Triggers, triggers everywhere. Triggers are the essence of spring if you have asthma.
Where can you turn without facing a trigger if you have asthma? Triggers are indoors and out in the spring! If you know about your asthma, you probably know about triggers. To put it briefly, triggers are conditions or substances which irritate and tighten your airway if you have asthma. They initiate your symptoms.
We have featured triggers many times on the FLASS blog. Some examples of “triggers” are pollen, pet dander cockroach droppings, dust mites and the flu. There are hundreds of triggers all around us in everyday life. And they are not the same for everyone with asthma. Welcome to our part one of the coverage of three big asthma triggers in Florida at this precise time.
Triggers Galore With Pollen and Spore
There are simply a lot of respiratory challenges facing many asthma patients right now as we ease out of winter and leap into spring:
Beautiful Fields Of Flowers Or Deadly Allergy and Asthma Traps?
1. In the first place, the flu is still afflicting many
Secondly, if you already have asthma, then enduring a cold or flu can exacerbate the asthma condition.
2. Secondly, with spring arriving, pollens from trees, grasses and buds are beginning to drift like light snow on the warmer breezes.
No doubt about it! Spring allergies engender asthma attacks.
3. Thirdly, as if those issues were not enough to trigger some major asthma attacks, scientists in Australia have recently published information about Thunderstorms as asthma triggers. And we know there will be a few of those heading this way.
Triggers, Springtime, Flu, and the Asthma Patient: Sneezing Provokes Wheezing
If you know you have asthma, we hope you are taking care of yourself properly according to your FLASS action plan or a similar plan from your healthcare provider. Here’s a big take-away from today’s FLASS blog: When you have asthma, even a mild cold can lead to wheezing and tightness in your chest and exacerbation of all your asthma symptoms.
According to Mayo Clinic, “Colds and the flu are among the most common causes of asthma flare-ups, especially in young children.”
Special Alert: Likewise, they warn us regular asthma medications may fail to relieve asthma symptoms associated with a cold or the flu.” The doctors and healthcare professionals here at FLASS are alerting asthma patients and their families that they need to take extra precautions during this time to avoid getting sick during this mean flu season. Your asthma avoidance keys to flu and cold protection, listed below, include some of the same keys we all need:
The FLASS Top Asthma Avoidance Keys to Escape Cold and Flu Now
One of our top prevention methods is to avoid contact with sick friends and relatives. Likewise, avoid public places with large crowds during flu season.
We have seen studies this year that prove that some viruses travel person to person on the simple exhalation of air. In other words, breathing the same air as a sick person could give you the flu which could exacerbate your asthma.
Look Out! Flu Virus is Everywhere.
1. Make sure you get the flu shots, of course. Additionally, if we don’t ask you, then you ask us if you should have a pneumonia shot. (But we, or your own health care provider, will probably ask you.)You see, when you have asthma, and catch the flu, you are very susceptible to pneumonia.
2. Here’s an anti-virus tip you don’t see very often; Do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth. This, believe it or not, can be difficult to do. Become aware of how often you habitually rub your forehead, pinch between your eyes, lean your hand on your cheek or scratch your cheek beside your nose.
3. Sharing your inhaler with other people, even your little brother, sister, daughter or mom, is a really bad idea. Think about it.
Cleanliness is vital
4. Never forget to wash your hands. This anti-flu tip speaks for itself, and we know you have heard it many times recently. Never be in such a hurry that you can’t remove the germs from your hands.
5. Be sure to call your doctor or health care professional if your asthma starts to bother you when you are already sick with the flu. And you might be unaware of the fact that some “persons with asthma can opt for antiviral therapy if they have no symptoms but believe themselves exposed to the virus.
This therapy is termed “chemoprophylaxis,” and it might prevent the symptoms from ever fully developing, but you must begin it within hours of exposure.
If Best Laid Plans Fail and You Get the Flu, Then what?
If you have the flu, with a side helping of asthma, early treatment could help you recover sooner than without treatment. Find more informative details about flu and asthma at this popular online resource.
So, if you suffer with both flu and asthma, despite your best efforts to avoid them, here are a couple of tips:
FLASS Special Tips for Asthma Patients With the Flu
1. Utilize that FLASS Fast Asthma Action plan. You know if you need your special medicine. And you are familiar with the warning wheeze, the sharp shortness of breath and tightening chest of asthma. So, check your plan and follow the prescriptions and directions of your physician or healthcare professional. You know you can get the attack under control, so you can rest.
2. Because It’s asthma and You Know It, Use Your Peak Flow Meter to Show it!
You might need to use a peak flow meter to monitor how well your lungs are functioning. Adjust your asthma medicine accordingly. Check out these important instructions if your doctor or healthcare provider has suggested using a flow meter to track your lung function.
The Florida Lung, Asthma and Sleep Specialists’ Flu Report Alert Lingers On…
Let’s suppose you are tempted to ignore the tips above. You think that just because spring is arriving, the flu is no longer dangerous.
Perhaps you need to learn about the latest statistics: We are sad to report that another 17 children have lost their lives to the flu. That means the total pediatric death toll has risen again, this season’s, to a total of 114 children for this season. Although the CDC believes the flu peaked in the last week of February, you should know 45 states are still reporting widespread cases. Thus, especially if you have asthma, please don’t let down your guard.
Season of Triggers: Spring has sprung and Allergy Season Has Too
If you have asthma, have you talked to your healthcare provider about allergy testing? Springtime brings a number of allergy triggers, especially including pollen and insects. Any allergy trigger can easily be an asthma trigger.
If spring has always been your worst asthma time, then experts advise, “talk with your asthma care provider about getting tested for common allergens, with a simple blood test or skin prick test.”
You see, allergy testing may help you identify your triggers. Remember the secret of tolerating asthma with an active lifestyle is management. If you know your triggers, you can avoid them and avert an asthma attack.
About those Thunderstorm Triggers: A New Asthma Trigger
In Australia, doctors and meteorologists are just now determining how to coordinate cause and effect data between the onset of thunderstorms and numerous severe asthma obviously provoked by weather conditions. “Thunderstorm asthma is a phenomenon that meteorologists are just beginning to understand.”
Most prevalent statistically in Australia, studies are showing the storms can brew up asthma attacks, not just for one person, but for crowds, en masse– and it can happen anywhere.
There are certain requirements that happen in combination to set up this perfect storm that attacks asthmatics with special intensity.
1. The Thunderstorm trigger requires high airborne pollen counts.
Thunderstorms Can Be Scary for than One Almost Unknown Reason: They Can Trigger Allergy Trauma.
2. Thunderstorms winds lift masses of pollen and send them “pouring down onto a vulnerable populace, says Andrew Grundstein. He is a climate scientist at the University of Georgia in Athens.”
In our next blog, part to of our study, we will go more deeply into recent research about thunderstorms as triggers for asthma, and how the scientists are bringing their Australian studies worldwide. W e can’t wait to share the newest research with you next week. Find out what researchers and government in Australia are doing to halt the thunderstorm risk triggers to asthma patients.
Meanwhile, if you have asthma watch out for the flu, and avoid the allergy triggers of spring, and even before you know the research, it can’t hurt to protect yourself from thunderstorms.