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Health - Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service

Health Topics

Asthma

WHAT IS ASTHMA?

Asthma is a lung disease. It can be life threatening.  Asthma is chronic. In other words, you live with it every day.  Asthma causes breathing problems.  These breathing problems are called attacks or episodes of asthma.

ASTHMA ATTACKS

  • An Asthma Attack
  • Severe Attacks
  • Moderate And Mild Attacks
  • The Second Wave 

AN ASTHMA ATTACK 

Doctors are not exactly certain how you get asthma. But they do know that once you have it, your lungs react to things that can start an asthma attack.  For instance, when you have asthma, you might get an asthma attack when you have a cold (or some other kind of respiratory infection). Or, you might get an attack when you breathe something that bothers your lungs (such as cigarette smoke, dust or feathers).  When this happens, three changes take place in your lungs:  Cells in your air tubes make more mucus than normal. This mucus is very thick and sticky. It tends to clog up the tubes.  The air tubes tend to swell, just as skin swells when you get a scrape.  The muscles in your air tubes tighten. These changes cause the air tubes to narrow. This makes it hard to breathe. Asthma attacks may start suddenly. Or they may take a long time, even days, to develop. Attacks can be severe, moderate or mild.

SEVERE ATTACKS

When these happen, you may become breathless. As you're less and less able to breathe, you may have trouble talking. Your neck muscles may become tight as you breathe. Your lips and fingernails might have a grayish or bluish color. The skin around the ribs of your chest might be sucked in.

In the case of a severe asthma attack:

Take your asthma medicine and get emergency medical help right away! You can get into trouble if you wait too long to get help. This is how people die from asthma.  Go quickly to your doctor's office or an emergency room. The sooner you see a doctor, the faster you get the help you need.

MODERATE AND MILD ATTACKS

These attacks are more common.

You may start to feel tight in your chest. You might start coughing or spit up mucus. You may feel restless or have trouble sleeping. You might make a wheezing or whistling sound when you breathe. This can happen as you breathe air in and out of your narrowed air tubes.

What should you do in the case of a moderate or mild asthma attack?

Take your asthma medicine. Usually then the air tubes in your lungs open up in minutes. Sometimes, though, it can take several hours.  Ask your doctor how long it takes for the medicine to work.  If your medicine does not work in the time it is supposed to, call your doctor.

THE SECOND WAVE

In some cases, your asthma attack may seem to ease up. But, changes may take place in your air tubes that cause another attack or second wave. This can be more severe and more dangerous than the first attack.  In the second wave, the air tubes continue to swell. This may happen even when you're not having asthma symptoms. At this time, you might find it harder to breathe.

The second wave may last for days or even weeks after the first attack. Your lungs become more sensitive to other irritants. This can trigger more attacks.  During the second wave, you may have to be admitted to a hospital.  Doctors need to take care of your asthma and give you medicines that will reduce the swelling in your air tubes and relax the tightened muscles.

In any kind of asthma attack:

Don't take cough medicine. This will not help your asthma.  Take only the asthma medicines that the doctor gives you.

WHEN YOU HAVE ASTHMA

It's important to:

  • Take your asthma seriously.
  • Take your asthma medicines for asthma.
  • When asthma symptoms don't improve, get help.
  • Know your asthma symptoms
    • "I cough a lot while I exercise or even when I rest after exercising."
    • "I have shortness of breath."
    • "I make a wheezing sound when I breathe."
    • "I feel a tightness in my chest." 

Do you feel this way sometimes? Any one of these symptoms may mean that you have asthma. You can have one or more of these symptoms or even different ones. Symptoms are clues that let you know that you are having an asthma attack.

FIND OUT WHAT STARTS YOUR ASTHMA SYMPTOMS

Usually symptoms get started or "triggered" by something that bothers your lungs. These things are called asthma triggers.  There are many kinds of triggers. They can range from viruses (such as colds) to allergies, to gases and particles in the air.  Given this range, you may find it hard to figure out what starts your asthma attacks. You may even think your attacks "just happen." But this is generally not true. Something usually triggers an attack.

The good News in all of this:

Once you find out your triggers, you can do something to prevent your asthma attacks. This gives you control. The result is that when and if you have attacks, there's a good chance that they will be less severe and you won't have as many.  For example, do you get an asthma attack after you've exercised? If you do, you should tell your doctor. You can get help.  You can still exercise when you have asthma, but you may need to take rest breaks while you exercise. If you know that exercise triggers your asthma, the doctor may tell you to take your asthma medicine before you exercise. This way, you can still have fun exercising without having an asthma attack.

Common Asthma Triggers

These are factors that cause you to have an asthma attack, and include:  cold, air, dust, feathers or molds.  Cigarette smoking is another trigger that must be avoided. If you smoke, you need to quit. Smoking cigarettes will make your asthma worse, and if you breathe the smoke from someone else's cigarette, you may get an asthma attack.

Cigarette Smoking and Children's asthma

Children are especially at risk for developing asthma attack in the presence  of cigarette smoke or when they breathe secondhand smoke.  Studies show that children of smokers are more likely to suffer asthma attacks.  Their asthma gets worse, too.  You can do something about this. You can protect yourself (and if you're a parent with a child who has asthma, you can protect your child, too) by knowing the risks of smoking cigarettes or when your child breathes secondhand smoke. The wisest and healthiest things you can do are to live, work and play in places that are smoke free. 

Important points to remember about Asthma

Asthma symptoms and attacks usually get started by triggers.  Talk to a doctor about these triggers.  Find ways to avoid them. Find ways to get rid of them.

For more information visit: http://www.lungusa.org/asthma/astasthma.html#whatis