Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Living With Asthma - 10 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Asthma Attacks

Living with asthma may not be a comfortable life after all. You may be bothered about whether you may get an asthma attack in the office or after a game of sports or even just walking around.

Indeed, the triggers of asthma may include the air you breathe, dust at home, molds underneath the sheets, stress and too much exertion physical activities. It doesn't mean you have to be paranoid about all these triggers but you can manage the burden of asthma attack by trying to be healthy and avoiding possible triggers as well.

If you have been living with asthma and you have been striving to lessen its attacks, here are a few things you can do.

1. Know everything you can about asthma and how you can control its symptoms. The more you know about it, the more you know what to do in case you have an asthma attack.

2. Quit smoking. Maintain healthy lungs and airways to make sure that you have clean air passage. Of course, smoking may cause lung damage that can also worsen your asthma attack and may bring other respiratory problems.

3. Find protection from polluted air. Although you may not be able to avoid it totally, you can stay indoors if it is dusty outside or if smog is all over. Wear protection if you need to go out though.

4. Be aware of your triggers and jot them down if you want. Living with asthma should mean avoiding your triggers. Most often, these triggers are about stress at work, dust and pollen, scents and perfumes as well as too much physical activities. Animal fur and feathers may also trigger asthma so make sure you have no pets around the house if this is an asthma trigger for you. Make sure also that you regularly clean you carpet to get rid of accumulated dust and molds as well.

5. Have a regular exercise but also avoid those that may require too long exertion.

6. Switch to a diet of more nutritious foods to help you build a healthy immune system and keep you away from frequent asthma attack. Although there is no particular food to avoid if you have asthma, it helps a lot to have a healthy diet for a stronger immune system.

7. Manage stress at home, at work and in the office. Find ways to get rid of daily stress as this can contribute to weakening the immune system and may put you susceptible to asthma attacks. Have plenty of rest and sleep and free your mind from stressful thoughts as well.

8. Try some relaxation techniques to help you relieve stress and helps you practice deep breathing. Visualization, yoga, meditation, acupuncture - these are great relaxation exercises that will help strengthen your immune system and help you combat asthma attack.

9. Do not self-medicate. Asthma may be accompanied by cough but don't treat it with cough medicine. Take note that cough and asthma are not the same and taking cough medicines may bring about unwanted side effects.

10. Lose weight if you are obese or overweight. There are studies linking obesity to asthma thus, start maintaining a good weight now and shed those extra pounds for a healthier you.

Living with asthma is indeed difficult at times, so try to be informed of what you can do to deal with this disease. Take note also that this disease if left uncontrolled can indeed lead to a life-threatening situation, so better act now.