I was diagnosed with asthma when I was 12 which resulted in nine hospitalizations for it in my later years.
In August I found out I have eosinophilic (eos) or e-asthma which is a subtype of asthma that is often severe and with that comes depression, the latter of which I'd had since my pre-teen years. In December I was told that my cough I'd had for over a year was a GERD (reflux) cough and I passed my breathing tests for asthma for the first time with flying colors. I was relieved but I continued to cough even after I had my Prilosec increased. I had had GERD since I was 27.
Studies suggest that those with asthma including the more severe kind have a higher likelihood of developing depressive symptoms than those who don't have the illness. Like any lifelong condition, eos asthma can also affect your mental well-being. Hormones change throughout the day and can trigger nighttime asthma symptoms.
Eosinophilic asthma is a rapidly emerging chronic illness with limited treatments, according to research. This type of asthma is considered a disability under the Equality Act as is severe asthma. If you have eos condition, white blood cells build up in your esophagus. This can cause more frequent asthma attacks. Reducing your stress levels helps with this kind of chronic, long-term condition that affects the airways in the lungs also. Older research from 2006 also notes that stress increases cytokine and eosinophil levels, according to experts. Eosasthma.org states that Eosinophils love to team up with leukotrienes and cause inflammation in your upper and lower airways." Infections, especially from parasites can also lead to eosinophilia. Leeches and allergies to medicine are common causes of the disease.
Studies show that if you have eos asthma you should avoid cow's milk (dairy) and wheat. A high-fat low-fiber diet could make your flare-ups worse, research shows. In the population as a whole, this condition is rare, affecting only five percent of those with asthma. The former causes more frequent attacks. According to PubMed Central, patients with e-asthma get very tired or winded just from walking a few blocks or doing household chores.
In September last year several doctors published an abstract with an objective to emphasize the necessity for increased research incorporating depression into the preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic considerations for asthma. The findings showed that there existed a correlation between these two conditions with specific biological mechanisms and genetic factors playing a crucial role in their concurrent occurrence. (Source: National Library of Medicine). The evidence submitted supports the evidence of a correlation between asthma and depression.
If you want to help your eos asthma naturally you can try yoga, breathing exercises, and meditation but sometimes a patient has to have something stronger such as me who has suffered from a chronic cough for 15 months now. I got the results of a sinus CT scan, and another chest x-ray this week and my allergist prescribed me Gabapentin since the test results were normal. He said lots of people are coughing for no reason including some of his patients and that the drug would help calm the nerves that are causing the cough down. This medication is usually prescribed for people who have epilepsy or nerve pain and though I was leery about taking it due to the side effects and a reported drug interaction with my bipolar medication, since starting it Thursday I've had no problems, and it has helped my cough tremendously.
So, having gotten my chest x-ray and CT scan of my sinus results the allergist has now ruled out a GERD cough and said he didn't know why I had this condition. My choice is to either take the Gabapentin or the doctor said I could just live with the cough which I don't want to do.
Dealing with constant symptoms or having to limit activities can make you feel sad and hopeless. It's a good idea to seek counseling if your eos asthma is causing depression, anxiety, or otherwise affecting your life.
Having asthma or eos asthma can make you feel isolated, misunderstood, and lonely as well as alone, not to mention frustrated, especially when family and friends don't understand because they don't know what it's like to suffer from it. It's important to have a support system and join groups of peers that can empathize with what you're doing through or have been through.
You can find such help at asthmabehavingbadly.com, eosasthma.org, and apfed.org among others such as allergyasthmanetwork.org.