How To Prevent Asthma

This video is for those of you who want to know how to prevent asthma. Now, unfortunately you cannot really prevent the onset of asthma in susceptible individuals and it's a complicated mix of genes and environment that may cause asthma to come on. However, if you are prone to asthma in your family or you have asthma yourself then there are a few things that you can do to prevent it from getting worse and certainly to prevent your wheezy symptoms.

Now, my top tip today is to stop smoking. If you do smoke and you are asthmatic it is an awful combination and you're doing your lungs no end of damage, so please, please, please stop smoking if you have asthma in your family or you yourself are asthmatic. My second tip would be to look out for allergens, now if you have asthma you're also likely to suffer from other allergies like hay fever or like eczema, so if you can look out for certain things that might precipitate your wheeze then it is a good idea to avoid them.

Common allergens would be things like house dust mites, pollens if you suffer from hay fever, anti-inflammatory, aspirin, feathers, animal dander, sulfites which are kind of preservatives in certain beer, wine or foods, things like this. And also if you live in an area where cockroaches are then their cockroach droppings can also cause you to get wheezy. So look out for these kinds of allergens and if you can, avoid them.

So if house dust mites are something that can particularly cause your wheeze then it is worth making sure that you try to avoid carpets in your home and also that you dust and vacuum your house regularly to get rid of house dust mite droppings and dead skin cells. Now what about other cause, well if you're asthmatic or prone to asthma then infections are never good because they tend to make your asthma and your wheeze worse. So anything you can do to prevent infections or colds will also help your lungs, so if you're asthmatic it is important to get your vaccinations and your annual fluid jab or your pneumococcal jab is also very important, regular hand washing just to make sure that you don't pass on bugs to other family members who are unwell is also quite a good tip.

A healthy diet full of vitamins and minerals, fresh fruit and vegetables will also boost your immune system and hopefully prevent asthma from getting worse with infection. Now what about your weight? If you are overweight, it does put extra pressure o your lungs and it is worth losing a few pounds if you do have asthma to avoid that. Another thing is if you're obese you are more likely to suffer from heartburn, now heartburn can cause a night time cough in susceptible individuals.

so again it is worth losing weight and combating heartburn if you can. If you're asthmatic, going to see your doctor for regular check-ups is going to be great for hopefully preventing any problems in the future, and of course if you have any signs of shortness of breath then it is important to go to the doctor as well. And lastly it might be worth trying a peak flow monitor at home, that way you can detect any reduction in your lung capacity before you get any shortness of breath, so that would be a good way of preventing an asthma attack.

If you suffer from stress or anxiety then sometimes this can bring on an asthma attack as well and there is a simple breathing exercise that I want you to try which could help to improve your lung capacity and also to relax you. All it involves is breathing out for twice as long as you breath in just a few times to help get your nose and body relaxed and hopefully overtime this will have boost your lung capacity and also hopefully prevent any kind of asthma attack. I hope these tips have been useful for you.