Symptoms Of 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.
Become red and swollen - your airways get inflamed inside. They fill up with mucus. The swelling and mucus make your airways narrower, so it’s harder for the air to pass through.
Adult Asthma Symptoms
Asthma symptoms vary in severity from occasional mild bouts of breathlessness to daily wheezing that persists despite taking large doses of medication. After exposure to asthma triggers, symptoms rarely develop abruptly but progress over a period of hours or days. Occasionally, the airways have become seriously obstructed by the time the patient calls the doctor.
The classic symptoms of an asthma attack include:
Wheezing when breathing out is nearly always present during an attack. Usually the attack begins with wheezing and rapid breathing, and, as it becomes more severe, all breathing muscles become visibly active.
Coughing. In some people, the first symptom of asthma is a nonproductive cough. Some patients find this cough even more distressing than wheezing or sleep disturbances.
Chest tightness or pain. Initial chest tightness without any other symptoms may be an early indicator of a serious attack.
Asthma Symptoms in Children
Symptoms of asthma can be mild or severe. Your child may have no symptoms; severe, daily symptoms; or something in between. How often your child has symptoms can also change. Symptoms of asthma may include:
Wheezing, a whistling noise of varying loudness that occurs when the airways of the lungs (bronchial tubes) narrow.
Coughing, which is the only symptom for some children.
frequent respiratory infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia
shortness of breath
Exercise Induced Asthma Symptoms
Exercise-induced asthma (EIA) is a condition of respiratory difficulty that is triggered by aerobic exercise and lasts several minutes. Symptoms of EIA may resemble those of allergic asthma, or they may be much more vague and go unrecognized, resulting in probable underreporting of the disease.
Symptoms usually begin about 5-20 minutes after beginning to exercise. The symptoms usually peak about 5-10 minutes after stopping exercise, then gradually diminish. The symptoms are often gone within an hour, but they may last longer. Symptoms include one or a combination of the following:
Coughing
Wheezing
Chest tightness
can’t run for more than a few minutes without stopping
Symptoms Of Untreated Asthma
Studies show that untreated asthma can lead to permanent and structural lung damage. Chronic inflammation causes irreversible connective tissue changes such as basement membrane and smooth muscle thickening — which causes airway narrowing and less responsiveness to treatment with bronchodilators. Recent data suggest possible loss of elastic lung recoil, with emphysema-like characteristics. Studies involving patients with mild asthma that weren’t treated with inhaled corticosteroids for at least two years had greater symptoms and airflow restrictions.
Symptoms Of Dog Asthma
Canine Dog Asthma is a respiratory disorder characterized by wheezing; usually of allergic origin. The breathing becomes difficult; the animal gapes and makes a lot of effort to breathe, while showing a dazed and fearful look on his face. Usually during the whole attack, the dog remains standing. These attacks can show up in irregular intervals that can last up to 30 minutes.
Dog asthma is just like the human form of asthma, in which the bronchial tubes constrict, causing breathing to become difficult. Asthma usually occurs in young and middle aged dogs. Symptoms in a dog include coughing, wheezing, and in some situations, purple gums and teeth from lack of circulation.
