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.



Like any other chronic disease, asthma is a condition you live with every day of your life. You can have an attack any time you are exposed to one of your triggers. Unlike other chronic obstructive lung diseases, asthma is reversible.

What Causes Asthma?

It is not clear exactly what makes the airways of people with asthma inflamed in the first place. Your inflamed airways may be due to a combination of things. We know that if other people in your family have asthma, you are more likely to develop it.

Metabisulfite - a food preservative found in dried fruits, fruit juices, beer, wine, salad bars and vegetables. Respiratory infections, such as colds, flu, sore throat and bronchitis.Exposure to a variety of occupational irritants (e.g., vapors, dust, gases, fumes, tobacco smoke, air pollution) also can worsen or cause asthma.

Asthma Symptoms

Wheezing is a musical, whistling, or hissing sound with breathing.

Wheezes are most often heard during exhalation, but they can occur during breathing in (inhaling). Asthma is characterized by inflammation of the bronchial tubes with increased production of sticky secretions inside the tubes. Not all children with asthma wheeze. Chronic coughing with asthma may be the only obvious sign, and a child's asthma may go unrecognized if the cough is attributed to recurrent bronchitis.

How to Prevent Asthma Attacks:

There are a few ways to prevent asthma symptoms from intensifying into an asthma attack:

Follow your asthma treatment plan, including taking all of your meds as prescribed

Avoid your asthma triggers as much as possible

Identify asthma control problems before things get bad enough to cause symptoms by using a peak flow meter.

Does Asthma Increase Adult Suicide Risk?

The study is the first to examine the association between asthma and suicidal thinking - with and without suicide attempts - using a nationally representative sample of adults.It did not address the issue of whether asthma treatment increases suicide risk - a topic that has been in the news since early this spring, when the FDA announced an investigation of a possible link between a widely prescribed allergy and asthma drug and suicide.

Treatment Of  Asthma

Treatment is aimed at avoiding known allergens and respiratory irritants and controlling symptoms and airway inflammation through medication.

There are two basic kinds of medication for the treatment of asthma:

Long-term control medications are used on a regular basis to prevent attacks, not for treatment during an attack. Types include:

Inhaled steroids (such as Azmacort, Vanceril, AeroBid, Flovent) prevent inflammation

Leukotriene inhibitors (such as Singulair and Accolate)

Anti-IgE therapy (Xolair), a medicine given by injection to patients with more severe asthma