Asthma IS a physical condition, but psychological factors plays probably the most important part. the physical symptoms can be treated with medication, but if there are emotional factors involved, those need to be addressed, as well.
asthma can be triggered by many things, as others have listed, but can be made much worse by emotions. first, from a physical perspective, if you are emotionally upset, your immune system doesn’t work as well as it should, your resitance is lower, so your body will react quicker to triggers such as pollen, animal dander, pollution, etc.
second, having an asthma attack is scary!! when you feel you can’t breathe, the anxiety makes it worse. the airways constrict making it harder to breathe..it becomes a vicious cycle. one of the things i tell my patients in an attack is to lower their shoulders and take slow, deep breaths, in thru the nose and slowly out thru their mouths with their lips pressed together like they are going to whistle.
this does several things. it calms one of the major nerves that has to do with breathing (vagus nerve), it gives the body nitrous oxide created in the back of the nasal passages that helps to calm the body as a whole, and it holds the air in the lungs longer allowing better oxygenation, and it slows the movement of the air thru the airways which helps with the constriction.
sorry.. don’t mean to be so long winded (no pun intended lol) but thought the extra info might help. good luck!
Source(s):
Registered Respiratory Therapist
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