Hi there, I'm Mrs. Kim, and welcome to today's lesson all about asthma.

This fits into the disease and drugs unit.

However, you will recognise a lot of the information from previous units, such as health and disease.

Okay then, let's get started.

So our outcome for today is: I can describe the symptoms of asthma and some of the risk factors that can increase the chance of having asthma.

We will be using all of these key terms today, okay? And if you would like to look over them in more detail, please pause the video.

Otherwise, we will be moving on.

But do know that I will go through each one of these as we move through the slide deck.

We have two learning cycles for today.

We've got asthma and the associated risk factors, and asthma treatment.

Of course, we'll start then with the first one, asthma and the associated risk factors.

Alright, do you have or do you know anyone that has asthma? Have a little think about it for a moment.

You probably do to be honest, and you may have seen an asthma inhaler before, which is on that picture.

Actually, asthma is a non-infectious disease that affects the gas exchange system.

It's really, really common, okay? Lots of people do have it and that's probably why you know somebody.

You might not know exactly what it is though.

Now if we have a look there at the human gas exchange system, do you remember that that tube there, the windpipe called the trachea, branches into smaller tubes known as the bronchi that then go into each of the lungs.

Now what happens to people that have got asthma is that those airways become slightly narrower.

You can see in the picture there that we've got a nice, big lumen, that's the inside of a tube in the body, and the lumen of an airway of a healthy person is nice and large, so you can get lots of air in.

However, when somebody has asthma, you can see that actually the walls become a little bit thick, they become inflamed, and it constricts and doesn't allow as much air to pass through them.

And that's why somebody might feel like they are hard of breath.

Some of the common symptoms then of asthma.

So because people aren't able to get enough air in, what can often happen is that they can be very wheezy, okay? And you would be able to hear that in a person's chest.

They may cough more regularly.

They may feel very breathless.

So if they've walked up a set of stairs, even if they're pretty fit, they might actually feel like they're losing their breath.

And as a another symptom of that then, that tight chest feeling, so a pain in their chest.

These symptoms can unfortunately sometimes suddenly get temporarily worse.

So temporarily meaning only for a short time, okay? If that happens, somebody can have what we call an asthma attack.

Now, asthma attacks are very serious and they can be life-threatening.

So we do need to try to get that individual medical help straight away and that's because they are actually finding it really, really difficult to breathe.

If treated correctly though, it's absolutely fine and the person will recover quite quickly.

Somebody with asthma may also find that if they get a chest infection of some kind, their experience of the symptoms may feel a little bit worse.

Okay, onto our first check of the day then.

Asthma is an example of a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Do you think that is true or false? I'll give you a moment to think about it, but if you need more time, please pause the video.

Of course that is false.

Okay, I'd like you to think of a reason why that is false by reading A or B.

Asthma is a gastrointestinal condition that causes difficulty breathing, or B, asthma leads to a tightening of the bronchi that leads to difficulty breathing.

I'll give you a moment to think about it, but again, if you need more time, please pause the video.

Okay, of course that was B, asthma leads to a tightening of the bronchi, which leads to difficulty breathing.

Alright, let's have a go at this next check then.

Which of the following are symptoms of asthma? I'll give you some time to think about it, but you know that if you need to, pause the video.

Okay, did you think of wheezing and coughing and also somebody may feel breathlessness.

Excellent, well done.

Okay, so the exact cause of asthma is actually unknown, okay? It's not really fully understood that one person can get it and another person won't.

However, there are certain things that mean that a person is more at risk.

So for a start off, if you are a person that suffers from other types of allergies, so it might be that you have hay fever or some sort of food allergy, you can see in the picture there we've got peanuts, that is often something that people can react to.

If you are having these other allergies, then actually you are more likely to experience asthma.

If there are other people in your family, and this also works with allergies and things, actually, if you tend to have people in your family that have got allergies, then you tend to have it as well.

Similarly with asthma then, if your parents or other people in your family actually have asthma, you are more likely to get it.

Other risk factors then for children.

If the parent, if the mom smoked while she was pregnant, actually that can lead to an increase in your chance of getting asthma.

Something that smoking can cause, but there are lots of other reasons why, people can have a low birth rate.

So being very, very tiny when you are born, that's a really tiny little baby in the picture.

