What are the generic triggers of the Asthma condition?

Presenter - And what are generally the triggers we've talked about this a little bit but explain what are the main ones you think.

Martin - Yes well the main ones, exercise is a very common one, so you'll often get people who have exercise induced asthma, seasonal asthma like the person who sent in the question about the winter months, you know that's a very common so a particular season will spark somebody off. Sometimes pollution or you know when somebody's in that sort of environment that has to one, and some smokers will find that when they smoke it get worse.

Presenter - Mmm. You can't imagine smoking when you've got asthma?

Martin - You can't imagine it but people do.

Presenter - You must wring your hands mustn't you? When they come through your door.

Martin - [laugh] I'm afraid people do unfortunately and it's only when it gets really bad that you sort of convince them that that is not the thing to do. And I guess things like stress you know is another factor that sometimes people when they get very stressed they get an asthma attack you sometimes see these people in a meeting or something and they have to sort of sneak off and have a couple of puffs of their reliever inhaler. So those are the sort of main things.

Presenter - And what about allergens as well.

Martin - Yeah definitely absolutely allergens which will be different for different people. You know pollen for some people, dogs or cats, for other people sometimes those can actually be the easiest people to treat because obviously if it's very specific to cats, I mean for instance I'm quite allergic to cats and when I visit somebody I don't even have to I know that they have a cat but within a few minutes I will be you know wheezing slightly.

Presenter - Yeah and is that definitely and asthma 'cos that happens to my husband as well actually he's very allergic to cats he also gets hay fever and he thinks it's sort of his hay fever but that's actually asthma is it?

Martin - Yeah it is it's allergy asthma it's allergic asthma basically. So he is right and you know it's on that huge spectrum of asthma from you know only bothers you very occasional and in certain situations to those unfortunate people who have it sort of all the time every single day and they have to manage it every single day like a very much a chronic condition. There's this huge spectrum of severity so your husband like myself will be on that sort of mild end and he will hopefully know you know what to avoid if he possibly can.

Presenter - Yeah now Annette has written in and she wants to know "Can asthma, panic or crisis attacks be triggered physiologically?" I think they're all different aren't they?

Martin - To a certain degree Annette yes. I mean certainly I think psychology plays a big part in so many different things and I'm sure that is true of asthma. But if you are a bit stressed or panicky or anxious you probably are right that your's will be made worse in those situations, hard to explain why that happens but very definitely that does happen, we know of those people where you know stress or anxiety will make it worse and very hard for people like Annette really because it's all very well to say you know well try and avoid stress, but you know stress is part of every life isn't it, everyday life.

Presenter - Even just running for a bus or something like that, well not running 'cos that exercise but you know just being late or something you can't avoid it these days can you?

Martin - Yes that's exactly right so of her it will be more about you know what I can do perhaps with my medication to prevent that or to be one step ahead of it. But actually quite good that she seems to have been able to identify those situations where she knows that it's gonna' get worse because often that will allow her to take certain measures. I mean some people for instance get to in the habit of using their inhaler before a situation where they know they're gonna' get it.

Presenter - Right. Preventative.

Martin - Yes a preventative type of measure which is really useful 'cos then they don't even have to be rushing out to use their inhaler they can use it what's called prophylactic you know before they have the problem they use it so.

Presenter - Yeah. Okay. I hope that's helpful Annette. Thomas from Suffolk has also sent in a question and he wants to know "What are the symptoms of an attack and what I would do if I saw a friend suffering from an attack?"