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List of All Topics
Asthma
What is Asthma?
Asthma (Az-muh) is a chronic disease that affects your airways. The airways are the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. If you have asthma, the inside walls of your airways are inflamed (swollen). The inflammation (IN-fla-MAY-shun) makes the airways very sensitive, and they tend to react strongly to things that you are allergic to or find irritating. When the airways react, they get narrower, and less air flows through to your lung tissue. This causes symptoms like wheezing (a whistling sound when you breathe), Coughing, chest tightness, and trouble breathing, especially at night and in the early morning.
When your asthma symptoms become worse than usual, it is called an asthma episode or attack. During an asthma attack, muscles around the airways tighten up, making the airways narrower so less air flows through. Inflammation increases, and the airways become more swollen and even narrower. Cells in the airways may also make more mucus than usual. This extra mucus also narrows the airways. These changes make it harder to breathe. Asthma attacks are not all the same—some are worse than others. In a severe asthma attack, the airways can close so much that not enough oxygen gets to vital organs. This condition is a medical emergency. People can die from severe asthma attacks. So, if you have asthma, you should see your doctor regularly.
You will need to learn what things cause your asthma symptoms and how to avoid them. Your doctor will also prescribe medicines to keep your asthma under control. Taking care of your asthma is an important part of your life. Controlling it means working closely with your doctor to learn what to do, staying away from things that bother your airways, taking medicines as directed by your doctor, and monitoring your asthma so that you can respond quickly to signs of an attack. By controlling your asthma every day, you can prevent serious symptoms and take part in all activities. If your asthma is not well controlled, you are likely to have symptoms that can make you miss school or work and keep you from doing things you enjoy. Asthma is one of the leading causes of children missing school.
What Causes Asthma Symptoms and Attacks?
There are things in the environment that bring on your asthma symptoms and lead to asthma attacks. Some of the more common things include exercise, allergens, irritants, and viral infections. Some people have asthma only when they exercise or have a viral infections.
Who Is At Risk for Asthma?
In the United States, about 20 million people have been diagnosed with asthma; nearly 9 million of them are children. Asthma is closely linked to allergies. Most, but not all, people with asthma have allergies. Children with a family history of allergy and asthma are more likely to have asthma. Although asthma affects people of all ages, it most often starts in childhood.
More boys have asthma than girls, but in adulthood, more women have asthma than men. Although asthma affects people of all races, African Americans are more likely than Caucasians to be hospitalized for asthma attacks and to die from asthma.
What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Asthma?
Common asthma symptoms include:
- Coughing. Coughing from asthma is often worse at night or early in the morning, making it hard to sleep.
- Wheezing. Wheezing is a whistling or squeaky sound when you breathe.
- Chest tightness. This can feel like something is squeezing or sitting on your chest.
- Shortness of breath. Some people say they can't catch their breath, or they feel breathless or out of breath. You may feel like you can't get enough air in or out of your lungs.
- Faster breathing or noisy breathing.
Not all people have these symptoms, and symptoms may vary from one asthma attack to another. Symptoms can differ in how severe they are: Sometimes symptoms can be mildly annoying, other times they can be serious enough to make you stop what you are doing, and sometimes symptoms can be so serious that they are life threatening.
Symptoms also differ in how often they occur. Some people with asthma have symptoms only once every few months, others have symptoms every week, and still other people have symptoms every day. With proper treatment, however, most people with asthma can expect to have few or no symptoms.
Can Asthma Be Prevented?
We don't yet know how to prevent asthma, but there are some things that can lower your chances of having an asthma attack.
To prevent asthma symptoms:
- Learn about your asthma and how to control it.
- Use medicines as directed by your doctor to prevent or stop attacks.
- Avoid things that make your asthma worse as much as possible.
- Get regular checkups from your doctor.
- Follow your asthma self-management plan.
Scientists do not yet know how to prevent the inflammation of the airways that leads to asthma. Scientists are exploring some theories:
- Babies exposed to tobacco smoke are more likely to get asthma. If a woman is exposed to tobacco smoke during pregnancy, her baby may also be more likely to get asthma.
- Obesity may be linked to asthma, as well as other health problems
Key Points
- Asthma is a chronic disease that affects your airways, the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs.
- In asthma, the inside walls of your airways are inflamed, or swollen. The inflammation makes them very sensitive, and they tend to react strongly to things that you are allergic to or find irritating. When they react, they get narrower and less air flows through to your lungs. This causes symptoms like wheezing, Coughing, chest tightness, and trouble breathing, especially at night and in the early morning.
- Asthma cannot be cured, but most people with asthma can control it so that they have few and infrequent symptoms and can live normal, active lives.
- When your asthma symptoms become worse than usual, it is called an asthma episode or attack. In a severe asthma attack, the airways can close so much that not enough oxygen can get to your vital organs. People can die from severe asthma attacks.
- Taking care of your asthma is an important part of your life. Controlling it means working closely with your doctor to learn how to manage your condition, staying away from things that bother your airways and bring on asthma symptoms, taking medicines as directed by your doctor, and monitoring your asthma so you can respond quickly to signs of an attack. Ask your doctor for a written daily asthma self-management plan and an emergency action plan for asthma attacks, and make sure you understand and know how to use them.
- Researchers still do not know what causes asthma, although they do know that if other people in your family have asthma, you are more likely to develop it. Being exposed early in your life to things like tobacco smoke, infections, and some allergens may also increase your chances of developing asthma.
- Some of the more common things that bring on asthma symptoms include exercise, allergens, irritants, and viral infections.
- Common asthma symptoms include Coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and faster or noisy breathing.
- Doctors find out whether you have asthma by looking at your family history of asthma and allergies, exploring the things that seem to cause your symptoms or make them worse, and giving you a test, called spirometry, that measures how much air you can blow out of your lungs after taking a deep breath and how quickly you can do it. They may also perform tests to find out if you have allergies, to see how your airways react to exercise, to find out whether you have gastroesophageal reflux disease or sinus disease, and to rule out heart disease and other lung diseases.
- Asthma is treated with two kinds of medicines: quick-relief medicines to stop asthma symptoms and long-term control medicines to prevent symptoms.
- Short-acting inhaled beta-agonists are the preferred quick-relief medicine. The most effective, long-term control medicine is an inhaled corticosteroid, which reduces inflammation in your lungs. Most long-term control medicines must be taken daily, even when you do not have symptoms
Information obtained from National Institute of Health