Asthma Treatment in Suwanee, GA
Breathing is fundamental. There is a very primal response within the body to suffocation. Just breathing a small amount of Carbon Dioxide will bring on an instant panic attack. What we used to call asthma is now called Reactive Airway. When the airway becomes inflamed, it narrows down, it is harder and harder to pull air into the lungs. This means you have to breath more often, it takes more effort to breath. Then the coughing starts and becomes even worse when laying down making it impossible to sleep.
When I first started practicing medicine, we didn’t have inhalers. We only had steroids, terbutaline, caffeine, magnesium and oxygen. Inhalers, specifically Albuterol gave us a real medication and a way to truly save an asthmatic’s life. It is a medication that opens up the airways, immediately. Before that we actually used caffeine. Parents hated us. Here comes in your asthmatic child and we give them a hit of caffeine (maybe even a puppy) and then send them home. Albuterol is 4th cousin to caffeine; in fact and because you inhale it, it can cause you to be a little jittery due to the caffeine effect and the large surface area of the lungs to absorb the drug.
But not all wheezing is Asthma. Whenever the airways become inflamed, they narrow down. This is the definition of Bronchitis or Reactive Airway Disease. Some people’s airways react more severely than others. Often they had it as a child but as there grew up their airways got bigger and the symptoms lessened. But now as adults, a severe enough infection or allergen can cause wheezing and difficulty breathing.
Reactive Airway Disease is one of the most intensively researched conditions in modern medicine. It can be worsened with allergens or infections. It can present as simply as coughing at night when you lay down to audible wheezing with each breath. The coughing is not caused by drainage and over the counter cough medicine is not worth the bottle it comes in. When you lie down, your stomach pushes on your diaphragm and then your breathing is suddenly reduced by 20%. The result is coughing. So you finally get up, walk around, get a drink of water, and then you feel better so you go back to bed. But sure as the world, here comes that tickle in your throat and the cough starts again. Before long you are sleeping in the recliner or with pillows stuffed behind your back keeping you upright.
Before you are sent to the other room to sleep; come see us. We not only understand what’s going on but how to fix it as well.
