Steemit Learning Challenge-S21W4: Physical Therapy Intervention: Asthma
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Hello to everyone this great community today and on the steemit platform at large. I greet you all in good spirit and I want to believe that we all are doing just fine today.
I welcome you all to yet an amazing week regarding the steemit learning challenge and I must say that I am happy to be back on this path as well. It has never been an easy journey for me.
Today, I will be participating in this learning challenge that has been brought forward by the steemit team and has been organised by our able moderator or this community in person of @ashkhan. It is indeed an amazing topic to learn. Quickly without wasting so much time, I will be sharing with us all regarding my understanding about the topic that has been taught. I urge you all to sit tight and relax while I begin my entry, I wish you all a happy reading.
What's Asthma? Write in your own words after getting knowledge from the lesson post.
Asthma just as we have been taught is a severe disease of the lungs and may lead to death if not taking care of or controlled on time. It is a lungs related disease condition that causes difficulty in breathing, making the airways that are used for breathing becomes shorten and as such causes the affected individual to breath heavily and that will eventually lead to the inflammation of the lungs.
The word Inflammation is said to be an act of response to stimuli and this stimuli may be an infection or an injury per say and it involves swelling up, redness of the infected part and also causes heat or pain as the case may be. So cases regarding asthma, must affected individual feel pains especially when trying to inhale and exhale as they find it difficult to do so.
Well the interesting part is that asthma is curable and that is why our tutor made mention about it in the first place that it is indeed a curable inflammatory lungs disease. So it is curable when the proper treatment is administered on time.
Now, there are two major components of asthma. So we should understand that asthma condition is in two major stages and they are as follows.
1 - HYPER REACTIVITY OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM - This is the first stage of asthma condition. In this stage the immune system of the affected individual becomes hyper reactive to certain allergens. Allergens are certain substances that are liable to cause allergic reactions to a certain people.
So when a person with the first component of asthma comes in contact with certain substances known as allergens, there will be a trigger regarding the immune system traferring a message that the said substance that has been contacted is harmful to the individual's system and when this happens, an individual may begin to sneeze or experience certain itching or rashes as the case may be.
2- LUNGS INFLAMMATION - In this case, there will be lungs inflammation in other words, the airways will be swollen as a result of asthma and there will be an excess secretion that will interrupt and halt the breathing process.
Asthma can be of three (3) types and these are
1- OCCUPATIONAL ASTHMA - The occupational asthma as the word implies can be denoted as the type of asthma that is triggered at workplace. Most times our workplace have allergen either from the air freshener or the perfume individual colleagues wear before coming to work.
These substances can trigger asthma especially when the immune system consider those substances to be harmful as such the asthmatic patient begins to either sneeze or experience continues coughing, or chest tightness and this can be brought to calmness with the aid of an inhaler. Stress and anxiety can also trigger asthma at workplace.
2- CONVENTIONAL ASTHMA - This is the regular asthma that we all know and it is the act by which the airways in which air flows is been narrowed and this is a severe inflammatory disease condition of the lungs leading to certain symptoms such as chest tightness, frequent or uncontrollable coughing, and difficult in breathing.
3- EXERCISE INDUCED ASTHMA - This is a particular type of asthma that is triggered by a long term exercise that may eventually lead to difficulty in breathing as though the airways is been narrowed. This happens majorly when the air is dry and very cold. A prolonged exercise may result to an asthmatic condition leading to the act of gasping for air and causing the chest to be very tight.
How would you diagnose a asthma? Any clinical investigation or assessment tests?
First thing first, to diagnose a asthma one I will have to know the patient history regarding his or her medical conditions. There are many ways to diagnose a asthma but I will be limited to two major ways that I can easily diagnose a asthma
1 - CLINICAL ASSESSMENT - Here it entails all the history regarding the patient such as the symptoms e.g frequent sneezing, difficulty in breathing, allergens, family history regarding asthma( if there are asthmatic patients in the family). These are all clinical assessments to diagnose a asthma.
