Let’s start by providing a definition. According to Wikipedia:

“Asthma is a chronic disease of the respiratory system in which the airway occasionally constricts, becomes inflamed, and is lined with excessive amounts of mucus, often in response to one or more triggers. These episodes may be triggered by such things as exposure to an environmental stimulant (or allergen), cold air, exercise or exertion, or emotional stress.”

Important things to note from here:

Asthma is a chronic disease.

This means that a person should learn to coexist with asthma as a life partner. However, the good news is that the frequency and intensity of the episodes can vary heavily and in fact most of the asthmatic children become asymptomatic asthmatic adults, and the rest of us usually improve significantly when we grow (for instance, my last time at the hospital was when I was a 9-year old kid… since then, my asthma is pretty much under control and I can lead a pretty normal life!)

Asthma can be triggered by many different things

This is really a problem for asthmatic people, as it’s not always easy to avoid all the possible causes, although it must be said that it’s not so common to have many possible causes. For instance, in my case exercise is not usually a big problem but cold air is, and I definitely have problems with emotional stress and a few allergens.

Another cause not mentioned here is gastro-esophageal reflux (I can tell by experience…)

I would add that although asthma can definitely cause problems to many people, it’s not a too severe disease. For instance, it’s estimated that more than 300 million people suffer it worldwide (around 5% of the world population) and there are 180.000 deaths annually. Of course this percentage is not negligible but it’s very far from other serious diseases, and the best thing is that there exist very good treatments for it. The challenge is to ensure that each asthmatic (even the undiagnosed one!) in the world has enough information about the disease and can access adequate treatment.

More information to come in future posts…