What causes asthma:

Asthma is a chronic lung disease that inflames and narrows the airways. Asthma is also long term and cannot be cured. It well affect people of all ages and is mainly found in women, although there are many men who suffer from the disease, as well. There are also different degrees of asthma; some people can have very severe symptoms and others may only have a minor wheeze. The characteristic symptoms are wheeze, cough, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. Even through it cannot be cured, asthma is not a death sentence and most people learn how to control it and live long and fruitful lives.

There are many theories in the medical world about origin and causes of the disease, but the general causes are thought to be mainly 2 reasons that are given and they are environmental and genetic issues.

The thing that starts of an attack of asthma is called a “trigger”. This trigger is something that irritates the airways, then the muscles proximate to the airways start to swell and tighten up and the effect of this is; constricted airways and this makes breathing difficult. These triggers are not necessarily the same in one person as another. What causes an attack in one individual may have no effect whatsoever in another.

If the asthma attack if rigorous enough, then maybe the person will need to be admitted to hospital, happily however most people can control their asthma attacks via preventative measures or medication they keep with them at all times in case of attacks. Unfortunately a person who suffers from long term severe asthma may find they have permanently narrowed airways which makes breathing a chronic problem for them.

The number of people with asthma has been rising in recent years, and researchers are not sure why, this is despite vast improvements in air quality in many major cites and the fast going out of fashion habit of cigarette smoking. Much more alarmingly the number of children suffering from asthma has increased in the last ten years. (just ask any teacher how many inhalers they keep in their desk draw). This raise in children suffering from asthma might well be linked to overweight problems. In the States 1 in 12 people are reported to have asthma.

The medical world doesn't really know what causes asthma but what they are sure of is the fact that it does tend to run in families, in other words if one of your parents has asthma then the probability of you or your siblings developing it are higher than if they didn't. If you have asthma as a child then there is a possibility that the symptoms will disappear as you grow older but might will reappear in later life.

If you are somebody who is an asthmatic, the first thing to do is to find out what starts it for you. In other words what are your “triggers”, it is in your own best interest to do this and avoid them as much as possible.

Common triggers tend to include.

* Pollen, especially in the spring and summer when its most plentiful.

* Cigarette smoke, smoking should especially be avoided if you're an asthmatic, fumes from chemicals, cars, etc can also act as a trigger. .

* Acute cold air.

* Chest ailments and infections

* Animal fur including cats, dogs and farm animals etc. * Excessive exercise

* Emotion, laughing and crying can be a trigger for some people.

Prevention, as we all know is better then cure ensuring your condition is controlled and treated should be your main concern as if left unattended your condition may worsen over time.

Do not become anxious because anxiety is not going to help you and is only the fruit of unanswered questions. Do not let questions go unanswered just because you are afraid to ask or afraid of the answered. If you allow yourself to live in the pale light of insufficient knowledge of how to manage you asthma this could quickly lead you to despair. Asthma is, after all, part of life and can be controlled allowing you to get on with the process of living and becoming the person that you are meant to be.