* Asthma is a chronic disease that places you at higher risk of serious illness with COVID19 infection.

* Keeping your asthma well controlled will give you the best protection against serious COVID19 illness.

* Controlling your COVID19 exposure should be a high priority.

Does Asthma make you more vulnerable to COVID19?

Patients with chronic disease including chronic lung disease are having much more trouble with COVID19.

Many are dying when they become infected.

To be sure, having advanced age and asthma is a very concerning combination, but even young people with asthma should be concerned.

This is the time to get serious about asthma!

Your best defense is a strong offense.

Compared to the lungs of a person without asthma, your asthma lungs experience inflammation much more easily.

This tendency toward inflammation can be controlled by inhaled steroids and in some cases, new immune modulators.

Keeping a lid on this baseline inflammation should be our top priority all the time!

How does the COVID19 virus interact with your asthma lungs?

When it enters your body, the COVID19 virus attaches to the lining in the back of your throat.

From there, it moves to the airways of your lungs (bronchi and bronchioles). 

Once there, virus particles attach to and hijack the manufacturing processes of airway cells.  The result is that these cells pump out a continuous stream of virus particles.

When your immune system spots airway cells that have been taken over by the virus, it attacks them with a vengeance!  The result is inflammation.  

If your airways are already experiencing out-of-control inflammation, this is a disaster!

The addition of virus invasion and immune attack blows holes in tiny blood vessels, causing the lungs to fill with blood.   Airflow is blocked and then you have a life-threatening inability to breathe.

The amount of virus matters.

The more virus particles that get into your mouth, nose or eyes, the more likely you will develop a severe infection with a dangerous inflammatory reaction.

Look, it is virtually impossible for every person on the planet to completely avoid COVID19.

But, getting the smallest amount of exposure at any time should be your goal.

Washing your hands is a basic and effective way reduced the amount of virus you are handling.  Here’s how to wash!

Since virus are carried the the air, it is smart to keep a distance from people who might be carrying virus.  This includes people that aren’t having fever or cough at all!

And,

Mask UP!

And get the most current vaccine.

In the mean time, let’s keep your asthma under control!

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#eprescription
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Why do we use steroids in asthma?

* Inflammation of the airways is the underlying problem in asthma

* Steroids like Prednisone and Decadron are taken by mouth

* Steroids like betamethasone and fluticasone are inhaled like albuterol.

* Steroids shut down inflammation in asthma

* Lung inflammation in moderate asthma can be controlled but not cured.

The basic problem in asthma lungs is inflammation.

Inflammation means swelling, oozing, and fragility of the lining of breathing tubes.

This inflammation leads to extra mucus production and this mucus, along with swelling in the walls of these tubes, creates a extra resistance to air flow.  

When these breathing tubes are inflamed with swelling and mucus, the effort to move air, especially out of the lungs, can be exhausting.

My goal is to help you keep a lid on this inflammation.  In asthma, there will always be a tendency for it to get out of control.

But, with the right controller medication and avoidance of triggers, you can stay out of the ER, get restful sleep, and be as active as an Olympic athlete!

Now, when the inflammation is out of control, we have only one choice.

SHUT IT DOWN.

The most potent and fast acting medicine we have for this is corticosteroids.  

We say steroids for short.  

This isn’t the type of steroids injected by weight lifters to make big muscles – those are called anabolic steroids..  

Corticosteroids work inside the walls of breathing tubes to block the inflammation process.

They work, but their action is not immediate.

Prednisone and Dexamethasone are the most common forms used in non-hospitalized asthma patients.

These steroids are taken by mouth, or if your breathing is really bad, they are given intravenously.

Either medicine must be taken for 3-5 days straight for the full effect.

After these medicines shut down the inflammation process in the breathing tubes, we are in a position to launch a new asthma action plan that includes stronger controller medicine in the form of inhaled steroids, also called controllers.

For more moderate and severe asthma sufferers, there are new medications – biologics, that make even more dramatic improvements in severe asthma control.    

For most moderate asthma patients, inhaled corticosteroids will be a cornerstone of their asthma action plan.

Finding the right type of steroid, the frequency that works, and the one that you and your insurance company accept is a really important part of asthma care.

If you are using your albuterol rescue inhaler daily and aren’t using a steroid inhaler, you need one.  

If you are using your albuterol rescue inhaler more than two times per week and you ARE on a steroid inhaler, you need a change that delivers more steroid either per dose or more times per day.

If you are ready to make a change, grab an appointment and lets talk!

#asthmacontrolnow
#telemedicineasthmacare
#backpocketasthmadoc
#asthmaactionplan
#asthmacontroltest
#asthmacontroller
#rescueinhaler
#asthmacovid19
#childrenandasthma
#eprescription
#easthma
#peakexpiratoryflow
#peakflowmeter
#asthmaniac

* Asthma is present in about 10% of children.

* Asthma in children is diagnosed when your child has recurring episodes of wheezing that are relieved by rescue medicine such as albuterol

* Asthma in children is treated with the same medicines and treatment plans as in adults with adjustments for their size and metabolism.

Children have a lot more wheezing than adults.

A simple upper respiratory infection or common cold causes many children to wheeze.

But, a single episode of wheezing while ill doesn’t mean a child has asthma.  A key feature of asthma is the recurrence of wheezing, along with its reversibility by a bronchodilator/inhaler like albuterol.

How many children who wheeze when sick go on to have recurrent wheezing and asthma?  We don’t know for sure.  But we do know that infection with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) early in childhood is associated with the appearance of asthma.

The bottom line: asthma in children is a very big problem.

In 2016, about 6 million children were diagnosed with asthma.  That makes it  the most common chronic disease of childhood.

Untreated, asthma in children threatens them with death, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and school absenteeism.

Childhood asthma is treated with the same medications and strategies as in adults. Since they are kids there are adjustments in medication dosage, and some differences in severity classification.

Unfortunately, like adults, children are often not treated according to the National standard of care.

Asthmaniac is designed to serve them as well.

At Asthmaniac, pediatric expertise is always on-deck to make sure our approach to children with asthma is aligned with National standards.

#asthmacontrolnow
#telemedicineasthmacare 
#backpocketasthmadoc
#asthmaactionplan
#asthmacontroltest
#asthmacontroller
#rescueinhaler
#asthmacovid19
#childrenandasthma
#eprescription
#easthma
#peakexpiratoryflow
#peakflowmeter
#asthmaniac