Grab Your Inhalers and Tissues, Cause it's Asthma and Allergy Month!

Disclaimer: Haru is not a real doctor, please consult your physicians with any questions.
Haru encourages everyone to do their own research and ask questions.

Grab Your Inhalers and Tissues, Cause it's Asthma and Allergy Month

Hey everyone, Mandy here!

We thought we'd give Rosie a little break from Haru this month. Luckily May is all about Asthma and Allergies, something I feel pretty confident I can talk to you all about, as I deal with both of them on a regular basis.

Who knew I'd get so much use out of my costume lol

We're currently in the middle of spring here in Canada - Ah Spring, a time when everyone says goodbye to winter and welcomes back warmer weather, new life, and the returning greenery. Most people look forward to this season, but for us few who suffer from asthma and allergies it's a straight-up nightmare. Asthma and Allergies are basically the Crabbe and Goyle of immune system irritants, both are annoying to deal with, so if you can avoid them great, but if you can't … well … at least they can be managed pretty easily, they're just super aggravating. 

Recently my mom casually informed me that due to my asthma, when I was a child, the government had me categorized as someone with a disability … three decades I've lived my life never knowing I had a disability... I just thought "Hey I have asthma, so sometimes I have trouble breathing, no big deal."

Now that I think about it - I wouldn't say it was mild either, I remember my parents rushing me to the hospital on numerous occasions due to asthma attacks and I even had an oxygen mask at home which I also used several times. From the records, my mother kept I basically had a severe asthma attack at least 1-2 times a month, more so during Spring and Autumn months.

To this day I still feel the effects of Asthma and Allergies every day, but they've become so part of who I am that I never really pay it much mind. This is probably due to the fact that luckily when I feel any symptoms I can just conveniently reach over and take two puffs from my inhaler and the discomfort dissipates.

Thinking back to my childhood, I had asthma, allergies, and glasses …I really hit the trifecta eh. You'd think with all that that I would have been the kid who tried to get out of gym class or who was always picked last in sports; but I was actually pretty athletic and always got top marks in gym. I also spent most of my time outdoors and I loved playing sports. I did swimming, I ran track, and I played basketball and soccer.

My parents are also lucky I never suffered from self-esteem issues. The universe was like hey you're gonna have low stats in health, you're gonna have asthma, you'll need glasses, and you're gonna be allergic to dust, pollen, cats, and smoke, but I'm gonna give you high stats in self-esteem and optimism so you'll never let it stop you. This is probably why I'm only now noticing all the reasons why my parents were so concerned about having a sickly child.  As a child, I kinda just viewed having asthma the same as someone having freckles or frizzy hair…there's not much you can do about it so there's no point dwelling on it. OMG I also had frizzy hair… how did I ever make it to adulthood?

So what are Asthma and Allergies, and how do they affect us?

Let's start with Asthma - What is it exactly?

Asthma is a Chronic Inflammatory Disease of the airways of the lungs. And even though it affects over 300 million people around the world, not much is known about it. It was first recorded thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, and even after all these years we're still not sure what causes it. Some theorize that asthma is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. If you developed asthma before the age of 12 its thought to be due to genetics, and if it's developed after the age of twelve it's thought to be due to environmental factors. But since everyone has different triggers and levels of asthma it's difficult to be sure. Asthma can also be triggered by someone's emotional state and not just by their surroundings, making it difficult to accurately classify.

What do I mean when I talk about triggers?

Triggers are things that can prompt an Asthma Attack or Exacerbation in someone with Asthma.

Here's a list of the various things that can be triggers:

Dust
Smoke & Air Pollution
Pollen
Mold
Animal Dander
Fragrances/Perfumes
Exercise
Cold Weather
Stress & Anxiety
The Common Cold
Aspirin
Beta-Blockers

What happens when an Asthma Attack is triggered?

