Abdi İbrahim Issues Awareness Message on World Asthma Day

Abdi İbrahim, operating in the pharmaceutical sector for 109 years with the goal of improving lives, drew attention to the importance of correct treatment and proper medication use in asthma management on World Asthma Day. The company noted that after diagnosis is confirmed through pulmonary function testing, symptoms are often brought under complete control with appropriate medications. Asthma, a serious public health issue affecting an estimated 300 million people worldwide, occurs in 5-7 out of every 100 adults and 13-15 out of every 100 children in Turkey. Emphasizing that patients' quality of life improves when proper treatment and medications are administered, Abdi İbrahim included information on the diagnosis and treatment of the disease in its World Asthma Day awareness statement.

Can be controlled with proper treatment

The first Tuesday of May is recognized as "World Asthma Day" to raise awareness about asthma disease. Asthma is a chronic condition that can affect individuals of all ages, can be controlled with proper treatment, and when uncontrolled can seriously restrict daily activities. It manifests through airway narrowing. Due to non-microbial inflammation in the airways, the airway wall is swollen and edematous. When narrowing occurs in the airways, symptoms such as cough (usually dry), shortness of breath, chest tightness, and wheezing appear. Attacks (crises) experienced in the disease cause serious respiratory distress in patients.  

Attention should be paid to risk factors

Since similar symptoms can be seen in other diseases, they are significant for asthma if they occur together with the following complaints/conditions: • They are recurrent and come in episodes, • They usually appear at night or towards morning, • They improve spontaneously or with medications, • They may show seasonal variation. The factors that play a role in the development of asthma and are called "risk factors" can vary from person to person. These risk factors, which are divided into personal or environmental categories, increase the likelihood of asthma occurrence.  

Personal risk factors

These are factors belonging to the individual and their family such as heredity (genetic structure, inheritance), gender, and obesity. If one parent has asthma, the probability of asthma in the child is 1/3, while if both parents have asthma, the probability rises to 2/3. In obese individuals, certain hormone-like substances can affect airway function and increase asthma risk. Male gender is a risk factor for asthma in children. Before puberty, asthma is 2 times more common in boys than girls. However, as children grow, the difference between genders decreases, and in the adult age group, asthma is more common in women.  

Environmental risk factors

Certain factors in our environment play an important role in the development of asthma and the severity of the disease in genetically predisposed individuals. These include allergens transmitted through air such as house dust, pollen, and mold fungi, as well as recurrent lung infections, occupational irritants, cigarette smoke, medications, indoor/outdoor air pollution, and nutrition. The risk of occurrence is particularly higher in allergic individuals and smokers. In children born to mothers who smoke during pregnancy, the risk of developing wheezing-related disease within the first year is 4 times higher. While it is known that lung function decreases in children growing in areas with air pollution, there is no definitive evidence that it directly increases asthma development in children and adults. Children who are breastfed have been shown to develop fewer cases of wheezing-related respiratory disease compared to children receiving cow's milk or soy protein.  

Points to pay attention to in a person's history

Correct diagnosis is important for proper disease treatment. The symptoms that bring the person to the physician and the person's medical history are the first step in the diagnostic phase. Points to be noted in a person's history can be listed as follows:

• Recurrence of symptoms (cough, shortness of breath, chest tightness, wheezing),
• The individual feeling well outside of attacks,
• Symptoms appearing particularly at night or towards morning,
• Symptoms appearing with person-specific allergens or irritants,
• Cough or wheezing after exercise,
• A common cold "going to the chest," increasing symptoms,
• Symptoms improving spontaneously or with appropriate asthma treatment,
• History of asthma or allergic disease in the family.

  In patients presenting with these complaints, physical examination findings may be completely normal. This is because asthma, due to the nature of the disease, follows an episodic course and may not present findings during periods when the individual has no active complaints. Today, pulmonary function tests are the most important tests used for asthma diagnosis. Symptoms can often be brought under complete control.