Millions of people all over the world suffer from Asthma, and if you’ve ever met one who suffers from it then you’re familiar with the pssst psst sound of the inhalers that make a relatively normal day to day life possible for them.
Asthma Day is dedicated to raising awareness about this pernicious disease and seeks to bring awareness and advanced asthma care to sufferers throughout the world.
History of Asthma Day
Asthma Day was initially established in 1998 by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA). While almost all of us are familiar with the sound and visual of an inhaler for Asthma being used, not all of us are aware of the actual nature, cause, and that there are multiple types of asthma out there.
The truth of the matter is asthma isn’t entirely understood, what is known is that there are multiple factors at play in the complex chemistry that creates an asthma sufferer. These include genetic interactions and elements in the environment that can change both the severity and how likely it is to respond to treatment.
The known aggravators of asthma are many and include everything from allergens, air pollution, and other chemicals that can appear in the environment that irritate the lungs. In high enough concentrations these factors can cause serious asthma attacks in sufferers and aggravate cases that are otherwise mild.
Asthma is incredibly prevalent in those areas that suffer from low air quality as a result, and those areas also tend to be those that house low-income and minority communities. As such these already disadvantaged individuals are the highest sufferers of this pernicious disease. An added factor is psychological stress, and again this element is particularly high in those living on the edge of poverty, increasing its occurrence there further.
How to celebrate Asthma Day
Start out by…. Not cleaning quite so thoroughly. Does this seem counter-intuitive to you? It sure did to us, until we learned that hyper-hygienic environments have significantly higher occurrences than farms and those houses that have pets.
So you can start by making sure that your kids spend more time playing in the dirt, and not sanitizing your world to within an inch of its life. If you already have family that suffers from asthma, take the time to educate yourself further on it, and maybe do what you can to help other sufferers in the world at large by sharing that information!