Basically what happens is that when our white blood cells come into contact with one of these foreign substances it essentially sends our immune systems into hyperdrive. I won't go into too much detail about the immune system here since we already covered it in our last HARU Lesson, but the important stuff to know is that generally, our immune system will produce a small amount of mucus that travels through our airways, this mucus is basically a patrol unit that will collect any foreign debris such as pollen or dust and will "escort it to the exits", either mouth or nose. Now if you have asthma, this patrol unit becomes more of a mindless mucus mob, that does more harm than good by flooding the airways and sending everything into a general panic. Because the airways get blocked, the muscles surrounding the airways panic and constrict making the airways even smaller, with no oxygen allowed to move in or out of the body freely the other organs also go into hyper mode, which leads to exhaustion and possibly death… if this all sounds counter-intuitive you'd be right, but that's why it's a disorder, it's not meant to make sense.   

How does it affect the airways? 

How to know if you're experiencing an Asthma Attack?

The general symptoms of an asthma attack are chest tightness, shortness of breath, wheezing, and coughing. The way I usually explain it to people who don't suffer from asthma is, imagine you're lying on the floor stretched out on your back, now ask someone to sit directly on your chest and then try to take a deep breath, now imagine you have to stay this way for let's say 10 minutes, "Suffocation, no breathing" and that's about the only line from Papa Roach's song "Last Resort" that is relevant to this post, the rest is definitely for another HARU episode. All that to say that it's pretty terrifying. It's like having your chest in a vice, and no matter how hard you try to expand your lungs there's just no space for them to do so, meaning that no matter how much air you try to breathe in, it feels like nothing's getting through. I'd like to see anyone stay calm during that.

So how can you treat Asthma?

Unfortunately, there's no cure for Asthma, but on the bright side it is manageable. Every year around 300,000 people die from asthma, most cases coming from developing countries. In Canada, 250 people die every year from asthma-related symptoms, though Asthma Canada states that most of those deaths could have been preventable.

So how can it be prevented and managed? One way it is thought to be prevented is early exposure to animals such as pets and to nature. Studies have shown that those who live on farms or in households with pets are less likely to get asthma. And even though developing countries have the higher mortality rates due to asthma, they also have fewer cases of it. This is due to the "hygiene hypothesis". In developed countries people tend to be more germaphobic, wiping out bacteria wherever we can, and we also tend to have smaller families per household. This decreases our chances of coming into contact with bacterial endotoxin, which would help our immune systems not freak out every time a foreign substance entered our systems because it will have already archived it as a non-dangerous substance. Of course these examples only work during childhood. So what do you do if you already have asthma? We already have a list of possible triggers, so the next step is to avoid them as much as possible. Especially if you know there are certain triggers that affect you the most. For me its smoke and cats. Though I am affected by a handful of others on the list such as dust, pollen, mold, other animals besides cats, and cold weather, I tend to not have any extreme reactions to them that lead to asthma attacks, so I treat them more like basic allergies. Whenever I know I'm going to come into contact with them I'll take some allergy medication and usually I'll be fine, except in the case of cold weather. If the air feels particularly thin I try not to stay outside for long. Which living in Canada through our harsh winters means I basically go into hibernation and never leave the house 😅        

Even with all that preparation sometimes it's impossible to avoid triggers though.

The most recent asthma attack I had happened earlier this year when I entered a room that was filled with tobacco smoke, being in there less than five minutes was enough to trigger an attack. Before then I'd say that I had successfully gone years without having an attack of that scale, where I couldn't breathe and I thought I was going to pass out. 

As a child and then all the way through my school years the trigger I had to deal with the most was cats. Any time I went over to a cousin or friend's house I knew that by the end of the day my eyes would be watering, my throat would feel itchy, and I'd most definitely be wheezing. Sleepovers were particularly challenging, especially since night time is when Asthma becomes even worse. I knew it was going to be uncomfortable because of the aforementioned symptoms, and that because of them the amount of sleep even by sleepover standards was going to be horrible. But in my case the pros always outweighed the cons. Spending time with friends, laughing our heads off (even if that made the wheezing worse), and making memories, made the irritating symptoms bearable. 

