Three in four people with asthma are at risk of ‘fatal attacks’

More than three quarters of asthma sufferers could be susceptible to having a fatal asthma attack because they incorrectly assume their asthma is under control, according to new research.

A survey conducted by Allergy UK and funded by Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK, discovered this finding and many other things to raise alarm bells about the serious lung condition which afflicts around 5.4 million in Britain. Moreover, asthma costs the NHS an estimated £1 billion per year for the treatment and care for asthma patients.

464 participants with asthma were involved in the survey, and 78% who stated their asthma as being mild or moderate go through up to four blue reliever inhalers each month. “In reality they shouldn’t even need to use one per month if their disease is well controlled,” the charity says.

This finding backs up what Medical Specialists® Pharmacy said back in May, how a good proportion of asthmatics and not realising the massive importance of the brown preventer inhalers in building up a long-term resistance to triggers for asthma attacks.

Allergy UK adds that of the respondents who wrongly believe their condition is adequately under control, 16% have had six or more days off from work or school in the past 12 months because of their asthma.

The charity also discovered that up to 60% of asthma attacks are caused by allergens such as animal dander, house dust mites, pollen, mould and foods. Only 37% of those surveyed had been tested for allergies and the charity says that a drive to provide allergy tests could reduce the number of asthma attacks as patients would be more aware of their specific triggers.

Lindsey McManus, the Deputy CEO of Allergy UK, said: “Asthma is a killer, with three people dying of it every day in the UK. These shocking survey results reflect what we hear time and time again from the people that call our helpline. People ‘put up with’ their asthma symptoms and continue to use medication that isn’t treating the inflammation, rather than seeking help to get their asthma under control. They just don’t realise they are putting themselves in danger and could soon find themselves in A&E.”

More than one in five sufferers (22%) involved in the survey had not had an asthma review for at least a year it was discovered.

Ms McManus added: “Our biggest piece of advice is to talk to your doctor or asthma nurse. They will conduct a thorough asthma review and may refer you to a specialist who may conduct an allergy assessment and review your asthma management. This is the only way to ensure that the asthma crisis doesn’t worsen.”

Dr Monica Nordstrom, Respiratory Physician at Ashford and St. Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust commented: “Doctors, nurses and patients themselves often fail to recognise whether asthma is moderate or severe, leading to life-threatening attacks that could have been avoided with appropriate diagnosis and management.

“There are three warning signs for patients to look out for; if you use more than one reliever inhaler a month; if you’ve been prescribed one or more courses of oral corticosteroids in the past 12 months or if you are consistently missing work or school because of your asthma – these can all be signs that your asthma may be more severe than you think and you should seek more help from your doctor or specialist nurse.”

Eating more fibre could ease asthma symptoms

The results from animal studies suggest that asthma treatment may bizzarely come in the form a diet rich in fruit and vegetables.

Tests on mice, as reported in the journal Nature Medicine, has found that a high-fibre diet can impact the balance of microbes in the gut and make airways either more or less susceptible to the inflammation involved in allergic airway conditions such as asthma.

Asthma is a long-term respiratory disorder, where the air passages within the lungs unexpectedly become inflamed, narrowed, and swollen. This then prevents airflow into and out of the lungs. Attacks often occur in response to an allergen, cold air, exercise, or emotional stress. It is these triggers which create an inflammatory cascade in the bronchial tree.

The last three decades have witnessed a surge in rates of allergy-triggered asthma, in particularly in the more developed nations. Many health experts have attributed this to changes in dietary habits, such as a decrease in our fibre intake.

The reported stated: “In recent decades, there has been a well-documented increase in the incidence of allergic asthma in developed countries and coincident with this increase have been changes in diet, including reduced consumption of fibre.”

Therefore, Dr Benjamin Marsland of the University Hospital of Lausanne in Switzerland and colleagues, decided to study the variations in the immune and inflammatory responses of mice when the amount of fibre in their diet changed.

They discovered that those mice on a low-fibre diet experienced more lung inflammation after coming into contact with dust mites. In comparison, mice given food enriched with pectin – found in cell walls of plants – suffered with less allergic airway problems.

It was established that this boost in soluble fibre – most often contained in fruit and vegetables – was converted into short-chain fatty acids. These fatty acids increase resistance to irritation in the immune system.

