Can Asthma Develop Later In Life? Posted: 09-30-04 11:58am
I've never been diagnosed with asthma in
the past. Recently moderate physical
activity leaves me short of breath for
extended periods of time. I also
experience wheezing and a cough that will
not go away, as well as periodic
heartburn. I did a 2 mile walk one day
and I was perfectly fine. 2 days later
that same walk left me with shortness of
breath for about 45 min. Also something
as simple as mowing the lawn is leaving me
breathless. Could this be late developing
asthma or something more serious.
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wakkochic17
Experienced User , Rather EHEALTHy
Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 494 Location: South Carolina
Posted: 10-02-04 13:32pm
If you say you have heartburn... I would
address that first. I say this because a
few years ago I was getting the same
thing. I knew I had heartburn, but all
of the sudden most exercises would give me
asthma like symptoms. I went to the
doctor and she said it sounded like I was
developing asthma.. But that it was rare
to get it later in life unless it was
allergy related. She gave me an inhaler
but in some cases I still had to go to the
doctor and get breathing treatment
(basically a stronger form of treatment
then just an inhaler). The inhaler
helped minimize the symptoms.. But it
kept coming back. A few months later my
heartburn started to get real bad and I
finally went to the doctor. He diagnosed
me with gerd (gastric reflux disease) and
put me on prevacid. I started doing
research on the gerd and it turns out one
of the symptoms is asthma like symptoms.
What happens is even if you don't feel it,
reflux can come on when you exercise..
The acid then gets up in your lungs and
causes you to have the symptoms. So i've
been taking the prevacid for 2 years now
and all my asthma symptoms are gone! So
I would look at the heartburn, because
even if you don't feel like you are
getting it, it can come up and do damage
without you even knowing it.
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jackieperks
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 15 Dec 2004 Posts: 4 Location: Chicago
Posted: 12-15-04 12:42pm
Yes, gastric reflux can produce nasty
asthma symptoms because the rising acid
irritates the airways, as does post-nasal
drip.
Please see your practioner to get the acid
under control.
