Pulmonologist Terms Air Pollution Major Cause Of Allergic Asthma

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Nov, 2016 ) : The increasing air pollution and dust put the number of allergic asthmatic patients high in urban populace of Hyderabad and there is the need of formation of effective strategy for controlling air pollution.

Eminent Pulmonologist and Head of the Department of Pulmonology, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Jamshoro, Dr. Rashid Ahmed Khan, expressed his concern over increasing allergic asthmatic disease in Hyderabad in an interview with APP on Tuesday.

He said smoke of increasing number of old and unfit vehicles as well dust, airing because of development work, were the main reasons for increasing allergic asthmatic among the residents of urban localities.

Dr. Rashid Ahmed said the cigarette smoke, animal dander, mold spores, house dust, feather pillows, some foods, or any other sensitive substance, infections, emotional stress, fatigue, endocrine and climate changes were also the main sources of erupting the disease among the people, he said.

He said asthma is an allergic disorder that is characterized by spasm of the muscles in the walls of the small air passages to the lungs, which results in the shortness of breath and wheezing. About symptoms, he informed that an attack may begin gradually; resulting in increasing respiratory distress and it could also begin dramatically with the onset of severe multiple symptoms such as tightness in the chest, difficulties in inhaling and exhaling and coughing.

Feelings of suffocation and difficulty in speaking could also occur, he added. This narrowing is typically temporary and reversible, but in severe attacks, asthma may result in death and most commonly refers to bronchial asthma, an inflammation of the airways, but the term is also used to refer to cardiac asthma, which develops when fluid builds up in the lungs as a complication of heart failure, Rashid Ahmed added.

He said every cell in the human body requires oxygen to function and the lungs make that oxygen available and with breathing air travels to the lungs through a series of tubes and airways. Dr.

Khan informed that after passing through the mouth and throat, air moves through the larynx, commonly known as the voice box and then through the trachea or windpipe. He said asthma attacks occur when the bronchi and bronchioles become inflamed, reducing the space through which air can travel through the lungs and this causes the asthmatic to work harder to move air in and out of the lungs.

Dr. Rashid Ahmed said frequency of asthma attacks varies considerably among asthma suffers and some people have daily attacks, while others can go months or even years without having an attack. He said common causes of asthma attacks are extremely small and lightweight particles transported through the air and inhaled into the lungs and when they enter the airways, these particles, known as environmental triggers, causes an inflammatory response in the airway walls, resulting in an asthma attack, added.

He said asthma also occurs among those people who do not have allergies and in these persons, chemical irritants trigger an inflammatory response that is initiated in a different way than in allergen-triggered asthma and for example, some people are sensitive to certain common chemical irritants, such as perfume, hairspray, cosmetics, and household cleaners.