Jakarta, IO – Allergic sneezing because of cold temperatures (“cold-allergy sneezing”) along with asthma, affect no less than 20% of the world population. These “common” diseases strongly affect the quality of sufferers’ lives. Both of them cause malicious respiratory symptoms; their symptoms may occur and recur simultaneously, and the occurrence and recurrence are triggered by the same causes. The trouble is, many asthma patients suffer from allergy to low temperatures that cause sneezing at the same time. Asthma symptoms may occur, recur, or worsen when the allergy sneezing occurs, and vice versa.
Is there any relation between the cold-allergy sneezing and asthma?
Dr. dr. Nina Irawati, Sp.THTKL(K), a nose, throat, and ear specialist practicing in Cipto Mangunkusumo-Kencana Hospital Jakarta, declared in a “Cold-Allergy Sneezing and Asthma – Are they Related?” live IG session held on Monday (29/08/2022), that the nose has the same anatomy and role as the respiratory tract, and these parts support each other. Anatomically, the structure of the respiratory tract – the nose, the throat, down to the lower respiratory tract – has the same cells, strata, nodes, and nervous system. The difference is: the upper respiratory tract contains blood vessels and are connected to cartilage, while the lower tract is connected to bone muscles and to smooth muscle fibers.
“Here’s how the mechanism work: when allergen exposure occurs, the upper blood vessels will expand, while the smooth muscle fibers will contract. When the upper respiratory tract blood vessels expand, they will contract the nasal cavity. This will produce excess fluid in the nose, and force us to breathe through our mouth. This will in turn increase the exposure of allergens in the lower respiratory tract and trigger the production of the antibody immunoglobulin, which will render the remodeling of the body’s anatomical structure irreversible. Cold-allergy sneezing has a natural progress that starts from babyhood on. Allergy sneezing and asthma are incurable, but you can control them by avoiding triggering factors,” Dr. Nina said.