That can be an increased risk of developing asthma.

And also just having more lung infections as a child.

So getting things like bronchitis, okay, where you actually got some sort of infection.

So all of those things, it's not one or the other.

You might have a mix of them, you may have just one of them.

It will increase your risk of having asthma.

Okay, so onto our next check, what are the risk factors of asthma? Do you think, A, having ear infections as a child; B, having food allergies or hay fever; C, having a family history of asthma; or D, exposure to alcohol from your mother during pregnancy? I'll give you a moment to think about it, but if you need more time, please pause the video.

Okay, did you think of B and C? So of course having food allergies or hay fever and having a family history of asthma.

Excellent, well done.

Alright then, so this is our first task of the day, and for this task I'd like you to get your worksheets out.

Okay? And you can record the information on there.

So we're going to design an information webpage for asthma for the NHS.

So actually if you go onto the NHS, you can see this type of thing and they just give lots of information for people so that they can easily look at different diseases that they may have.

You need to include what is asthma, what are the symptoms of asthma, what is an asthma attack, so I think that would be very important for people to know about, and who is at risk of developing asthma.

I'll give you some time to think about it, but if you need more time, please pause the video.

Okay, let's have a look at what we could have included then.

So first of all, what is asthma? Asthma is a common condition that leads to a tightening of the airways.

This causes reduced airflow into the lungs.

The symptoms of asthma then include wheezing, coughing, breathlessness, and a tight chest.

An asthma attack is when symptoms can sometimes suddenly get temporarily worse.

An asthma attack can be life threatening as it reduces airflow, making it difficult for the individual to breathe.

People that are at risk of developing asthma then are people with food allergies or hay fever, people who have had lung infections as a child, a family history of asthma, low birth weight, anyone exposed to smoke or air pollution as a child, or their mother smoked during pregnancy.

You may have all of those, but if you want to add a little bit onto your answer, please do that now.

Okay, onto our next and final learning cycle of today, asthma treatment.

So asthma, unfortunately, although lots of people have it, it can be quite disruptive to a person's life, okay? So it can affect them in lots of different ways.

They may feel very tired because they're not able to get quite as much oxygen in all the time.

So it can lead to them feeling a bit more lethargic than other people.

Not being able to perform as well at school.

So I'm just going to explain this a little bit because it might be that if somebody's asthma is quite bad, they've got quite a lot of disruption and they may be off more regularly and actually not be in school to learn.

People that are able to manage their asthma perfectly well and maybe it's not quite as severe, actually it probably won't make any difference to their performance at school.

It may potentially delay growth or puberty because of that restricted airflow.

But again, this is quite a small number of people that this is likely to happen to.

When a person's airways get constricted then, they're not able to get oxygen in and carbon dioxide out.

We can see from that image again that explains why that happens because of that constriction, that narrowing of the tube.

Let's think about those oxygen and carbon dioxide, what are they used for? Why are they produced? So we know that oxygen as well as glucose is a fuel for cellular respiration, okay? As a result of using those as your fuel, then you release energy, but also you release carbon dioxide, which of course we want to get rid of, okay? We need the energy that is provided by cellular respiration for processes such as movement, okay? So if you are not able to provide as much energy, then things are going to have to work harder in your body.

Which of the following can be further complications resulting from asthma? A, emphysema; B, tiredness; or C, potential under performance at school or work? I'll give you a moment to think about it, but if you need more time, please pause the video.

Okay, did you get tiredness and of course C, potential under performance at school or work? Excellent, well done.

Alright, so at the moment there isn't in fact a cure for asthma and it would last for a whole of a person's lifetime.

What can tend to happen then is that very young children can experience asthma quite severely, okay? They might have regular asthma attacks, but when they kind of enter puberty, so when they get a little bit older, then actually it seems to improve slightly and they feel like maybe their asthma has got a little bit better.

Unfortunately, what we do tend to find is that as people go into the later part of their life then, as they get older those symptoms may come back and they may experience asthma more severely again.

You can see in that picture there that we've got a full lifetime of that gentleman starting from when he was young to then middle age and then to his older age.

We can, and people do usually control asthma then with different types of treatment, and they'll often use those inhalers that you might recognise there, there's a blue one, in order to administer that medicine, because when you squeeze it, it creates an aerosol that people can breathe in and it gets right to the place where it's needed.