2 - PHYSICAL ASSESSMENT - This has to do with the use of medication instrument to diagnose a asthma. The stethoscope is an effective instrument that is medically use to listen to the lungs of an individual. This is to detect an abnormal sound or signs of wheezing regarding the lungs of an individual.
3 - CHEST X-RAY - Chest x-ray can also help out in diagnosing a asthma. The x-ray takes an anatomy picture regarding the chest to see if there is a problem regarding the airways and this is also effective and gives valid feedback.
The various methods are effective, but the first method is way more preferable and precise and that can help be to diagnose a asthma.
Try to practice at least 3 exercises that you have learned from the lesson. Share images, gifs or videos while practising.
I will be practicing at least 3 exercises that I have learned so far regarding the today's teaching on physical therapy intervention: Asthma and they are seen below.
The pursed lip breathing exercise is a therapeutic measure that asthmatic patients should employ and this is the act of taking air through the nose and then releasing the inhaled air slowly through the pursed lip just like blowing a cool breeze from our mouth.
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This exercise helps and improve the airflow by keeping the airways much longer for the purpose of letting all the inhaled air in the lungs go off totally. So it is advisable for people with severe conditions like chronic asthma to employ such exercise as though it promote complete removal of inhaled air in the lungs.
2- DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING EXERCISE
The diaphragmatic breathing exercise is effective in expansion of the lungs. It is also regarded as abdominal breathing in which we make use of our diaphragm to breathe deeply and not making use of the chest to breath as though breathing from the chest is done shallowly. The diaphragmatic breathing helps for complete relaxation and it reduces stress and anxiety. It also improves the functioning of our lungs and makes them more efficient.
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This is done in various ways and a few ways is to get a perfect position, this can be a chair in which you can sit down, and when lying down you need to get your head balanced using a pillow to hold it still. Place your hand on your chest afterwards and the other hand should be place on your abdomen below the rib cage so as to assist you feel and detect the diaphragm movement as breathing go on.
The idea is to keep focus on expanding the abdomen and not the chest and then breath out not so fast though. This can be done for a few seconds and then you breath all the inhaled air from the lungs very slowly too. This should be done always.
The chest stretch exercise is also a major exercise that all asthmatic patients should employ in their daily routine. It helps in relieving tension and increase flexibility of the chest muscles. It also helps to strengthen the chest muscles and this is done by a few steps.
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You can place your hand on the doorframe and make sure it's about the height of your shoulder for proper balancing. Your hand is to be in the position on the doorframe and move a bit forward with one of your foot and gently push yourself to the doorframe. This will help your stretch your chest a bit wider make sure that the chest expand a bit.
This exercise can be done at the gym and can be supervised by gym instructors. It is another way of helping you to relax your chest muscles and make breathing easier.
Share your review after performing these exercises either on yourself, healthy individual or patient.
In no doubt, I can't agree more to this interesting teaching after practicing three (3) among the four exercises that has been taught by our tutor today. I feel so great and my breathing is even better compared to the former. These exercises can not be overemphasized as they are indeed a way to help reduce difficulty in breathing.
Though I am not asthmatic but I can attest to the fact that I feel much better and my airways feel so free and comfortable now. The exercises are indeed great remedy to those having difficulty in breathing, especially asthmatic patients.
CONCLUSION
Just as I have said earlier, though asthma is a severe lung condition that affects the airways and if not taking care of on time may lead to death, it can be cured when the necessary thing is done and a few of the things to do is to understand the stage of the asthma, get diagnosed and begin the treatment, also the exercises are expected to be carried out not by asthmatic patients alone but by everyone.
This will aid an easy flow of air in our body through the nose down to the airways and from the nose as well.
It was quite an interesting teaching by @ashkhan. Thank you so much for taking your time to give us an interesting teaching. I look forward to engaging your next lesson and thank you all for reading from me today. I hereby invite @badmus-official, @jueco, and @samuelebuka to engage with me on this lesson.
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