Asthma Pathophysiology
Asthma is now considered to be more of an inflammatory response disease having two major forms of breathlessness. It is usually airway wall inflammation and airway wall constriction that arises due to the release inflammatory response chemical signals that causes asthma. The best way of understanding asthma is with some knowledge of asthma pathophysiology.
It is important to have some background on the airway anatomy to understand asthma pathophysiology. Breathing is done through your nose and mouth where these inlets converge on the trachea to reach the lungs. The two main branches of the bronchi split so that each reaches a lung. With time, there are more and more branches and twigs that tend to split off to end in the alveoli. It is in these alveoli that fresh oxygenated air enters your bloodstream, and where stale air that is loaded with carbon dioxide comes out again.
A person suffering from asthma finds that it affects only the bronchi and bronchioles, and not their alveoli. Here these tubes get either completely or partially blocked which results in some difficulty or impossibility in breathing. This is because these airway tubes have a layer of cells called the epithelial layer that usually brushes up mucous found in the airways using hair like cilia. With this, foreign particles are carried out of the lung. It is when this is stopped or damaged that mucous builds up and blocks the lungs to cause asthma.
According to asthma pathophysiology, the basic steps that lead to asthma are eosinophilia of the mucosa that involves the inflammation and thickening of airway, an increase in the amount of mucus secretion and the contraction of the airways in the body. The most characteristic feature of asthma is hyperresponsivness where the airways tend to narrow in response to nonsensitizing stimuli like chemical mediators and natural physical stimuli.
Asthma pathophysiology indicates that an inflammation in the airway is an important part of the pathology of asthma. Sometimes a chronic inflammation ends up in a remodeling of the airways where there may be an associated increase in the hyperresponsiveness of the existing airways due to some stimuli. The narrowing of bronchioles in asthma pathophysiology causes airway obstruction and increased airway resistance.
A look at asthma pathophysiology indicates that there are numerous precipitating factors to asthma like allergens like food, mold, spores and drugs, irritants like chemicals, cold water and cough, weather changes, exercise, emotional factors, allergic rhinitis, gastroeosophageal reflux and infection. For some, endocrine factors like menstrual cycles and hyperthyroidism and sinusitis can also trigger asthma.
The best way of learning more about asthma pathophysiology is by asking a doctor, looking through the internet or by doing some reading. It is only with a general understanding of asthma management that it is possible for a person to control asthma and enjoy life, while suffering from asthma. This is because asthma is a breathing problem that has some triggers, which when avoided through asthma pathophysiology, proves to make life much better to the asthma sufferer.