What ’s new in the updated asthma guidelines?

In 2007, The Sopranos was a hit TV show, patterned jeggings were a fashion trend, and the National Institutes of Health–sponsored National Asthma Education and Prevention Program (NAEPP) published the second edition of the Asthma Management Guidelines. A lot has changed since 2007, including in the area of asthma. The NAEPP recently published the third edition of the Asthma Management Guidelines to address these changes. This update reflects recent advances in our understanding of the disease mechanisms causing asthma, and the current best practices to manage asthma symptoms. As such, the updated guidelines are an important tool, enhancing the ability of physicians and patients to control asthma and minimize the impact of this disease on their lives. The toll of asthma in the US Asthma is a chronic lung disease afflicting approximately 5% to 10% of the American population. It is characterized by symptomatic periods of wheezing, chest tightness, and breathlessness alternating with periods of essentially normal breathing. The symptomatic episodes can be extremely debilitating, even life-threatening — every year approximately 3,500 people die from asthma, many of them children. Like many diseases, the impact of asthma is greater among minority and economically disadvantaged patients. There is no cure for asthma, so therapy focuses on preventing and treating symptom flares, called exacerbations. New asthma guidelines update treatment recommendations The major focus of the upd...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Asthma Drugs and Supplements Source Type: blogs