Regarding Allergies and Inhaled Medicine

[random_soldier1337]

So recently I've ended up in shitville where everything from the Earth below to the skies above is saturated with pollutants and toxic compounds of all sorts (not to be taken too literally) and I just can't seem to catch a break from allergies that cause inflammation of my ear, nose throat passage. I've got a doctor giving me medicines that have helped curbed most of it save for my nose and throat. Nose is another issue, I'm mostly here about the throat thing.

I probably should be asking him these questions instead of you guys and google and I did but I'm not sure his answers were the be all, end all and while google provided similar answers, I thought I'd ask somebody who's had a bit more history with these problems.

Basically, if I don't take my inhaler like once daily or so, my throat starts constricting. It's a nuisance within like a week, causing occasional heavy breathing and forcing me to clear my throat every few minutes because I notice either a relatively inaudible wheezing or having too much saliva bunched up in my throat. At about ~2 weeks or slightly later it all of a sudden becomes very horrible to the point of constricting my throat so much so that I barely breath.

Here are my questions:

1. Is this an indication of actual asthma or an acute allergic reaction? Or are they the same thing when the reaction occurs in your throat and lungs?

2. Does the inhaler medicine contain some sort of a steroidal compound? I assume it does but I'd like your input.

3. Don't know how to put this properly but I've heard that in certain cases steroids can mask an infection/disease and one may feel perfectly fit but it only becomes apparent in it's terminal stages (few years later) when a person is dying from said infection. I'm assuming this is possible due to the steroid suppressing immune system reaction which I read on a website via google. Is this true of inhaled steroids and can it become this severe?

4. Does the inhaled medicine affect any other parts other than the throat or lungs? I had to take an inhaler once before (same medicine that I am using now) and for some reason it kept causing me to have a running nose, constant sneezing, blockage, etc., in my nose. I assume it was so because as long as I was taking it, said symptoms would occur and if I wasn't, my throat would constrict. I'm having similar problems now. The doctors prescription is better this time around but I still can't seem to get rid of blockage in one of my nostrils at all times and needing to blow the mucous out occasionally. Is this occurring because the inhaled medicine affects other parts as well?

5. Are there any physical activities that can increase or reduce my ailments that I should watch out for or attempt, respectively?

6. Any other possibly adverse effects anyone else may know of other than the immune system thing that I may want to think of while weighing my pros and cons for usage of the medicine?

[MrFancypants]

Those are pretty specific questions. I think it would be a good idea to go to a few docs specialized on allergies and compare their answers.

The symptoms you describe don't sound exactly like asthma. Asthma feels more like a heavy cough, where you have trouble breathing due to constriction in the lungs. It usually is worse when lying down. Your mileage may vary though.

Try to figure out what you react to. Often it is pollen, in that case you can get short-term relieve from a change of scenery. A seashore or rainy area has cleaner air. Urban centers can also help as there is not as much vegetation. In the long term you can desensitise, that helps some people.

If you do have asthma keep in mind that it is partially a mental thing, it can get worse if you obsess about it. If you have an attack stay calm, distract yourself, maybe drink some tea and listen to music, get fresh air and sit upright. Inhalers can become part of the mental problem, as a kid I would get pretty bad asthma attacks when my inhaler was unavailable. Inhalers can also have a placebo effect, try inhaling and coughing out the medicine immediately - in my case it worked just as well as a full dose.

Also take a look at your food. Even if you don't have food allergies bad nutrition can worsen allergies. As an experiment, lay off milk products for a few weeks and look whether that changes anything.

It may also help to ask your insurance about allergies, insurance companies have a strong incentive in fixing allergies in their customers, so they often recommend treatment.

[random_soldier1337]

Any particular number of doctors that would be good? Anything else in particular I should take into note about them other than their specialization? I get the feeling those two questions might come of as sarcasm. It isn't just so you know.

I guess from your description, it does sound more like an allergy rather than asthma. It really is random in when it occurs otherwise most of the time it just feels like saliva obstruction in my throat. I also don't have much problem breathing while lying down unless I'm already heavily suffering from the allergy.

I'm pretty sure it may not be pollen or food. I'm eating pretty much the same things I've been eating for the last few years. Wouldn't I have noticed symptoms earlier if it was bad nutrition?And I am pretty much in an urban center.

I try not to rely on my inhaler, but when it gets bad, it just keeps getting worse. I'm really not sure about the inhaler thing but calming down doesn't help much other than allowing me to control my breathing under duress.

There is a thermal power plant ~5 Km nearby. You don't suppose the effluents from there could have an occasional adverse effect along with pollution caused by the rest of the traffic? Like a sort of slow buildup of toxins that usually starts causing me problems, especially if I am in a bad condition (mild sleep deprivation, physical exertion/exhaustion)?

[MrFancypants]

With doctors it depends a lot on what feeling you get when you talk to them. If you only meet doctors who give you the impression that they don't care then continue looking. If you find one who takes time to explain things to you stay with him/her. That's my experience, anyhow.

You can develop allergies as you get older, many people develop food allergies after their 20s, so food that didn't give you any trouble before may be a problem now. As for bad nutrition, what I mean with that is that unhealthy food can make existing allergies worse. Suppose you are slightly allergic to pollen; eat healthy food and you may not notice, eat bad food and this allergy may get worse.

I don't think powerplants or traffic pollution is a cause of your problems. Mostly it is the organic stuff that causes reactions - food, pollen, hair of animals. But let a doctor check that out, they can test you for allergens pretty quickly these days.