For those who may struggle to adapt their diet to include more fibre, the researchers say that a fatty acid supplement may be instead taken to ease asthma symptoms.

Dr Marsland, spoke to BBC News, saying: “There’s a very high probability it works in humans, the basic principle of fibre being converted to short-chain fatty acids is known. But we don’t know what amount of fibre would be needed and the concentrations of short-chain fatty acids required might be different. It is early days, but the implications could be far reaching…Moreover, these data can be interpreted within the context of epidemiological studies showing as fibre content in the diet has decreased, the incidence of allergies has increased. Taken together, our findings support the concept intervention strategies targeting diet are a valuable approach for not only intestinal diseases but also respiratory inflammatory diseases.”

It would be foolish though to suggest asthma sufferers should disregard their blue reliever and brown preventer asthma inhalers just yet and merely rely on consuming more fibre. A diet rich in fibre may well be beneficial for asthmatics but it is generally recommended for everybody as it can to help to lower cholesterol, decrease the risk of heart disease and lessen the risk of some types of cancer.

Brits still have a poor perception of asthma

Considering there are a staggering 5.4 million asthmatics in Britain, it could be assumed that the majority of us are pretty clued-up on the serious lung condition asthma. Unfortunately, the results of a new survey suggest this could be far from the truth.

Research conducted by supermarket giant Asda showed that whilst 94% acknowledge asthma as a serious health condition, 1 in four respondents could not recognise key symptoms associated with asthma. In fact, 17% incorrectly believed blocked sinuses are a sign of the lung condition.

An additional 15% of those surveyed simply thought feeling dizzy was asthma-related and 13% bizarrely assumed having itchy eyes was somehow a key symptom of asthma. In reality, the primary common symptoms of asthma are having a shortness of breath, wheezing (accompanied by a whistling sound), chest tightness/pain/pressure, coughing (especially at night or early in the morning).
Sufferers usually find their symptoms to be particularly worse at night time, after exposure to cold air, exercise-induced, or brought-on by a reaction to an allergen – similar to hay fever sufferers.

Other wrong assumptions held by Brits include thinking there is a permanent cure for the lifelong condition; incredibly a third of us believe this to be true. Moreover, 15% merely think that asthma is something that only ‘unfit’ people have.

This is clearly untrue though and many are obviously forgetting the countless famous asthma sufferers who have reached the top of their field, such as the multimillionaire and recently retired footballer David Beckham and cyclist Laura Trott, who won gold at the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games in the Team Pursuit and Omnium events.

However, asthma attacks still cause around 1,140 deaths each year and a substantial number of those could have been avoided with more awareness about the condition and how to efficiently control it. Only 37% of Brits have a decent knowledge about asthma medication or can differentiate between the purpose of blue and brown inhalers.

Unfortunately, this perhaps demonstrate a worrying lack of awareness about the fact a person’s asthma can be better controlled with regular and correct utilisation of brown preventer inhalers such as the commonly used Qvar Beclometasone and Easi-Breathe inhalers. Over time, the brown preventers are effective at reducing the need for blue inhalers – which are taken immediately to relieve asthma symptoms and essential in treating asthma attacks.

Visit the ‘Asthma and Allergies’ area of the Medical Specialists Pharmacy website for a full list of all the preventer and reliever inhalers we provide for suitable patients.

If you have already been prescribed an inhaler, have lost your inhaler, or run out and cannot get a prescription immediately, we are able to supply you an inhaler to help your asthma symptoms. You can undergo a quick and easy confidential online consultation with one of our GMC-registered Doctors and if suitable, they will write you a prescription which is passed to our in-house RPSGB–registered Pharmacists and dispensed to a location of your choice, all within just 24 hours!*

*Allow extra time for overseas deliveries.

Oldham schoolboy dies from a severe asthma attack

A mother of three from Oldham has called for more awareness to be raised regarding the seriousness of asthma after her 9-year-old son, Joshua, tragically died from an asthma attack earlier this year. In particularly, his mother wants parents to more educated on the difference between the blue reliever inhalers and the brown preventer inhalers, in the hope that other lives can be saved in the future.

