Triggers
Most people can think of several things that make their asthma worse. These we call triggers. Asthma exacerbations may be caused by a variety of triggers, including allergens, viral infections, pollutants and drugs. Reducing your exposure to some of these risk factors (e.g. tobacco smoke, identified occupational agents, and avoiding foods/additives/drugs know to cause symptoms) improves the control of asthma and reduces medication needs. in the case of other know triggers (e.g. allergens, viral infections and pollutants) measures should be taken to avoid these. Many patients react to multiple factors ubiquitous in the environment. Avoiding these factors is usually impractical and very limiting for people with asthma and allergies. Medications to maintain asthma control have an important role because patients are often less sensitive to risk factors when their asthma is under good control.
A trigger is anything that irritates the airways and causes the symptoms of asthma to appear. Everyone's asthma is different and you will probably have several triggers. It can be difficult to identify exactly what triggers your asthma. Your airways may react to triggers straight away but sometimes the response develop over 4-6 hours or longer.
The common triggers are:
Colds and flu
Cigarette smoking
Exercise and activity
Allergies to pets, house dust mites, pollen moulds and fungal spores.
Weather changes
Air pollutants
Occupations
Food and drink
Emotions
Pregnancy
Sex
Drugs
Often it's not just one trigger that sets off an episode of asthma but a mixture of several triggers at about the same time.
