Avoiding asthma triggers not always easy - Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5

Nearly a million Georgians are living with asthma, according to the state Division of Public Health. The disease affects 12 percent of all Georgia children and 9 percent of adults.

There are many triggers. Some are tobacco smoke, dust mites, pet dander, cockroaches and Georgia's hot, humid summers may be to blame.

Asthma is dangerous because it can shut down your airways and cause you to wheeze, get tightness in your chest and feel breathless. If you have asthma, it's important to know your triggers and avoid them.

It's not always easy. Two of Pam Rock's triggers come every spring: heat and humidity.

"The very hot, hot humid weather is not so good. I feel winded. I can't breathe that well. I feel chest tightness," said Rock.

Rock is a 34-year-old mother of two young children and has mild asthma. She's never been hospitalized, but sometimes she starts coughing, and can't catch her breath. She carries a rescue inhaler with her, just in case.

"It's scary, it's scary. I feel winded, like I've been exercising and I really haven't been. The chest tightness, I would say is probably the worst symptoms I deal with," said Rock.

Asthma sufferers and specialists blame the heat and high smog levels for irritating lungs. But there may be another asthma trigger. New research shows high humidity can also irritate nerve endings in the lungs of people with mild asthma like Pam.
     
Dr. Paul Rabinowitz with Allergy and Asthma Consultants says the first step is to get a diagnosis and begin a treatment plan.

"Get their asthma under control, with the correct controller medications, which for the most part are inhaled steroids to reduce airway inflammation," said Dr. Paul Rabinowitz.

Rabinowitz says asthma is tricky. One minute you're fine, the next you're not.  Stay on your medication even when you feel fine. If you go outside, go early, before the heat and humidity increases.

"Again, later in the day, it's still going to be hot, humid down in Georgia in the summertime. So your time to be outside is in the morning," said Rabinowitz.

Asthma attacks landed about 54,000 Georgians in the emergency room in 2010. Nearly 40 percent of kids and adults reported having an attack in the last year. If you have asthma, it's critical to reduce your exposures to triggers and ask your doctor for an asthma management plan.