|
Asthma
is a disease that affects your lungs. It is the most
common long-term disease of children, but adults have
asthma, too. Asthma causes repeated episodes of wheezing,
breathlessness, chest tightness, and nighttime or early
morning coughing. If you have asthma, you have it all
the time, but you will have asthma attacks only when
something bothers your lungs. An asthma attack happens
in your body's airways, which are the paths that carry
air to your lungs. As the air moves through your lungs,
the airways become smaller, like the branches of a tree
are smaller than the tree trunk. During an asthma attack,
the sides of the airways in your lungs swell, and the
airways shrink. Less air gets in and out of your lungs,
and mucus that your body produces clogs up the airways
even more. The attack may include coughing, chest tightness,
wheezing, and trouble breathing. Some people call an
asthma attack an “episode.” |