Luckily there are some medications you can take to help relieve symptoms and prevent asthma attacks. These are divided into two categories which most of the time come in the form of inhalers:

The first is the quick-relief medications, which relieves asthma symptoms by swiftly delivering medication directly to the lungs, which calms down the muscles allowing the airways to open up, and usually come in a blue inhaler. You take this commonly when you feel any asthma symptoms or before exercising if exercise is one of your triggers.

And then there are the long-term medications, which are usually corticosteroids. These help prevent any future exacerbation and are usually taken twice daily, morning and night when asthma is at its worse. This medication essentially tells your immune system to relax so it doesn't overreact to any possible triggers.

Everyone has different triggers and levels of asthma so talking to your physician is the best option for finding out what medication regiment you should be on. Asthma is really a case by case study. Some people experience asthma attacks multiple times a day, some only once or twice a week, and others sometimes only once a month. It really depends on the person. 

So now what are Allergies?

Allergies are a product of having an oversensitive immune system. This over sensitivity causes white blood cells to mistakenly class certain foreign substances that enter our bodies, such as pollen, as something harmful and dangerous. This means that whenever our cells come into contact with a similar substance in the future, they will attack it on sight usually in the same way it would infectious bacteria. This overreaction will trigger inflammation and cause the blood vessels in our mucous membranes to swell and produce mucus…lots and lots of mucus…

This leads to sneezing, a runny nose, swelling, itchy and watery eyes, itchy throat, and congestion. Sometimes all of them at once.

Why do they group Asthma & Allergies together?

As you've probably noticed from earlier, allergies play a key role for those with Asthma, so much so that they tend to go hand in hand with each other.  If you have asthma then you most probably have allergies, and if you have allergies you are more likely to have asthma. Like I mentioned previously they're the Crabbe and Goyle of Immune System Irritants, it would be odd to see one wandering around alone without the other. 

But why do some people get allergies and some don't?

Most allergies appear during childhood, and again just like with asthma it is thought that there are two causes for this: genetic and environmental factors. Genetic factors have to do with your DNA. If one of your parents is more prone to allergies, you will have a higher chance of also developing allergies.

The immune system can also have an allergic reaction to itself which can lead to auto-immune disorders such as sclerosis, lupus, and type 1 diabetes.

Allergies caused by environmental factors can be caused by anything from animal dander, to plant pollen, to insect bites, to dust, to certain foods…

Can you prevent allergies?

Luckily the rules of prevention still apply here. The more things you are exposed to as a child the tougher your immune system becomes and the less likely you are to develop an allergy to it and have your immune system overreact.

How can you manage your symptoms if you already have allergies?

For mild cases of allergies, you can relieve the symptoms with simple allergy medication, like Allegra, Benadryl, Claritin, etc, which can usually found at any pharmacy. These are all antihistamines which prevent the inflammation response.  

For severe cases your allergic reactions can lead to anaphylaxis which can be very dangerous and scary. Most people will be prescribed something like an EpiPen which they'll carry around with them. The reason for this is that with severe cases, time is of the essence since many symptoms can be quite dangerous.

Here's a list of possible symptoms:

Swelling of the eyelids, lips, tongue, throat, etc.
Hives
Itchiness 
Shortness of breath
Wheezing
Coughing
Trouble swallowing
Fast or slow heart rate
Low blood pressure
Lightheadedness
Confusion
Headache
Loss of consciousness
Anxiety

Another possible way to manage your symptoms is through immunotherapy. This is when a medical professional will deliberately expose you to an allergen over a period of time, always increasing the amount of allergen per session. This will allow your immune system to recognize that that substance was harmless after all.   

Even though both Asthma and Allergies can have some scary symptoms, they can also both be managed with proper care, the right medications, and medical follow-ups with a physician. Having the right mindset can also help, so remember your illnesses don't define you, they're only a small part of who you are as a whole.

And with that, I'll leave you. I hope this HARU lesson has been helpful, and that I didn't do too bad as a fill-in 😁 You can look forward to Rosie being back for the next HARU post.

Till then,


~ Stay Obsessed