Daily Precautions For Asthma Patients
Asthma is a chronic disease of the respiratory system and may turn even fatal at times. It is therefore important for the asthma patients to take proper care and precautions regularly. Asthma patients suffer from attacks that enforce the system to breathe with difficulty. Wheezing, choking, gasping for breath and suffocation are the symptoms of asthmatic attack.
The attacks may last up to several minutes and leave a person thoroughly exhausted. There can be severe organ damage due to problem in respiration during the asthma attack. Also the system may suffer from lack of oxygen for a longer duration of time. It is therefore imperative to exercise proper caution and avoid the onset of an attack to the extent possible.
Some easily followed precautions everyday may keep an asthmatic without suffering an attack. These precautions are:
1. An asthmatic needs to follow routines. This is because it is generally seen that people do not suffer the agony of an asthmatic attack if they continue to live their life in a regular way. The problem arises mainly when the people go out of their way and break all the routines. The system thus gets unnecessarily pressured and reacts badly by manifesting the symptoms of the disease in the oddest of ways and without many warning signs. Sometimes the body does give the warning signs but the person may ignore them completely.
2. Daily morning walk does wonders to the system. But in the case of asthma patients the benefit from early morning exercise is enhanced manifold. This is because the early morning is the time when the air is pure and at its best. Exercising the lungs with the early morning air does wonders to the asthmatic lungs and respiratory tract.
3. Daily morning exercise schedule needs to be followed religiously in case of an asthma patient. Not only does this help in exercising the whole system but it also makes a person live a more disciplined and regularised life. This is because if a person gets into the habit of getting up early, in all probability he would try and sleep early too and his routine will automatically be set and fixed.
4. The daily diet of an asthma patient should be kept simple and nutritious. He should take care of not eating heavy meals as they would tax the system unnecessarily. Care should be taken to keep the meals small and frequent if need be, rather than consuming standard heavy meals at set hours. Also the food should be cooked with less oil and spices to keep it easily digestible. The diet should be mainly vegetarian with less of fats and carbohydrates. Sweets should best be avoided at night time. Dinner should be consumed at least two hours before sleeping so that the stomach is almost empty before sleeping. Dietary intake of fruits and vegetables should be enhanced. Snacks should be mainly in the form of fresh fruits and vegetables only and fatty, oily and salty or sweet snacks should be avoided completely.
5. Asthma patients should avoid smoking completely. Smoking fills the system with many toxins and the respiratory system gets flooded with them. These toxins are major irritants to the respiratory tract and create an undue pressure on the system that may be too much for an asthmatic to handle. An asthmatic may get more bronchial spasms and is more likely to be affected with respiratory infections if he continues to smoke.
6. An asthmatic person should also not indulge in drinking too much. This is because drinking causes a person to lose sense and become more prone to breaking disciplines of routine and diets. An asthmatic may become careless with his diet and may tend to overeat to counteract the influence of alcohol if he indulges in drinking too much.
7. Asthma patient’s surroundings should be kept neat and tidy. As far as possible clutter should be completely avoided to steer clear of dust induced allergies that may create an attack. Clutter in the surroundings inhabits several mites and allergy causing organisms. It is therefore necessary that the furniture and other stuff should be arranged in such a way, which allows proper dusting and cleaning on a daily basis.
8. Asthma patients may have difficulty with the atmospheric pollution also. It is very important to assess whether the patient may be allergic to any particular kind of allergen present in the atmosphere around his place of dwelling or occupation. Sometimes certain professions support the excessive usage of one kind of toxin or the other, in which case a change in profession or occupational conditions may remain to be the only option.
9. Asthmatics should also be very careful of not getting mentally excited too much. This is because the mental aggravation may lead to appearance of asthmatic symptoms in patients. On a daily basis it is better not to accumulate taking decisions, whether in the personal life or in the professional life. The work should also be handled as far as possible on a daily basis to avoid excess stress and anxiety.
10. In order to manage asthma it is very necessary to accept the disease and the limitations attached with it in one’s daily life. If proper discipline is maintained a patient can have a long and problem free life.