What is Extrinsic Asthma?

Extrinsic asthma is usually more commonly classified as allergic asthma. This is asthmatic response, like inflammation of the airways and constriction of them, which inhibits breathing, to an allergy-producing substance. The term is contrasted to intrinsic asthma, when asthmatic response may result from many things like exercise or exposure to non-allergen irritants. It may be easier to identify extrinsic asthma because it is linked to allergen exposure, while intrinsic types have many potential causes that aren’t always clear initially.

It should be noted that the term extrinsic asthma is not in much common usage today. Allergic asthma really has replaced it, and this makes sense because it is most specifically tied to allergic reaction. This form of asthma could emerge at any point in a person’s life, but it’s most often associated with occurring in childhood, and identifying allergy may help dramatically reduce incidence of disease expression. In fact some people with this form of asthma may never end up having the condition on a chronic level, if they are able to follow some treatment guidelines.

The first of these is to avoid allergens, which means it’s important to get allergy testing and determine substances provoking inflammatory response. Common allergens are pet hair or dander, dust mites, certain types of pollen, or even some types of foods. If the allergen can be identified and avoided, extrinsic asthma may simply disappear.

Sometimes such avoidance can be very difficult, especially to things like pollen. It’s not realistic to think a child or an adult can completely avoid going outdoors for a season or two each year, and similar concern exists if people must get rid of beloved pets. Keeping a house free of dust mites can also be nearly impossible.

For this reason, people with routine exposure to an allergen, and with extrinsic asthma may need to treat the illness in a different way. Taking antihistamines might solve the problem, lowering the body’s immune response to substances creating allergies, so that asthmatic response doesn’t occur either. Some people need more aggressive treatment of extrinsic asthma and could also have to use fast-acting inhalers and/or corticosteroid treatments to reduce inflammation and bronchoconstriction. This doesn’t mean inhalers will need to be used forever, and some people are able to discontinue use after the initial treatment to tame symptoms.

There is another important aspect of treating extrinsic asthma. Exposure to other irritants may increase likelihood of allergic asthma turning into lifelong asthma. Though good advice for all, it’s especially vital that people with any form of asthma avoid irritants like second or first-hand cigarette smoke. Routine inhalation of noxious chemicals of other kinds is inadvisable too.

Following these guidelines may help some people recover from extrinsic asthma. Yet it’s always important to contact physicians if symptoms return or become more severe. Occasionally allergic asthma is only the beginning and people secondarily develop forms of intrinsic asthma.