Asthma
Asthma is a chronic lung disease that causes inflamed and narrowed airways, leading to breathing difficulties that require a personalized management plan.
What is asthma?
Asthma is a chronic (long-term) lung disease. It affects your airways, the tubes that carry air in and out of your lungs. When you have asthma, your airways can become inflamed and narrowed. This can cause wheezing, coughing, and tightness in your chest. When these symptoms get worse than usual, it is called an asthma attack or flare-up.
What causes asthma?
The exact cause of asthma is unknown. Genetics and your environment likely play a role in who gets asthma. An asthma attack can happen when you are exposed to an asthma trigger. Different triggers can cause different types of asthma:
- Allergic asthma is caused by allergens, such as:
- Dust mites
- Mold
- Pets
- Pollen from grass, trees, and weeds
- Waste from pests such as cockroaches and mice
- Nonallergic asthma is caused by triggers such as:
- Breathing in cold air
- Certain medicines
- Household chemicals
- Infections such as colds and the flu
- Outdoor air pollution
- Tobacco smoke
- Occupational asthma is caused by breathing in chemicals or industrial dusts at work
- Exercise-induced asthma happens during physical exercise, especially when the air is dry
Asthma triggers may be different for each person and can change over time.
Who is at risk for asthma?
Asthma affects people of all ages, but it often starts during childhood. Certain factors can raise your risk:
- Being exposed to secondhand smoke when your mother is pregnant with you or when you are a small child
- Being exposed to certain substances at work, such as chemical irritants or industrial dusts
- Genetics and family history. You are more likely to have asthma if one of your parents has it, especially if it's your mother.
- Race or ethnicity. Black and African Americans and Puerto Ricans are at higher risk of asthma than people of other races or ethnicities.
- Having other diseases or conditions such as obesity and allergies
- Often having viral respiratory infections as a young child
- Sex. In children, asthma is more common in boys. In teens and adults, it is more common in women.
What are the symptoms of asthma?
The symptoms of asthma include:
- Chest tightness
- Coughing, especially at night or early morning
- Shortness of breath
- Wheezing, which causes a whistling sound when you breathe out
These symptoms can range from mild to severe. When you are having an asthma attack, your symptoms get much worse. The attacks may come on gradually or suddenly and can sometimes be life-threatening.
How is asthma diagnosed?
Your health care provider may use many tools to diagnose asthma:
- Physical exam
- Medical history
- Lung function tests, including spirometry
- Tests to measure how your airways react to specific exposures
- Peak expiratory flow (PEF) tests
- Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) tests
- Allergy skin or blood tests
What are the treatments for asthma?
If you have asthma, you will work with your health care provider to create a treatment plan that includes:
- Strategies to avoid triggers.
- Short-term relief medicines, also called quick-relief medicines, to help prevent or relieve symptoms during an attack.
- Control medicines, taken every day to help prevent symptoms by reducing airway inflammation.
If you have a severe attack and short-term relief medicines do not work, you will need emergency care. In some cases of uncontrolled asthma in adults, a provider might suggest bronchial thermoplasty, a procedure that uses heat to shrink the smooth muscle in the lungs.