Asthma Symptoms

Asthma Symptoms

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that makes airways (bronchial
tubes) particularly sensitive to irritants, and this is characterized
by difficulty in breathing.

Asthma symptoms include:

* Coughing. Coughing in people with asthma is often worse at night or
early in the morning, making it hard for them to sleep.
* Wheezing. Wheezing is a whistling or squeaky sound when you
breathe.
* A tight feeling in the chest. This can feel like someone is
squeezing or sitting on your chest.
* Shortness of breath. Asthma sufferers often say they can't catch
their breath, or they feel breathless or out of breath. They feel like
you can't get enough air in or out of their lungs.
* Episodes of wheezy difficulty in breathing.
* Faster breathing or noisy breathing.
* Narrowing of the air passages in the lungs and hence increased
resistance to airflow.
* Rapid and considerable changes in airway obstruction (peak flow
variation >= 20%)
* Frequent nocturnal episodes and low morning peak flow values
* Significant reversibility with drugs which resemble adrenaline, the
beta2 agonists
* Significant reversibility with steroid drugs
* Symptom-free periods
* Frequent occurrence of allergy
* Inflammation of the air passages, characterised by eosinophils in
the airway wall
* Bronchial hyper-responsiveness to non-specific stimuli such as cold
air or histamine.

People with asthma may have:

* Wheezing when they have a cold or other illness
* Frequent coughing, especially at night (sometimes this is the only
sign of asthma in a child)
* Asthma symptoms brought on by exercises such as running, biking, or
other brisk activity, especially during cold weather
* Coughing or wheezing brought on by prolonged crying or laughing
* Coughing or wheezing when they are near an allergen or irritant

Not all people have these symptoms, and symptoms may vary from one
asthma attack to another.

Symptoms can also differ in how severe they are.For example, sometimes
symptoms can be mildly annoying and at 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 and you need to get medical attention.

Symptoms also differ in how often they occur. Some people with asthma
only have symptoms once every few months, others have symptoms every
week, and still other people have symptoms every day.

With proper treatment and management, however, most people with asthma
can expect to have minimal or no symptoms, and can lead active, normal
lives.

At a Glance … Asthma Symptoms

* Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that makes airways
(bronchial tubes) particularly sensitive to irritants, and this is
characterized by difficulty in breathing.
* The main symptoms of asthma include coughing, especially at night,
wheezing, a tight feeling in the chest, and shortness of breath.
* The symptoms may vary from person to person, and they may also vary
in severity and how often they occur.
* With proper treatment and management, most people will lead active,
normal lives.

© By Asthma symptoms

Asthma Symptom - What is Asthma?

Asthma Symptom - What is Asthma?

Asthma (pronounced AZ-muh) is defined in Essential Allergy, by Niels Mygind, Ronald Dahl, Soren Pedersen and Kristian Thestrup-Pedersen 2nd edition as :

A lung disease characterised by: 1, variable and reversible airway obstruction; 2, airway inflammation; and 3, bronchial hyper-responsiveness.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that makes airways (bronchial tubes) particularly sensitive to irritants, and this is characterized by difficulty in breathing.

Asthma is a highly ranked chronic health condition in adults in most western countries, and it is the leading chronic illness of children.

Asthma cannot be cured, but for most patients it can be controlled so that they have only minimal and infrequent symptoms and they can live an active life.

If you have asthma, managing it is an important part of your life. Controlling your asthma means staying away from things that bother your airways and taking medicines as directed by your doctor. By controlling your asthma every day, you can prevent serious symptoms and take part in all normal 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.

People with asthma have extra sensitive or hyper-responsive airways.

When a person experiences a worsening of their asthma symptoms, it is called an asthma episode or, in severe cases, an asthma attack. During an asthma attack, smooth muscles around the bronchial tubes contract, making the airway openings narrower so less air can flow through. Inflammation increases and the airways become more swollen and narrow. Cells in the airways also make more mucus than usual, which narrows the airways further. The changes to the airways cause the symptoms of asthma. For example, it is difficult for air to pass in and out of the lungs and the oxygen levels in the blood decrease.

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. A person suffering from an asthma attack has a sensation similar to drowning.

If you have asthma, you should see your doctor regularly. You will need to learn what things cause your asthma symptoms to worsen and how to avoid them. Your doctor will also prescribe medicines to keep your asthma under control.

This narrowing of the air passages is due to different combinations of :

• contraction of muscles around the air passages,
• swelling of the airway lining due to airway inflammation, and,
• excessive mucus in the airways.

About one in 13 adults and one in eight children have asthma in the western world, and rates are on the increase. It can affect anyone, at any age, anywhere.

