Highlight the key points! Six common misconceptions about asthma, have you fallen into them? | Things about asthma ②

Recently, with the temperature dropping, coupled with the dry air in autumn and winter, the temperature difference between morning and evening is obvious, which has caused an increase in the number of asthma attacks!

Data shows that the asthma prevalence rate among people aged 20 and above in China is 4.2%, with a total of 45.7 million people, and the prevalence rate is increasing year by year.

Asthma is a common chronic inflammatory disease of the respiratory tract. Its clinical symptoms include recurrent wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, cough, and dyspnea, and it has a genetic predisposition .

Once you are diagnosed with asthma, you must be prepared to fight it for a long time. During this long struggle, please pay attention to the following 6 misunderstandings!

1. Can’t tell the difference between asthma and chronic bronchitis?

When many patients make their own diagnosis of the disease, they tend to misdiagnose atypical asthma - cough variant asthma as chronic bronchitis.

There are a large number of patients with cough variant asthma, and one-third of patients with chronic coughs have cough variant asthma. However, cough variant asthma does not have obvious wheezing or dyspnea, and often manifests as a chronic cough, which can be easily misdiagnosed as chronic bronchitis or chronic pharyngitis. If someone around you has a night cough in daily life, you need to pay attention, as it may be caused by cough variant asthma .

2. Can I buy medicine on my own or rely on folk remedies to treat asthma?

The answer is definitely no . What worries doctors the most is that asthma patients do not follow evidence-based medication recommendations and take "folk remedies" without authorization. In fact, these pharmacies may contain high doses of glucocorticoid ingredients, which may relieve patients' wheezing, dyspnea and other symptoms in the short term, but long-term use of such "folk remedies" will lead to hormone dependence and delay treatment. Asthma patients must follow the doctor's advice when taking medication.

3. If my asthma symptoms have improved, can I stop taking medication?

Doctors remind: Asthma should be treated as a chronic disease such as hypertension and managed on a daily basis. Take medication on time and go for regular follow-up visits as prescribed by your doctor. When the condition and symptoms are stable, the number of asthma attacks decreases or even disappears, and a series of tests such as lung function are performed during follow-up visits, it is possible to gradually reduce the dosage of the medication under the guidance of a doctor.

But there is one medicine that asthma patients are advised to always keep with them .

4. Can childhood asthma be cured without treatment?

Need treatment! As children grow and develop and their physical fitness improves, their asthma may indeed be cured after they pass puberty, but this does not mean that children with asthma do not need treatment.

For children with asthma symptoms, parents are advised to take their children to a regular hospital as soon as possible, complete relevant examinations, evaluate various asthma indicators, and have a professional doctor assess whether medication is needed and how to use medication. If it is clear that the child has asthma, effective treatment can be used to keep lung function stable, which increases the possibility of recovery.

5.Are food and dust the only allergens?

For patients who have been diagnosed with asthma, the most important thing is to avoid contact with allergens, respiratory infections, and exposure to harmful gases.

In Guangdong and even in the southern region, there is a relatively special allergen - cockroach .

If you can see one cockroach in an ordinary home, it means there may be nearly 100 cockroaches in the home. Cockroach allergens mainly come from their excrement, shell debris, saliva, etc. Cockroaches like to hide in dark places and are not easy to be found after death. Their bodies and excrement decompose into small particles and disperse in the air.

6. If you have asthma, you can’t exercise?

Many patients are afraid that exercise will trigger another wheezing attack, which makes them afraid of exercise. In fact, many clinical studies have shown that breathing training and appropriate exercise can be used as auxiliary treatments for asthma , which can improve clinical symptoms and exercise ability and effectively reduce asthma attacks.

Whether you can exercise with asthma depends on the situation and the doctor's guidance. If your asthma is stable, you can do regular aerobic exercise. Try to avoid exercise in the early stages of an asthma attack, and then gradually start exercising after the condition improves. For uncontrolled asthma, you can do some exercise as long as you take preventive measures.

References Sources:

Global strategy for asthma management and prevention

The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University

Guests of this issue:

Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University——Professor Wu Dong