Adult Onset Asthma is often diagnosed when people are older than 20-years-old. You would think that most people would discover it in early childhood, but adult onset asthma is more common than you know. Studies have shown that it causes issues in about 1 out of 12 people in the United States. That would include about 25 million people with the numbers growing every day. That is a bit of a staggering statistic when you think about the dramatic rise in asthma cases in the past 50 years. The cost per year to treat a person with this condition is around $3500, so finding alternative less costly treatments is a goal of many doctors, and healthcare specialists. Halotherapy or “salt “therapy is one of those options to consider.
So who are the group of people more susceptible to getting this condition as an adult? There are a few variables that lead to certain groups of people that are exposed to risk factors.
- Women who are pregnant, or undergoing a hormonal change such as menopause.
- Viruses such as pneumonia, cold, bronchitis, or severe flu.
- People with pet allergies especially cats.
- Workplace triggers
- Smokers
- Seasonal allergy experiences to do with high pollen counts, ragweed, or common grass allergens.
- Environmental factors such as air pollution or high density of car exhaust fumes in an urban area.
Adults with asthma are treated differently than children since their lung capacity decreases as they age. Changes in the muscle tone of the lung area especially during middle age can contribute to more problems breathing. There are many methods that doctors utilize to diagnose this condition in adults. Taking a full medical history, listing to the chest area, having you breath deeply, and subjecting you to a lung function test with a spirometer can specifically tell how much air you are taking in and breathing out.
Diminished capacity could be sign of adult onset asthma. Furthermore, chest x-rays can also be employed to find out if something is obstructing your breathing in your chest or lung area. If it is found that you have this condition, it is then classified into a few different categories such as mild intermittent, mild persistent, moderate persistent, and severe persistent.
The severity of your symptoms will allow your doctor to find out what is the best way to treat your asthma so that it doesn’t interfere with your regular life activities, work, or taking care of your family. Undergoing a full blown true asthma attack can be a dramatic and scary situation, because feeling like you can’t breathe can send you into panic mode making it much worse. The way it is treated is usually with anti inflammatories, and bronchodilators to open up the airways making it easier to breathe using an inhaler device. The medication that the bronchodilators delivers gives you a quick way to relax the muscle bands surrounding the airways allowing you to take a breath easier to combat an attack.
Other than using what your doctor recommends there are some natural ways to treat adult onset asthma. One of the best ways is through halotherapy, which is the use of “salt” to treat various respiratory illnesses like asthma. This type of salt therapy has been used for centuries, and dates back to use in Poland spas in the 12th century. It’s been shown that up to 85 percent of patients with mild to moderate asthma report an improvement in the decrease of symptoms when using halotherapy treatments, so it’s a very beneficial way to explore this form of salt therapy.
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