Asthma is one of the leading noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), both in children and adults. This ailment compresses the bronchial tubes, causing the oxygen exchange not to occur correctly, causing beeping in the patient, and presenting respiratory distress with fatigue, which if it occurs for a long time, becomes serious.
In the world it affects more than 339 million people and it can occur at any stage of life, due to factors such as genetic predisposition, chemical irritants, air pollution, and environmental exposure to inhaled substances and particles that can cause allergic reactions or irritate the respiratory tract.
According to the Spanish immunologist Victoria del Pozo, a patient with severe asthma have difficulty leading a normal life.
“Some patients have a deterioration in their quality of life, just because their asthma is so severe. If it is controlled and mild asthma, you have no difficulty leading a normal life, without stopping doing sport”, affirmed the specialist prior to her participation in the Summit of severe asthmadeveloped in the Jaragua hotel.
Severe asthma, without proper treatment, can reduce lung function by 60% and in severe cases lead to death.
The doctor specified that individuals with severe asthma yes they can do sportThey just require pre-treatment to prepare the lungs for exercise.
He clarified that there is no more beneficial discipline than another, but contrary to the idea that the best sport for asthmatics it is swimming, Del Pozo points out that “just swimming is not the most beneficial, because the chlorine in the pool is not good for allergic individuals.”
Asthma treatment requires continuous basal medication with inhalers that control episodes.
“When most people feel good they put down the inhalers. The maintenance inhaler is daily, even when the person does not have symptoms, and that is when they suffer serious episodes, ”says the immunoallergist regarding the main problem when monitoring patients.
“Asthma is a chronic pathology, and being chronic, like diabetes or hypertension, today we do not have any medication that reverses the disease, the only thing left is to control it,” he added.
It recommends that the patient with asthma have regular check-ups every six months.
The worsening is gradual, if there is no treatment, each time the episodes will be worse.
A patient with asthma may need multidisciplinary treatment depending on the severity of the case, visiting allergists, pulmonologists, otolaryngologists, immunologists and psychologists when there is a high anxiety component.
As part of regular medical control, the aim is to reduce inflammation in the airways, minimize exposure to proinflammatory factors and monitor comorbidities that can worsen asthma, since poor control of the disease is equivalent to more frequent crises, greater impact on the patient’s quality of life and the possibility of bronchospasm.
in the world, 150 million people with asthma they might present an avoidable bronchospasm, knowing their condition, the direct implications that the disease can cause and with a correct management of the medication.
For his part, the medical director of AstraZeneca for Central America and the Caribbean, Stephen Coto, stated that “there are a series of current gaps that asthmatics find themselves in, many do not have equal access to medical care and, in addition, they are unaware of the disease and its existing types, impacting the general state of health. We call on patients to seek adequate management and control of asthma from their specialists and to avoid fatal complications in the population living with the disease”.