ASTHMA ATTACK CAUSE

Medical Abstract Asthma Experts Advise Early, Aggressive Treatment SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) - A national panel of asthma experts have introduced the first new guidelines for treating the disease in six years, recommending doctors treat their patients early in the disease process with strong doses of drugs to reduce lung inflammation. At a major medical meeting in San Francisco, Dr. Shirley Murphy of the University of New Mexico, says, "It is time that medical professionals in the U.S. take asthma cat sinusitis asthma attack cause seriously and treat it aggressively." She is urging primary care doctors to avoid timid medicine and begin treatment at the highest doses and then taper medication after the disease is under control. Asthma patients should not be satisfied until their asthma is under control and their quality of life has improved," says Murphy, professor of pediatrics, at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Panelists say patients who need to use inhalers frequently need to be treated herbs symptoms asthma attack cause with anti-inflammatory drugs such as inhaled steroids early in the disease to prevent long-term lung damage. At a press briefing to discuss the new guidelines on the treatment of the disease that affects 14 million Americans, Dr. Claude Lenfant, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, says the recomendations "do not represent a major departure in treatment, but is rather an evolution." Among changes in the new guidelines: Include new drugs known as leuketriene asthma attack cause asthma attack cause modifiers as usual components for treating asthma. However the panel says not enough data exists to specifically plug these drugs into a specific therapeutic role. More clinical use is needed, panelists say. Recommend against often inefficient efforts to kill dust mites. Instead, the guidelines urge patients to focus on using barrier methods--such as encasing mattresses and pillow in plastic and removing carpets from bedrooms--to prevent asthma attack caused by dust mite allergens. Greater emphasis on teaching asthma self-management and brittle asthma asthma attack cause prevention to patients.