Bronchial Asthma and COPD Treatment
- Medical Specialities
- Pulmonology & Chest Medicine
- Bronchial Asthma and COPD
-
Bronchial Asthma and COPD
-
Bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can sometimes confound specialists in the diagnosis and identifying therapies for these diseases. This can impact a large number of people.These two disorders afflict millions of individuals worldwide. Asthma and COPD share many commonalities but also have significant distinctions. COPD is not asthma. Asthma is not COPD.
-
Bronchial Asthma
-
Bronchial Asthma can be allergic and non-allergic. There are various types of asthma-like adult, paediatric, occupational asthma, and exercise-induced asthma. If a patient is regularly exposed to tobacco and smoke, then there is a high risk to encounter asthma. Some other factors like respiratory infections, environmental factors, and few specific allergies are also one of the main causes of asthma. Genetics also could be the reasons for same.
-
The most common symptoms of asthma are:
-
Shortness of breath
-
Wheezing
-
Coughing (especially at night)
-
Chest tightness
-
The treatment for asthma depends upon the condition of the patient. The medication includes majorly anti-inflammatory medicines and bronchodilator. This medicine can be delivered to airways of the lungs directly by metered-dose inhaler, nebulizer or another type of asthma inhaler which help to attain relief from asthma and control the disease without causing side effects Asthma is easy to treat disease in most of the patients provided they are taking medicine as per advice. In a few of the Asthma patient disease may remain uncontrolled inspite of regular medicine, in such cases Biological treatment is available now a days to improve quality of life of Asthma patient.
-
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
-
COPD is a condition of the lung that caters to a group of diseases and obstructs airflow, and make breathing difficult. Lung damage resulting from COPD is irreversible. Smoking is main risk factor for most patients, other factors like Environmental pollution, recurrent lung infections, and low birth weight are also important in many patients. In a country like India, wood smoke exposure due to household use is a common risk factor to have COPD in women. Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are the two most prevalent diseases that lead to COPD.
-
The most common symptoms of asthma are
-
Breathing difficulties,
-
Wheezing, or a persistent cough
-
Fatigue
-
Frequent respiratory infections
-
Inhaler medicine is the main treatment of COPD like asthma particularly for those who have moderate to severe diseases, but the type of inhaler drugs is different. In COPD bronchodilators are the main inhalers whereas in Asthma anti-inflammatory(corticosteroid) inhaler plays an important role.
-
Smoking cessation, vaccination for flu & pneumonia, early & aggressive treatment of infection, and very importantly, Pulmonary Rehabilitation play an important role in the management of COPD.