Inhalers can be used to relieve the symptoms. So the blue one there tends to be the one that is there for relieving symptoms. So if people are feeling a little bit breathless, maybe they've done a bit of exercise and they're finding it hard to breathe, they would use the blue one to take away those initial symptoms. However, there is a different colour one, it's often brown, and what that will do is it will stop the symptoms. So if you are finding that you are having attacks quite regularly, then by using the brown one, it can prevent that before it even happens.

What the relievers do then, that blue one that I showed you a moment ago, what they can do is that they help to relax those muscles.

So when the muscles that are found in the airways are constricting and tightening up together, what the reliever does is actually relaxes those muscles so it then opens up those airways again, making it easier for a person to breathe.

You may remember from when you've learned about the lungs that here we have that trachea, all right, running down here, our main windpipe, and you can feel it's bumpy and that's because we've got the rings of cartilage that keep it nice and open.

And between that we find muscles.

So it's those muscles that are being relaxed, okay, to open up that airway a little bit better when a person is using that reliever inhaler.

Okay then, so true or false? There is a cure for asthma.

Do you think it's true or false? Can you justify your answer? A, inhalers cure asthma by relaxing the muscles in the airways.

B, there is no cure for asthma and it will last the whole of a person's lifetime.

I'll give you a moment to think about it, but if you need more time, please pause the video.

Okay, did you think false? Very good.

And that is of course there is no cure for asthma and it will unfortunately last for a whole of a person's lifetime.

Alright then.

So asthma sufferers should also make positive lifestyle choices in order to help with their symptoms. What can they do? First of all, definitely don't smoke, okay? Smoking is going to further irritate your gas exchange system, so it's really not a good idea for somebody who has asthma to smoke cigarettes.

Make sure you exercise regularly, okay? You're gonna have a nice, strong heart, you're gonna have a really good lung capacity, as good as you can get, so that you can get as much oxygen in and you can pump that round your body really efficiently.

You also want to make sure that you are up with your vaccinations, especially the influenza virus or commonly known as the flu.

That needs to be done every year because different strains come out all the time and the flu really affects a person's gas exchange system.

So you really don't want that if you have asthma.

Which of the following then are positive lifestyle choices to help with symptoms of asthma? A, avoiding vaccination.

B, exercising regularly.

C, not smoking.

I'll give you a moment to think about it, but if you need more time, please do pause the video.

Okay, did you think exercising regularly and of course not smoking? That's fab.

Well done.

Okay, onto our final task of the day then, task B.

Please do get your worksheets out because you can record your information on there.

So first of all, number one, how can people control their asthma? Number two, how can asthma affect a person's sporting abilities? I will give you some time to think about it, but if you need more time, please pause the video.

Okay, let's have a look at our possible answers then.

So for number one, how can people control their asthma? We need to exercise regularly.

Don't smoke, or make sure you give up as soon as you can.

Also make sure that you have your up-to-date flu vaccine done every year.

They should also make sure that they use their inhaler for both relief, but also if they are finding that they're getting lots of asthma attacks, then they should be using that prevention one as well to make sure that they can stop that from happening.

Number two, how can asthma affect a person's sporting ability? Well, a person with asthma may not breathe in an adequate amount, so enough of the air to get the right amount of oxygen for cellular respiration.

Therefore, they will not have enough energy for their muscles to work to their full potential.

This may lower their sporting ability.

Now actually, a lot of people that are really good sportsmen and women and people have asthma and they get on just well.

So it's only if it's not being managed very well that it may affect your sporting ability.

Okay, so we have come to the end of this lesson, but we do want to just make sure that we have recapped all of those key learning points from today.

So asthma is a common non-infectious disease that affects the respiratory system.

Risk factors include air pollution, smoking, low birth weight, having an allergy, and family history.

Asthma causes a narrowing of the bronchi, which prevents the person from breathing in enough air.

An asthma attack is a temporary worsening of the symptoms. The symptoms include coughing and wheezing.

Treatment is taken in an inhaler and can relieve symptoms as well as prevent them.

Okay, I hope you got all of those.

It was a great lesson.

I really enjoyed learning with you and I hope to see you again soon.

Bye.