Joshua Platt had initially been formally diagnosed with asthma at the age of just one. Despite the early setback, he never let the condition hold him back in life and regularly participated in things such as camping, football, swimming, basketball, judo and enjoyed playing with his younger sisters Demi-Rae, four, and two-year-old Macie.

On 12 February this year, Joshua helped Joanna tidy the house and then went to visit his Grandmother. He had earlier awoken with what Joanna described to the Oldham coroners court as a ‘bit of a sniffle’ and a mild cough, but nothing that majorly concerned her at that point in time.
Joshua arrived back to his home in the Hollinwood area of Oldham at about 7pm and his mum promptly gave him Calpol medicine. After he then started to wheeze, Joshua began rocking backwards and forwards, requested his blue inhaler and asked his mum to rub his back. She says, “He was trying to take deep breaths while trying to talk to me at the same time but was struggling to do both. He was panicking and I was trying to guide him and try to get him to inhale slowly but he just couldn’t.”

Unfortunately his reliever inhaler didn’t have an effect on him and he lost consciousness, leading to Joanna frantically calling for an ambulance to get Joshua to hospital. Despite her best efforts to get him breathing again, Joshua was rushed to Royal Oldham Hospital and tragically, he was pronounced dead at 8.30pm that night.

In what highlights the condition’s severity, the inquest heard that severe attacks could happen to sufferers who did manage their asthma in addition to those who did not. Coroner Simon Nelson recorded a death of natural causes, stating there was unfortunately nothing that could have been done to prevent Joshua’s death. He further called for all parents, teachers and doctors to make sure that asthma sufferers are fully aware of the importance of their preventative medication.

His comments came after Joanna suggested that Joshua had come too accustomed to taking his blue reliever inhalers when his symptoms were showing, and had generally ignored the brown preventer. However, this works over time to reduce the inflammation and mucus in the airways. It could be that Joshua had ignored this type of inhaler as its benefits are not immediately obvious.  They are very important inhalers though and should not be overlooked by asthma sufferers. Gradually over time, the low dose of steroid medicine in the inhaler will have an impact and chest tightness, coughing and wheezing should occur less frequently. Some may even notice that they need to use the reliever inhaler less than before.

Joanna commented, “I think Josh had become laid back about his medication and thought that because he had his inhaler to use if he had an attack, he didn’t need to worry about the other inhaler that would prevent it in the first place. Everyone else was reminding him to take it but he was not aware of how important it was. I think children who have asthma need to be better educated about the importance of all their medication. Teachers and parents should be given more advice. Parents need to be made aware that whether you have got the asthma in control or not that this can still happen. They need to educate their children as well. A lot of people are so laid back about it and think that you can just rely on your blue inhaler but once those tubes close that’s it. To other parents with asthmatic children all I can say is don’t take the inhalers for granted and keep on your child’s back about taking the brown preventer. Josh lived life to the full and his illness never stopped him. He was loved by so many people and had a lot of friends.”

The story of Joshua’s death deeply saddens everybody at Medical Specialists Pharmacy and it shows exactly why we are such strong advocates for the promotion of better asthma awareness to help support the 5.4 million sufferers in the UK, and millions more around the world. Back in August we created an article trying to dispel the unnecessary embarrassment or shame that some asthma sufferers still have with the condition. We have also offered advice and stated some warning signs that asthma sufferers need to be aware of in regards to understanding if their symptoms are under control.

At Medical Specialists we have a wide range of medications to help asthma sufferers. If you are suffering from asthma like symptoms, you should see your doctor immediately for a diagnosis. Your doctor is able to prescribe medication if he feels you have asthma. If you have already been prescribed an inhaler or have lost your inhaler or run out and cannot get a prescription immediately, we are able to supply you an inhaler to help your asthma symptoms. We now offer both blue (relievers) inhalers such as Ventolin and Salbutamol, and brown (preventers) inhalers such as Qvar Beclomethasone, Qvar Easi-Breathe and Pulvinal Beclomethasone.

There have been occasions when some of our asthma patients have also requested a non-drowsy antihistamine such as Loratadine. Daily use of this medication is particularly helpful for asthma sufferers to reduce season allergies from exposure to pollen, exposure to dust mites, bed mites, pets, etc. or for those who experience severe asthma symptoms after exercise.