that asthma is the most regularly chronic disease among children?

3. Asthma does not respect income. No matter what socio-economic level of development exists in a country, asthma is always present as a personal, civic and family health problem.

4. It is tragic that over 80% of asthma deaths occur in countries with low or lower middle-income populations. This leads us to believe that more care, treatment and asthma enlightening education can make a difference in the outcome for patients.

According to the experts, “asthma is under-diagnosed and under-treated, generating a considerable load to persons and families and perhaps limiting individuals’ actions for a lifetime.”

The FLASS Asthma Secret

The Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists do not really make this factor a secret, but it has two parts:

First, we genuinely believe that one of the most important lessons a patient can learn in order to manage his or her asthma is to work with us “to identify and minimize your exposure to your asthma triggers.”

If you are diagnosed with asthma, your triggers are individual to your condition. They might be allergens, irritants, or unique conditions that provoke your breathlessness, wheezing and respiratory difficulties.

We know you might not be able to avoid all your triggers all the time. Being aware of them, and avoiding them, as well as adhering to your FLASS treatment plan, can empower you to lead a more normal life, and keep you out of the emergency room.

Secondly, developing a treatment plan for your lifestyle can help you, as our Asthma Day Theme says, “control your asthma.”

Thank you for reading the Florida Lung, Asthma & Sleep Specialists’ official blog today. For more about asthma, you might enjoy looking at one of our previous blog articles on the subject. Please stop by our blog often and watch for more blogs about asthma during the next few weeks. If you or someone you love suffers from asthma, you might discover something that can make a difference in quality of life for you, or for them!