Asthma is becoming increasingly common in the developed world and is now the most common chronic condition in the west. Aspects of our modern environment such as air pollution, processed foods, and centrally heated, double-glazed houses (an ideal breeding grounds for house dust mites) are thought to be major contributing factors.

An asthma 'attack' describes the symptoms of tightness in the chest, a wheezing or whistling noise in the chest, coughing, breathlessness, and difficulty breathing that occur when the airways become narrowed, inflamed, and blocked by mucus.

An asthma attack can occur suddenly. However, many people with asthma learn to recognise the warning signs that herald an attack, such as an itchy nose or itchy skin, dizziness or light-headedness, or an irritating cough.

Learning the warning signs can often alert a sufferer in time to take preventive action, such as medication.

Asthma is a chronic condition, which means that attacks can occur over a long period of time. Although there are times when acute episodes strike asthmatics, most asthma sufferers say that there are long periods during which they suffer few, if any asthma symptoms.

Asthma changes progressively during the lifetime of someone who has it. For example, children may grow out of asthma, but some of these people develop asthma again later in life.

Drugs, such as those resembling two of our hormones, help asthma. These two hormones are adrenaline (epinephrine in the USA) and hydrocortisone (a steroid).

There are also other drugs which help treat asthma. Whilst drugs can remove all your symptoms if you have mild asthma, people with more severe or long-standing asthma don't get nearly such good results, so alternate medications are required.

In people who have lifelong asthma, the effectiveness of drugs in removing the obstruction of the airways decreases. One of the aims of treatment, according to current concepts, is to minimise the inflammation in the lung airways which we believe causes this long-term decline.


At a Glance … What is Asthma ?

* Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that makes airways (bronchial tubes) particularly sensitive to irritants, and this is characterized by difficulty in breathing.
* Asthma is a highly ranked chronic health condition in adults in most western countries, and it is the leading chronic illness of children.
* Asthma cannot be cured, but for most patients it can be controlled so that they have only minimal and infrequent symptoms and they can live an active life.
* If you have asthma, managing it is an important part of your life. Controlling your asthma means staying away from things that bother your airways and taking medicines as directed by your doctor.

Copyright by asthma symptom

Asthma Symptom

Asthma Symptom

A sizeable number of the world population suffers from asthma. Asthma is a lung related disease and can happen to any person at any age. Asthma attacks can be horrifying and worrying to the patient as well as his or her close relatives.

Reading the symptoms that lead to asthma is very important. If diagnosed early, appropriate measures can be implemented. The disease may not take huge proportions, if diagnosed.

Most people fail to read an early asthma symptom. Asthma starts off with minor bouts of cough and cold and with time it takes gigantic proportions. Asthma is not a type of disease that does not give any warning signs.

Like most diseases Asthma starts with minor symptoms. The symptoms vary from person to person and in most cases, the people around the patient cannot identify such preliminary symptoms. The problem is when these symptoms are found in children. Children cannot express their symptoms as well as adults, so expert intervention is necessary when you start noticing symptoms in children that may lead to asthma.

If you are a patient , you will definitely feel a sort of chest congestion or any change in your body which shall indicate that you may have asthma symptoms.The most common symptoms that you may encounter in patients of asthma are significant changes in breathing. If you are a patient of asthma you can observe it yourself, but such changes will not be visible to the people around you, unless it is very significant.

Another important symptom that leads to asthma is sneezing. Most people take sneezing, as a symptom of common cold, but there is a difference in the sneezing pattern of a patient with common cold and a patient with asthma.

Many warning signs of asthma resemble that of a common cold. Runny nose, headache, watery eyes, coughing, stuffy nose are symptoms of common cold too. So often, these symptoms are confused with that of a common cold.

A few other symptoms distinguish symptoms of common cold with that of asthma.The behavior of the patient undergoes many changes due to the onset of asthma. If you have been an asthma patient, you will surely notice such changes. This change is the behavior of the patient and is therefore observable by people around you.

These behavioral changes include, changes in mood, feeling of sadness, Feeling depressed, withdrawn nature, Getting excited too soon, Restlessness, feeling grumpy etc.

Apart from these symptoms, dark circles appear under the eyes and the patient experiences a loss in stamina. Hence, the patient gets tired very quickly. If you have a common cold, definitely you will not feel these symptoms.

Therefore, if you feel symptoms such as these, then it is advisable that you consult a physician before it gets worse.

Copyright by Bruno Brown and asthma symptom - All rights reserved - 2006

Asthma Symptom

Welcome to my asthma symptom blog. Learn more about asthma symptom and the different forms of asthma symptom.

Asthma Symptom - Asthma Treatment