Finally I’m doing well after almost a month of  being sick. The worst was my cough. As in so bad that I lost hope of finding the best cure. I was experiencing asthma symptoms. Whizzing and little bit hard breathing. I was opted to use inhaler that my husband used to use when he’s having asthma attacked. I felt strange because my attacked usually in the dawn. I started to feel back and chest pain every time I was coughing. Phlegm was all plainly clear. No traces of bacteria. I was hysterically worried because it made my days miserable. I can’t go out in public and socialize with friends. I mostly stayed inside the house which was so boring.
I’m fortunate to have a friend who was become an angel sent from above to tell me that a certain medicine for me was right there. With just one day of taking the herbal medicine I felt immediately okay. The next day I still took the medicine for precautionary purpose and that was it! Everything’s good until now. Thank you Lord for sending the angel. And thanks to the health shop where I bought the medicine with deep healing power. It was a syrup that has Manuka honey and propolis mixed with echinacea purpurea extract. The medicine’s exact name is Proplis Herbal Elixir from Comvita and made in New Zealand. It was actually a dietary supplement. Whatever it was, I got healed.

Although we don’t know what causes asthma, we do know that under certain circumstances the airways react and asthma symptoms develop. We refer to the stimulants that can lead to asthma as “triggers”.
Triggers are everywhere. Triggers cause inflammation or swelling in your airways and make your asthma worse. Reducing your exposure to things that trigger your asthma is a large part of taking control of your asthma.

Different people react to different asthma triggers and many people with asthma react to a variety of triggers. Asthma may develop from exposure to one trigger or from a number of triggers simultaneously (e.g. a student with a cold goes into a change room where deodorant has been sprayed). For some people it is difficult to determine what triggers their asthma like my own son. He has this asthma attacked recently and we don’t what causes the triggers. It’s been a long time that he’s not having an attack. But before that, or a week before he got some skin allergies that we’re not sure if that’s what they called eczema or just a plain asthma allergy.

Common asthma triggers:
Colds and Flu: The most common trigger, particularly for children. When a student with asthma has a cold or the flu it is highly probable that they will develop asthma symptoms.

Exercise: A trigger for many people with asthma. This trigger should not be avoided, but exercise induced asthma can be managed by taking your blue reliever puffer 5-10 minutes before activity and warming up and warming down after exercise.

Smoke: Children of mother who smoke when pregnant and those who experience passive smoking in early childhood have a higher risk of developing asthma. As well as active and passive cigarette smoke, woodsmoke from open fires, burn-offs or bushfires can trigger asthma.

If you would like more information you can visit www.asthma.org.au.

Recent research has highlighted the link between eczema and asthma. Children with eczema have twice the risk of having asthma later in life.

In the largest study of its kind, researchers tracked 8500 Tasmanians from Childhood to get the first concise picture of how allergic conditions develop. The findings, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, support the theory that eczema is often the first step in an allergic chain that leads to other related conditions such as hay fever and asthma. People who had childhood eczema were more likely to develop childhood asthma or new-onset asthma later in life, or to have asthma that persisted from childhood into middle age.

One in six children have asthma, that can not only affect their health but also their learning, as it is the leading cause of school absenteeism.

Many people think that children can grow out of asthma, however, this is not entirely correct.
Even though your child might not have asthma symptoms for hours, days or years, this does not mean they do not have asthma. Asthma may improve with age and attacks may become less frequent and/ or severe, but the tendency is always there.

Some children can experience long periods of time without symptoms, typically during the teenage years. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon for children with asthma to not show symptoms for years and then have a recurrence of symptoms later in life. For every young children with asthma, improvement is generally due to increases in body size, overall improvement in health and fitness, muscle development etc, rather than a ‘cure’. However, asthma return at any time including later in life. Even though they might not display recent asthma symptoms, a person who has had asthma should always carry their blue reliever medication. Although there is currently no cure for asthma, it can be controlled and managed.

Cigarette smoke is a trigger for many people with asthma, including children. Children have smaller and more delicate airways and are therefore more affected by tobacco smoke and the chemicals it contains. Unfortunately 2 in 5 children with asthma live with a smoker.
Children of smokers are more likely to have asthma symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, and breathlessness. Asthma is more common among children of smokers.

Passive smoke
Children with asthma that are exposed to secondhand smoke have a greater risk of developing symptoms at a younger age. They tend to have more asthma attacks and are more likely to use asthma medications more often and for a longer period. It is estimated that children of parents who smoke are exposed to the same amount of nicotine as if they were actively smoking 60 to 150 cigarettes a year.

Smoking in the family car
Travelling in a smoke filled car can be harmful to the overall health of your children, and can trigger an attack in children who have asthma. Therefore a school should strongly encourage parents to don’t smoke in the car when they have their children.