Diwali and asthma
Firecrackers!
As a kid they sure did excite me. Watching every sparkle blow up in the sky
with those blasting sounds, there always was a different feel looking at a
sparkle of orange and gold spectrum trying to engulf the sky of the night .
Talking about it, I find myself walking down a lane of utter nostalgia today.
Of course adulthood taught me a billion reasons why these supremely satisfying
artifacts need to be stopped from being used and banned too. From raising the
air pollution to a whole different level
to cause accidental injuries, Diwali and Firecrackers can majorly hamper one's
quality of life, may also paralyze one of his normal daily life activities. One
of such examples is the exacerbated form on a patient suffering
from asthma.
Here’s how it works out:
Asthma is basically a condition of
hyper responsiveness to any foreign body in the respiratory tract. Normally,
foreign bodies introduced in the respiratory tract are expelled right away. At
times they settle deep in the passage and in some hyper responsive patients,
may evoke some symptoms of asthma. They include breathlessness, increase in
heart rate, fatigue and even loss of consciousness at times.
It won't be a
surprise to see an asthmatic keep something called an inhaler with him, all the
time. This inhaler when used releases certain substances which basically
decrease the hyper responsiveness of the patient. This is essentially the
restricted study of an asthmatic.
Diwali, the festival of light is been
celebrated with great excitement in the nation. However, the calender doesn't
bring the good news to some of us, when this festival is due. There's a
reported high incidence of new diagnosis as well as hampered prognosis of
already established asthmatics, in this -season of light. A survey conducted
mentioned that the physician at a clinic encounters a rise in about 9% asthma
patients during this festival than what he normally does. Only one reason
explains this :
The Pollution!
The smoke caused by the firecrackers, on inhalation tend to deposit in the lungs. For an
asthmatic, that comes as bad news given the fact that he/ she has more
irritating agents in her lungs now which can prompt a stronger immune response.
The hyper responsiveness is even prolonged and the patient now ends up having
increased episodes of asthmatic attacks and has his quality of life even more
worsened.
It is for this reason that it is more than advisable for an asthmatic
to take a break off life and stay at home, not do much work including dust
around, to protect oneself from exposure to more irritants.
Having said that, the patient cannot stop
breathing the normal Air which too is a
bit more polluted than normal now and hence, is always at a bigger risk to
develop frequent asthma attacks. It is therefore advisable that he keeps his
loaded inhaler with him at all times.
