![]() You can also meet with your doctor to come up with an individual safety plan and get standard asthma medications. ![]() Under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines, your employer is legally required to offer you these protections. The best way to prevent and treat occupational asthma is for companies to provide protective gear and train workers to safely handle irritants. The most high-risk jobs that may expose you to general lung irritants are: Food production workers/seafood processors.This irritation can be caused by an allergen, like animal dander or plant substances, or a universally irritating substance, like chlorine gas, chemicals in detergents, or metals like platinum.Īccording to Flora, some of the most high-risk jobs for exposure to allergens are: Occupational asthma develops when you regularly inhale substances that can irritate your lungs, which leads to swelling of your airways and difficulty breathing. There have been over 250 different agents identified that can trigger occupational asthma. Occupational asthma occurs when you develop asthma symptoms after being exposed to irritating substances like chemical fumes, animal waste, or smoke in your workplace. You may also need to add on additional medication to prevent mucus build-up. This can include taking a long-acting airway opener like Singulair, a corticosteroid inhaler like Pulmicort, and an albuterol rescue inhaler for attacks. Though ACO can be more serious than asthma, "in many ways the treatment is the same," Schachter says. This means that while you can get your symptoms under control, you generally can't stop the disease from progressing. By the time your symptoms appear, "the lungs are frequently damaged beyond repair," says Schachter. The most common cause of COPD is exposure to cigarette smoke, though some people may develop the condition after long-term exposure to irritating gases or fumes like car exhaust. ACO can cause attacks that are especially severe and can lead to hospitalization. If you have asthma-COPD overlap (ACO), you may exhibit all the symptoms of COPD along with typical asthma symptoms like wheezing and chest pain. COPD symptoms usually begin in middle age and the main symptoms are shortness of breath, coughing, and excess phlegm. Do exercises like yoga, tennis, or hiking, as opposed to endurance-centered workouts.Īnd be sure to always carry an inhaler when you know you are going to be working out.Ĭhronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic lung disease that prevents your airways from expanding properly, leaving some air trapped inside your lungs when you exhale. ![]() Taking two puffs of an albuterol inhaler 5 to 20 minutes before exercising to open up your airways.Improving your cardiac fitness so you don't breathe as hard during exercise.You are most likely to have asthma symptoms like chest tightness or wheezing after exercising in cold, dry air, since it can make your airways swell and constrict.Īccording to Flora, the best ways to prevent exercise-induced asthma are: "Symptoms do not start during exercise when the airways are dilated, but rather 10-15 minutes after when adrenaline levels, which help dilate the airways, come down," says Arjan Flora, MD, a professor of pulmonology at the University of Cincinnati. ![]() You may also need an albuterol rescue inhaler, which can quickly open your airway during an asthma attack.Įxercise-induced asthma is a more mild form of asthma in which your symptoms only arise after exercising. Your doctor may also suggest allergy shots, which slowly introduce small amounts of an allergen into your body so that you gradually build up a tolerance. If you have allergic asthma, you will need to avoid allergy triggers and you may need to take a prescription medication like Montelukast (Singulair), which helps decrease the inflammatory response that tightens airways. Your doctor can determine what allergen triggers your symptoms by doing blood or skin tests. When you are exposed to these triggers, your immune system interprets them as harmful invaders and releases antibodies that cause your airway to swell up and become narrower, making it harder for you to breathe. If you have allergic asthma, your symptoms, like coughing or struggling to breathe, are triggered when you breathe in allergens. Allergic asthma is the most common type of asthma, and affects about 60% of asthmatics in the US. ![]()
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