Asthma Causes and Triggers

One of the most important factors in managing asthma is understanding the causes and triggers for each patient (because they are often different). Once these are understood, a management program can be built that eliminates those factors (or at least reduces them as much as possible) so symptoms do not present. But despite this importance, there is often a great deal of confusion between a cause, and a trigger. 

A trigger is something which sets off an attack, but which does not make you asthmatic in the first place. Heavy exercise, or cold air for instance. 

A cause is something without which the asthma could not happen.  For example, if asthmatics with allergies were to get rid of the allergies, in many cases the asthma would disappear as well. And in those cases, we say the allergies themselves would be the cause. There may be more than one cause for an asthma condition.

And just to confuse things, some causes can also be triggers (although no trigger in itself can be a cause). A cat allergy can be the cause of asthma. Being exposed to a cat can trigger an attack

The "trigger factors" of asthma are used to describe the things which can bring on an attack in someone who already has the disease. But these terms are mixed up all the time. People will often say the cat or the pollen is triggering their asthma. The classic example care-givers provide to differentiate these concepts is calling an on-coming car the trigger for an accident!

In terms of semantics, it probably doesn’t matter much whether something is called a trigger or a cause. Many patients only understand when a certain condition is realized, asthma starts and they suffer.

Asthma treatment needs to be focused on the causes

But not understanding the difference between the two – thinking of a cause as just a trigger doesn’t focus attention on managing the disease. And triggers aren’t so important – if you get rid of them, you don’t get rid of the asthma. But if you get rid of the cause, the asthma goes away (and incidentally, so do the triggers!).

For example, if you don't have asthmatic lungs, or your asthma is really well controlled by treatment, a cold (which would have triggered an event before) won't present asthmatic symptoms. It is no longer a trigger.

By thinking of a cause as just a trigger, it becomes too easy to just take medication for immediate relief and wait for an attack to pass. Life will never change if the real causes of the condition are not defined and removed from your world.

Concentrating only on the triggering of the attacks misses the essential point that the real cause of the disease is not being addressed. Of course, triggers are not to be ignored - they need to be avoided as well. But treatment programs need to be focused on what is putting the asthma there in the first place. If these factors are dealt with, triggers become a non-issue.

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