What is asthma and how do air purifiers help the symptoms?

Breathing is something we do on a daily basis and can take for granted. For asthmatics, breathing normally is an action that is appreciated every moment. Asthma is a disease that affects a person's lungs and air passageways and can make it difficult for him or her to breathe. Asthma affects approximately 20 million people in the United States. It is a disease that has no known cure but there are many ways such as air purifiers to treat asthma and suppress the symptoms of it.

Air Purifiers can help.

Asthma is a disease that consists of two main components. These components are constriction and inflammation, both of which occur in the lung passageways. Constriction is when the airways narrow because muscles tighten around them and inflammation is when the airways get irritated and start to swell. When both of these actions occur together, they cause the symptoms of asthma such as difficulty breathing and swelling of the lungs. A person experiencing an asthmatic attack has difficulty catching his or her breath and is usually coughing or wheezing in order to try to breathe.

Asthmatic attacks can occur at any time. Some can be severe and some can simply seem like a shortness of breath. Due to this characteristic of the disease, some people are still unaware that they have asthma and need to treat it. If asthma goes untreated, a person may experience a decrease in lung function. The disease makes a person's lungs work harder and without help or treatment from an outside source, a person suffering from asthma will have weaker lungs. Air Purifiers can help.

There are many contaminants in the air that can trigger asthmatic attacks. Some of the contaminants include pet dander, allergens, pollen, dust or chemicals. When these substances are breathed in, asthmatics are sometimes affected and can experience difficulty breathing. An asthmatic affected by seasonal allergies may also find that response to the allergies can lead to an asthmatic attack. The toxins found in indoor air can easily be filtered out of the air indoors with an air purifier.

There are simple things that can be done to prevent asthmatic attacks such as keeping pets outside, not smoking tobacco products in the home or dusting all furniture as much as possible. However, air purifiers are proven to be the most effective way to keep indoor air clean and safe. Most air purifiers are proven to remove 99.7% of all particles found in indoor air. Chemical fumes, tobacco smoke and dust can be absorbed into the filter of an air purifier. With these contaminants no longer present in the air, the probability of an asthma attack is very low for the sufferer.

The High Efficiency Particulate Air Filters, or HEPA filters, that are used in air purifiers are effective in absorbing most toxins in indoor air that can be related to asthma attacks. They are able to remove 99.7% of all particles that are 0.03 microns and larger. These particles can include pollen and dust particles, which are the main cause of asthma attacks among sufferers. If indoor air pollutants are not removed from the air, they can circulate an indoor room with no escape. The pollutants are then breathed in and can cause a severe or minor asthmatic attack. With an air purifier, these particles and pollutants are absorbed and cannot be circulated throughout the air.

In a 1990 review of indoor air pollutants, published by The American Thoracic Society, it was stated that air purifiers containing the HEPA filter are able to remove a significant amount of particles from indoor air, making the air cleaner and safer to breathe. Asthmatics who use an air purifier in their home are less likely to have an asthma attack since the pollutants that trigger the attacks are no longer present in the indoor air they are breathing.

There is no known cure for asthma and people diagnosed with the disease will have to deal with it for the rest of their lives. However, with the help of air purifiers, people are finding their asthma attacks are becoming a scarce occurrence instead of a daily struggle. By eliminating particles in the air that trigger attacks, air purifiers are helping people with asthma to cope with their daily lives. Asthma may be an uncomfortable disease but people are finding relief in the use of air purifiers.

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