Symptoms of asthma
Asthma occurs when the main air passages of your lungs, the bronchial tubes, become inflamed. The muscles of the bronchial walls tighten, and cells in the lungs produce extra mucus further narrowing your airways. This can cause minor wheezing to severe difficulty in breathing. In some cases, your breathing may be so labored that an asthma attack becomes life-threatening.
Symptoms of Asthma
Some people with asthma might have extended symptom-free periods, interrupted by periodic asthma episodes, while others have some symptoms every day. In addition, some people with asthma might only have symptoms during exercise, or when they are exposed to allergens or viral respiratory tract infections.
What are the symptoms of untreated asthma?
The common symptoms are cough and wheeze. You may also become breathless, and develop a feeling of chest tightness. Symptoms can range from mild to severe between different people, and at different times in the same person. Each episode of symptoms may last just an hour or so, or persist for days or weeks unless treated.
Unusual asthma symptoms may include:
* rapid breathing
* sighing
* fatigue; inability to exercise properly
* difficulty sleeping
Test your breathing with spirometry. Spirometry is a quick, simple breathing test that measures how much air you can blow out of your lungs. This might be done in a hospital or in your doctors’ office. For this test, you’ll be asked to blow hard and long through a tube attached to a small machine. The machine will show how many litres of air you can push out of your lungs and how fast. Because spirometry takes some coordination, children under 5 years old are not usually asked to do this test.
