What are the Most Common Asthma Triggers? - 
Article on How to Reduce Asthmatic Attacks. 

Asthma attacks are often caused by exposure to an allergen of some kind. A so called asthma trigger. If you can manage to identify a food or environmental astma trigger, you may be able to avoid it. Avoiding the astma trigger, consequentially means to reduce the risk of an acute asthma attack. Whilst some people do have food related allergies or are sensitive to very special, particular things, there are some allergy threats or asthma triggers that are well known. If you can more or less control your exposure to an asthma trigger, you can reduce the severity and frequency of your asthma attacks and symptoms.

Dust mites are one of the most common asthma triggers. Dust mites are very tiny insects that live on sloughed off skin cells. Dust mites themselves would not be harmful. But they excrete a substance that aggressively tends to trigger attacks in many people suffering from astma. The problem is, dust mites breed and grow all over the house. In mattresses, stuffed animals and teddy bears, pillows, carpets and many kinds of draperies. Almost everything that is soft, gets in regular contact to fallen off human skin (for it is their food) and where they can easily burrow and hide. You can however drastically reduce the number of dust mites in your home. Use covers on mattresses and pillows. If possible, use latex matresses instead of conventional ones, for dust mites tend not to feel very well in them. Remove carpets and replace them by non-textile flooring. Remove curtains and draperies and get rid of stuffed animals in bedrooms as far as possible.

Dust mites can be a very serious health thread in regards to allergy exposure. However, dust itself is not that dangerous, but still tends to be harmful. Dust can be an astma trigger itself, because it is a bronchial irritant. Wipe down surfaces in your home with a damp cloth to keep down scattering dust when cleaning. Do not use dry cloth and please, do not use a duster, unless it is wettish. Use a canister or a water-filtered vacuum cleaner to avoid spewing dust from carpets into the air, thus avoiding inhalation. Today there are very good and pricewise attractive water filtered vacuum cleaners available on the market. Have a look at amazon.com or other online shops for information and special online offers.

Another asthma trigger found in many homes are mold spores. The exposure to mold can be limited if you wipe down bathroom tiles regularly, and especially after you have had a shower or bath, with bleach or another disinfectant. Any clean laundry should be dried immediately in order to reduce moisture in the air. Use a dehumidifier to increase the drying effect.

Body parts and litter of cockroaches do contain an allergen or irritant that is an asthma trigger mainly for children. Most of us do associate cockroaches with poor housekeeping, dirt and sloppiness. But cockroaches do just feel as happy in very clean homes. As we all know, roaches are masters of survival. Once they have "moved in" it is rather tricky to get rid of them. However, cockroach traps and insecticides can help to keep down the cockroach population to the unavoidable limit.

Dander and shed skin cells from pets and other "home based" animals are rather critical in regards to triggering asthma and is also very allergenic. If you do not want to bring yourself to part with your pet, at least be very consequent in keeping it out of sleeping areas, especially of the children´s sleeping rooms. Thus you are at least reducing the chance of too much exposure to pet dander dramatically.

Pollen can become a very aggressive asthma and allergy trigger in the critical times of the year. Pollen allergy, or so called hay fever can become even worth if you live in an area with low quality of air. Especially if the air is containing lot´s of particles pollen exposure seems to be even more critical. Today, a lot of local radio stations as well as daily newspapers publish the latest air quality and pollen report almost on a daily basis. On days you have to expect an unhealthy air quality you should avoid going outside whenever possible and avoid body or fitness activities at least during the daytime. Pollen exposure sometimes is reduced in the late evening and overnight, due to increased humidity which helps to keep the pollen dust down a little. Also the blossom heads are usually closed during the night.

This is getting a freezing point. Cold and especially cold dry air is triggering asthma attacks with persons that are sensitive to it. The reason is, that bronchial tissues are drying out more quickly when we are inhalating cold dry air in comparison to warm and moist air which is more comforting to our respiratory system. If you are facing sensitive asthmatic reaction when you are exposed to cold dry air you should consider protecting yourself by use of a scarf or even face mask. This can help to reduce asthma attack incidents if you have to go outside at very low temperatures.

Physical exercise, as healthy as it is under other circumstances, can sometimes evolve to become another asthma trigger. The reason for this seems to be related to above mentioned point where we talked about the astma related effect of cold and dry air. When we are exercising or when we are working hard in terms to body labour we are breathing more quickly, more deeply and more heavily. Consequentially we are drying out our bronchial tissues and respiratory organs more quickly. If you have any influence, try to increase humidity a little in rooms you are exercising or working in and do drink lots of ambient temperated water.

Cigarette smoke, no matter if you smoke yourself or if it is being inhalated by attendant persons, is one of the most aggressive asthma triggers known. There is only one way to avoid it. This is, if you smoke, quit. I know, you may have heard that too often again and again, but it is the simple truth. No matter if you are suffering by asthma yourself, your children or anybody else in your family, cigarette smoke is one of the most common asthma triggers within daily life. If you find it hard to quit smoking, try to use assistance from your doctor. There are also very effective stop smoking aids available at the market, such as Nicocure Pads for example, that can help you to stop smoking very quickly and easily without that you have to face any nicotine withdrawal syndrome.

Very often asthmatic attacks and allergies are somehow related to each other. Especially food allergies are known to sometimes trigger asthma attacks. Other kinds of allergies can help to cause asthma as well, however this is not as common. As a rule of thumb doctors say that people that are vulnerable to allergies are also more likely to be more fragile when it comes to asthmatic diseases. One of the most common food allergies that can be regarded in relation to asthma is peanuts allergy. Correspondingly, avoiding any food that you have found to cause allergic effects to your body will help to reduce asthmatic attacs as well.

I hope that this article could give you some hints and background information about the most common asthma triggers and that it can help you to reduce or even avoid asthmatic attacks for yourself, your friends and your family.