Asthma triggers from 1850-1950

Dr. Henry Hyde Salter believed asthma was essentially a nervous disorder that resulted in narrowing of the air passages in the lungs as a result of some internal or external stimulant triggering the disease.

The stimulant excites the nervous system, and a signal is sent to the lungs that results in spasming of the bronchial muscles that line the bronchial passages of the lungs. This in essence would be your asthma attack.

The following are what he listed as possible asthma triggers:

• Hayfields
• Dust
• Emotions
• Exhaustion (being too tired)
• Humoral (imbalance of fluids of the boody)
• Fear
• Stress
• Excitation (too happy or to upset or too sad, laughter)
• Excitation of other organs, particularly the stomach

External stimuli are less of a factor than internal stimuli. One of the most obvious factors that triggers an asthma episode is emotions such as fear, stress and excitation. In one case, he describes how asthma effected the parenting of one mother.

He writes, "I was told that when the asthmatic was a little boy he found in his disease a convenient immunity from correction. 'Don't scold me,' he would say, if he had incurred his father's displeasure. 'Or I shall have the asthma,' and so he would; his fears were as correct as they were convenient."

The stomach can trigger an asthma attack as well, yet not directly, he writes. Irritation of the stomach, such as it being too full or filled with an asthma irritant such as something that had bad humors in it, will trigger the mind to send a message to the lungs to cause bronchoconstriction.

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