Drugs as a cause
Various drugs can be the trigger of so-called drug-induced or drug-induced asthma. The most common cause is certain active ingredients from the group of painkillers. This is not an allergic reaction but an intolerance reaction.
The most common triggers of drug-induced asthma are drugs containing acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) or non-steroidal anti-rheumatic drugs such as indomethacin, ibuprofen or diclofenac. Paracetamol on the other hand is usually well tolerated. As certain painkillers (analgesics) in particular can trigger an asthma attack, this is also referred to as analgesic asthma.
In addition to this analgesic asthma, drugs from the beta-blockers group can also provoke an asthma attack. However, this has nothing to do with a hypersensitivity reaction. Rather some beta blockers work also on receptors in the area of the bronchial tubes, they lead here to a constriction and can release so an asthma attack. Beta blockers should therefore not be used at all or only with caution in patients with known bronchial asthma.
Stress as a cause
An infection of the upper respiratory tract, for example a cold or bronchitis, is one of the possible typical triggers of asthma attacks. Both virus-induced infections and bacterial infections can trigger an asthma attack. However, viral pathogens are the most common triggers of upper respiratory tract infections.
Under certain circumstances, an infection can even be the first trigger for an asthma attack so that the asthma manifests itself for the first time in the context of an infection. With asthma, a chronic hypersensitivity of the respiratory tract occurs. They react particularly sensitively to various stimuli.
An infection that attacks the airways is exactly one such stimulus. This can then lead to an exaggerated reaction with narrowing of the airways. This leads to the typical asthma attack with shortness of breath, coughing with increased mucus production and shortness of breath.
House dust mites as cause
The excrement of house dust mites is a typical trigger of the so-called house dust allergy. It shows itself with symptoms such as watery, itchy eyes, runny nose, coughing, increased sneezing and unspecific headaches. But besides the house dust allergy, the excrement of house dust mites can also be a trigger for asthma attacks.
An asthma bronchiale, which is released by house dust mites, belongs to the subgroup of the allergic asthma. The excrement of the house dust mites is thus the allergen. It is not unusual for an initially relatively harmless house dust allergy to develop into an allergic asthma. You can find more information about house dust allergies here.
