What is asthma? What happens when there is an issue with the lungs? What happens when gas exchange is prohibited from working as it should? One way in which this can happen is asthma. In this video we will be covering what asthma is, what it does to the lungs, how medications help and what things can be done to try to help prevent it.
Hi and welcome back to my channel learningbiology with dr vanessa in today’s video we are going to talk about asthma what happens when there is an issue with the lungs what happens when gas exchange is prohibited from working as it should one way in which this can happen is asthma in this video we will be covering what asthma is what it does to the lungs how
Medications can help and what things might be done to help try and prevent it disclaimer the doctor in my name comes from the phd i earned i am not a medical doctor my videos and content are for educational and informational purposes only this is not to be used in lieu of medical advice but to help educate you if you have a true medical emergency or issue please see
Your physician what is asthma in order to really understand what asthma is first we need to take a glimpse into the lungs and how the lungs work properly the purpose of the lungs are to bring oxygen into the body so that it can be delivered to our cells without oxygen our cells would not be able to perform their jobs on the other hand the lungs also work to exhale
Carbon dioxide so that our bodies can get rid of that waste product let’s take a look at what a normal lung looks like and how it works when we breathe air enters into the trachea and from the trachea branches off into the bronchi there’s one for each side the right and the left and then the bronchi branch off into smaller and smaller areas known as bronchiols so
These branch off as we go into the lungs and in all these areas this is where air is going to flow through so these areas are air carrying areas where just air is going to flow through and when it gets to the very very bottom of this it gets to these um grape-like cluster shacks and those are referred to as alveoli so we want the air to reach all the way down to
This area here which is known as the alveoli and that is where the gas exchange is going to occur so that is where oxygen is going to come into the body and carbon dioxide is going to be removed from the body to exhale out here’s a quick picture to look at rather than my drawings again with the trachea going into the bronchi then into the bronchioles and then you
Can see these grape-like clusters of alveoli now if you want to learn more about the lungs and exactly how this gas exchange occurs take a look at the description box i’m going to link some other videos that i’ve done this is basically how the lungs are set up and how they’re going to work so let’s understand then what happens when somebody has asthma let’s take a
Look at what the inside of a bronchial looks like because in order for the air to get to the alveoli where gas exchange is going to occur it has to pass through these bronchials so let’s take a look inside what it looks like and then what happens to that inside when somebody has asthma if we cut through the bronchiole and then look inside this is what we’re going
To see so the middle part of the bronchial is referred to as the lumen and the lumen is really the inside of any tube that we see so like the blood vessels the inside would be referred to as the lumen within the airways there it’s referred to as the lumen so in the airways normally this lumen is filled with air and so you see here there’s a nice open passageway
It’s filled with air there’s also smooth muscle in this area and that allows the bronchioles to be able to constrict or contract and also to relax and open up but this is where air is going to pass through so this is what it looks like normally however now what you see here is somebody who has asthma so in asthma what happens is that the airways constrict that
Smooth muscle contracts so that the airway gets even smaller with a smaller airway it’s going to be much more difficult for the air to be passing through and there’s also mucus that builds up in there so it makes the airway even smaller so what happens is that even though it’s difficult to get air in it’s much more difficult to get air out so when you’re taking a
Breath in there’s a lot of pressures that are helping push the air into the body but now when you’re pushing air out exhaling is a passive process so there’s not as many pressures in that passive process of exhalation and so because there’s so much mucus the constriction of the smooth muscle in um the bronchial here is going to make that air uh have a harder time
Getting out of the body and so one of the classic signs of asthma besides obviously shortness of breath is a wheezing sound and that wheezing sound happens on exhalation as this air is trying to get out of these very constricted very mucus mucousy bronchioles and trying to get out of the body and it makes a wheezing sound on exhalation so what do the medications
Do then to help somebody who has asthma now there are a variety of different medications and there are different severity of asthma as well but most of them work to help um dilate the bronchioles so they’re bronchodilators remember constriction means that that smooth muscle is constricting um it’s causing a constriction in that area the muscle is contracting and
Then a bronchodilator is going to help to relax that muscle so asthma the smooth muscle is contracted and there’s mucus in there that’s all trapped remember the lungs are an area for air not for mucus so that’s uh giving more restriction in that area when somebody takes something like an inhaler that usually has albuterol there are other types of medications what that
Does is it helps to relax the bronchioles relax that muscle and open up the airway so the mucus is still there but it can um help that person to cough to be able to move that mucus out but opens it up those airways so that they’re breathing gets better immediately and these are very very fast acting types of medications that can help to open the airways obviously
If the asthma is more severe then they would have to take different types of medications sometimes steroids to help really open up the airways so what types of things trigger asthma to have somebody go into an asthmatic attack now asthma can be genetic which means it’s passed on from generation to generation but a variety of different things can actually trigger
Asthma some are triggered by allergies so just somebody has allergies and that allergies go on to trigger the asthma asthma could be triggered by things like acid reflux acid reflux can trigger that asthma other things such as from the foods that are eaten sometimes that is a trigger dust can be a trigger as well for asthma some are even some even get asthma
From exercise which is exercise induced asthma so there’s a variety of different triggers and someone who has asthma something as easy as just getting a common cold any type of cold or virus or where mucus starts to be made the nose gets a little congested that starts to fall down into the lungs that can also trigger asthma for that person as well this will cause
Them to use that albuterol inhaler that fast acting inhaler some who have long um long-standing asthma are taking preventative medicines to help prevent these attacks from happening what kind of things can be done to prevent asthma preventing asthma has to do with knowing your triggers know your triggers is it allergies stay away from those allergens take allergy
Medicines to help keep those at bay um smoking is can be a big trigger as well if smoking is a trigger stay away from smoking and that’s not even first hand smoking that’s also secondhand smoking so if a child has asthma and the parents are smoking even if they’re not smoking around the children but they come in smelling like that smoke that can be a trigger for
Those who are triggered by smoking um help to prevent colds by making sure you’re always washing your hands practicing good um hygiene staying healthy eating the right types of foods and um exercise exercise can really help because exercising doing some type of cardiovascular type of exercise will really help in making those lungs stronger and helping that person
To breathe better if exercise does induce asthma make sure you do that with a doctor supervision and that you do not over exert yourself thank you so much for watching my video i hope that it helped you to better understand a little bit more about asthma what it does to the lungs and hopefully some ways you can avoid triggers um with the asthma if you have any
Questions or comments please make sure to put them down below and as always if you haven’t already subscribed to my channel please make sure you do and that you click on the notification bell so that you never miss out on a new video thank you so much
Transcribed from video
What is Asthma | Symptoms | Treatment | Inhalers By Dr. Vanessa
