Hi, I'm Dr. Peg Strub; Chief of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology at Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco. How to control asthma triggers? As far as asthma triggers, we like to look at triggers as external triggers and internal triggers. In terms of external triggers, we oftentimes we'll look at triggers that are in the house and triggers that are outside. In terms of triggers in the house, the first one is dust mite. Dust mites are actually microscopic; you can't really see them; but their presence is certainly well-known. Dust, dust mites tend to be more of a problem around beds, sofas, upholstered furniture, carpeting. So ideally, these are the areas that we like to attack. The most important place is the bedroom and the reason for that is that, most people when they're home spend the majority of their time in their bedroom. So we always like to have a safe place for patients as far as dust mite. One thing that we should mention about dusting is it's always better if somebody else does the dusting and that if the person who has the allergies, allergies isn't even home when this is done because cleaning and dusting really raises a lot of dust; so we actually prefer that people aren't in the house at that time. Curtains need to be washed frequently and we like to have those taken down and actually washed and again, people don't have a lot of time for that today. Ideally we'd like to see that done about once a month at least. Ideally even every couple of weeks. Drapes are heavier and most times, those need to go to cleaners and a lot of times people just don't want to spend a lot of money taking their drapes down and taking into the cleaners. So again our preference really is something like a shade which is easier to clean. As far as pets; cat tends to be the worst between cats and dogs. Most people are more allergic to cats than they are to dogs. But cats, dogs you know, what we like to do is have them relocated from the house as oppose to in the house. Rats, mice, hamsters, birds can be big triggers. Cockroach is actually a very major trigger for a lot of patients and cockroaches can be very difficult to get rid of and oftentimes a professional exterminator is needed with cockroaches. And we want all patients with asthma or anybody with respiratory diseases to avoid smoking obviously; but also to avoid second hand smoke be it from cigarettes or from fireplaces or from wood burning stoves. But that is a major trigger for a lot of people. Odors and scents will oftentimes trigger people with asthma and allergies. So again, we prefer that they stay away from areas where there are odors and scents and also have them avoid perfume themselves. Similarly with aerosols; that can be a problem and we prefer that they use more natural products in their homes and even things like paint and anything with a strong smell can be a big trigger. Exercise is a pretty major trigger for most people with asthma; but exercise is very important. So we don't want patients to avoid exercise. What we prefer that they do instead is use medication either prior to exercise or to have their asthma controlled enough that exercise isn't a trigger for them. Colds viruses are a major trigger for people with asthma and that's probably one of the most significant triggers in terms of sending patients to the Emergency Room and to the hospital and or to see their doctor. For most patients there is a combination of triggers that will affect their asthma and skin testing can be very helpful to identify the triggers. Well, I'm Dr. Peg Strub; Chief of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology at Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco and I'm also the Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Francisco.
health section
