| Symptoms of Asthma | |||||||
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- What is asthma?
- Symptoms of asthma
- Causes of asthma
- Prevention of asthma
- Risk factors for asthma
- Complications of asthma
- When to see a doctor about asthma
- Diagnosis of asthma
- Conventional treatment of asthma
- Alternative/complementary treatment of asthma
- Living with asthma
- Caring for someone with asthma
Symptoms of asthma can range from the very mild, to the severe and anything in between. Symptoms can vary greatly between individuals and asthma types.
During an asthma attack, the airways of an asthmatic narrow because the muscles around the air passages become tight, not allowing much air to go through which in turn makes the air passages inflamed and swollen. The more inflamed and swollen the air passages become, the more tight they become until breathing becomes very hard without wheezing. It then becomes very difficult for the person with asthma to breath properly without some assistance in the form of medication.
The most common asthma symptoms are:
- Coughing - usually worse first thing in the morning or late in the evening
- Noisy breathing - occurs for some people with asthma
- Shortness of breath - inability to breath deeply and properly (inhalation or exhalation) due to pain
- Tightness of the chest - which feels like a pressure or squeezing on the chest area
- Wheezing - noisy, whistling type sound on inhalation
Symptoms of an acute, severe asthma attack
An acute asthma attack can be fatal and needs urgent emergency treatment at a hospital. The symptoms of an acute, severe asthma attack continue even after appropriate medication has been taken.
The symptoms of an acute asthma attack are:
- Agitation
- Blue lips
- Confusion
- Inability to breath properly
- Inability to concentrate or think properly
- Persistent coughing that does not abate
- Unable to speak a whole sentence without coughing or getting short of breath
- Unable to walk far without getting short of breath or coughing
- Wheezing
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