You will often find that asthma and allergies are closely related to one another. Asthma is a disease that affects the windpipe branches, which work to carry air into and out of the lungs. There are a lot of varying types of asthma.
Allergic asthma is a form of asthma that will normally be triggered by an allergy, such as mold or pollen. About half of the 20 million Americans who are already dealing with asthma have this form of asthma.
Normally air is taken into your body through your nose and windpipe and down through the bronchial tubes. There are small air sacs at the bottom of the tubes that help deliver fresh air into the blood. The air sacs also work to collect the stale air that is exhaled from your body. A normal breathing pattern consists of the muscles around the airways relaxing and helping to move the air freely. During an asthma attack, there are three changes that prohibit the air from flowing throughout the airways freely:
• The muscle bands surrounding the airways will tighten, which creates a narrowing known as a bronchospasm.
• The airway lining will become swollen and inflamed.
• The cells lining the airways will create more mucus, which tends to be thicker than usual.
Once the airways are narrowed it creates difficulty with the airflow into and out of the lungs. People who have asthma will often feel as if they are not able to get enough air, which only makes breathing that much more difficult because of the changes.
Common Asthma Symptoms
Asthma symptoms will normally strike when your airways are going through changes as outlined above. A lot of people will be able to go a long time between any attacks, but there are others who have an attack on a daily basis. Some of the more common asthma symptoms include:
• Coughing repeatedly at night
• Difficulty catching your breath
• Tightness or pressure in the chest
• Wheezing
Every person who suffers from asthma will have varying symptoms. You may have different symptoms at different points in time, or you may not have some of them at all. It could be that your asthma symptoms will differ from one attack to the next. Symptoms could be mild at one episode and severe at another.
Mild attacks are a lot more common than their counterparts. Airways will normally open up within a couple minutes, but sometimes it can take a few hours.
Severe episodes are not as common, but they do last a lot longer and will typically require immediate medical attention. It is imperative that you are able to recognize and understand how to treat even the mildest of symptoms to help prevent any future episodes and keep your asthma under control.
If you are someone who suffers from asthma and allergy symptoms, a reaction to one of the allergy inducing substances will only aggravate the asthma symptoms.
